6.58 Increase Debt
1 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.“Net saving as a percentage of gross national income [W207RC1Q156SBEA],” retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; June 11, 2018. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/W207RC1Q156SBEA
2 Byrne, John Aidan. “US companies spent $4T buying back their own stock.” New York Post. August 19, 2017. https://nypost.com/2017/08/19/us-companies-spent-4t-buying-back-their-own-stock/
3 US Census Bureau. “Historical Census of Housing Tables: Home Ownership Rates.” https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/owner.html “Profile of Selected Housing Characteristics: 2000. Census 2000 Summary File 4 (SF 4). https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk
4 FED. Board of Governors.. “Mortgage Debt Outstanding.” Last updated June 7, 2018 https://www.federalreserve.gov/data/mortoutstand/current.htm
5 FED. Board of Governors. “Consumer Credit – G.19” REVOLVING: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/HIST/cc_hist_r_levels.html
NON-REVOLVING:https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/HIST/cc_hist__nr_levels.html
6 US Census. “Median Household Income in the United States.” September 14, 2017. https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2017/comm/income-map.html
7 Experian. “The Face of Small Business: An Experian Data Study.” 2016. http://www.experian.com/business-information/landing/the-face-of-small-business.html
8 Perkins, John. Confessions of an economic Hit Man. 2004 Edition. Or, The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. 2nd Edition. New York: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2016.
9 Gwynne, S.C. Selling Money: A Young Banker’s First-Hand Account of the Rise and Extraordinary Fall of the Great International Lending Boom. First Edition. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986.
10 Governor Ronald Reagan. Press Conference in Sacramento. February 28,1967, p.7. Collection:Reagan, Ronald: Gubernatorial Papers, 1966–74: Press Unit: Folder Title:Press Conference Transcripts –02/21/1967, 02/28/1967, 03/07/1967, Box: P011967 https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/digitallibrary/gubernatorial/pressunit/p01/40-840-7408622-p01-006-2017.pdf
11 Fergus, Devin. “My Students pay too much for college. Blame Reagan.” The Washington Post, September 2, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/02/my-students-pay-too-much-for-college-blame-reagan/?utm_term=.ea93c9826c37
12 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. “Student Loans Owned and Securitized, Outstanding [SLOAS],” retrieved June 12, 2018. FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SLOAS, June 12, 2018.
13 Friedman, Zack. “Student Loan Debt in 2017: a $1.3 trillion Crisis.” Forbes, February 21, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2017/02/21/student-loan-debt-statistics-2017/#3d9f8865daba
14 US Securities and Exchange Commission. Commissioner Luis a. Aguilar. “Shedding Light on Dark Pools.” November 13, 2015. https://www.sec.gov/news/statement/shedding-light-on-dark-pools.html
6.59 Keep Population Growing
15 US Public Health Service. National Office of Vital Statistics. “Vital Statistics Rates in the United States 1900–1940 by Forrest E. Linder and Robert D. Grove. Table 44.
Crude Birth Rates: Birth-Registration States and Each State, 1915–1940.”p. 666. Accessed from the National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/ vital-stats-books/vsrates1900_40.CV.pdf
16 World Bank, Crude Birth Rate for the United States SPDYNCBRTINUSA, retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPDYNCBRTINUSA, June 12, 2018.
17 National Public Radio. “Why the US Birth Rate is at its Lowest in 30 years.” NPR: All Things Considered. May 17, 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/05/17/612082647/why-the-u-s-birth-rate-is-at-its-lowest-in-30-years
18 US National Institute of Health. US National Library of Medicine. Massey, Douglas S. Immigration Statistics for the 21st Century. Abstract. Ann Am Acad Pol Soc Sci. 2010 Sep; 631(1): 124–140. doi: 10.1177/0002716210373329 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3753808/
19 Department of Homeland Security. “Legal Immigration and Adjustment of Status Report Fiscal Year 2018, Quarter 1.” https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/special-reports/legal-immigration
20 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Center for Health Statistics. “Life States and Populations; Births and Natality; Deaths and Mortality.” https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/life-stages-and-populations.htm
21 Krogstad, Jens Manuel, Jeffrey S. Passel and D’Vera Cohn. “5 facts about illegal immigration in the U.S.” Pew Research Center. April 27, 2017. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/27/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/
22 Borjas, George. “Yes, Immigration Hurts American Workers.” Politico Magazine. September/October 2016. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinton-immigration-economy-unemployment-jobs-214216
6.60 Increase Spending:
Shifting from Good Citizens to Good Consumers
23 Cohn, D’Vera, Gretchen Livingston and Wendy Wang. “After Decades of Decline, A Rise in stay-at-Home Mothers.” Pew Research Center. Social and Demographic Trends. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/04/08/after-decades-of-decline-a-rise-in-stay-at-home-mothers/
24 Cohn, D’Vera, ibid.
25 Posner, Richard A. “Why There Are Too Many Patents in America.” The Atlantic, July 12, 2012. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/07/why-there-are-too-many-patents-in-america/259725/
26 US Copyright Office. “Copyright Law of the United States and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code.” Includes all Amendments enacted through June 30, 2016. https://www.copyright.gov/title17/
27 Mongeau, Lillian. “How a growing number of states are hoping to improve kids’ brains: exercise.” The Hechinger Report. February 21, 2018.
28 Center for Online Education. “10 Salient Studies on the Arts in Education.” Retrieved July 2018. https://www.onlinecolleges.net/10-salient-studies-on-the-arts-in-education/
29 Pflaum, Nadia. “Trump: U.S. spends more than ‘almost any other major country’ on education.” September 21, 2016. https://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2016/sep/21/donald-trump/trump-us-spends-more-almost-any-other-major-country/
30 National Center for Education Statistics. “Table 182. Total and current expenditures per pupil in public elementary and secondary schools: Selected years, 1919–20 through 2006–07.” https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_182.asp
NOTE: Our measuring tools have been corrupted which makes it hard to make historical comparisons. Fifty years ago in 1968, the Census Bureau says we spent a total of $786 per pupil in public elementary and secondary schools. According to the official BLS Inflation calculator, that would be $5,732 in 2018 dollars. However, as noted earlier, this calculator has been jiggered quite a bit so that it does not reflect the true devaluation of our dollar. According to the more accurate ShadowStats.com, that would be the equivalent of spending roughly $37,000 per pupil today. In 2016 we spent an average of $11,762, with a high of $22,366 in New York and a low of $6,953 in Utah – more than one third of what we spent 50 years ago.
And, National Center for Education Statistics. “Fast Facts: Enrollment trends.” https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=65
NOTE: We can also look at spending on education as a percent of GDP, spending on elementary and secondary education has dropped from about 4.5% in 1970 to about 4% in 2015. According to the Census, in 1970 there were 50.7 children from 6–17 (school age) and in 2015 there were 49.9 million (less! Wow!). In 2015 the GDP was $18.04 trillion. A half point drop means we spent $90 billion less than 1970 spending, divided by 50 million kids, equals about $1,800 less per child. If we added that back in, we’d be up to $13,500 per child on average. So, yes, while the numbers differ, this view still shows a 13% reduction in funding. Those dollars matter. 31 Public Broadcasting.. “Do students take too many tests? Congress to weigh question.” PBS News Hour, January 17, 2015. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/congress-decide-testing-schools/
And, Resmovits, Joy. “Your kids take 112 test between pre-K and high school.” Los Angeles Times. October 24, 2015 http://www.latimes.com/local/education/standardized-testing/la-me-edu-how-much-standardized-testing-report-obama-20151023-story.html
32 Davis, Owen. “No Test Left Behind: How Pearson Made a Killing on the US Testing Craze.” Talking Points Memo. (no date) http://talkingpointsmemo.com/features/privatization/four/
33 Shepherd, Jessica. “World education rankings: which country does best at reading, maths and science?” The Guardian: Datablog. December 7, 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading
34 Boorstin, Julia. “High-tech tutoring: Big media, big start-ups & big money.” CNBC: Media Money. August 2014. https://www.cnbc.com/2014/08/29/high-tech-tutoring-big-media-big-start-ups-big-money.html
35 Council for American Private Education (CAPE). “Facts and Studies: Private School Statistics at a Glance; Average Private School Tuition: 2011–12. http://www.capenet.org/facts.html
36 Wyatt, Sally Lyons. “State of the Snack Food Industry, 2017.” Information Resource, Inc. https://www.iriworldwide.com/IRI/media/video/2017%20State%20of%20the%20Snack%20Food%20Industry.pdf https://www.iriworldwide.com/en-us/IRI/media/Library/2018-State-of-the-Snack-Food-Industry_03_27_18_Webinar_F.pdf
37 National Retail Federation. Halloween Headquarters. “2017: Halloween Spending to Reach Record $9.1 billion.” September 2017. https://nrf.com/resources/consumer-research-and-data/holiday-spending/halloween-headquarters
NOTE: I lost my reference for this data and had to track it down a couple years later. In 2014 or 2015, the spending was $7 billion. It was $8.4 billion in 2016. In 2017 it is $9.1 billion. That’s a stunning increase in what is crazy discretionary spending. 38 US Department of the Treasury. US Government Financial Report 2017. “United States Government Statement of Net Cost for the Year Ended September 30, 2017.” P.49. https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/rpt/finrep/fr/17frusg/02142018_FR(Final).pdf
39 Comen, Evan. “The Size of a Home the Year You Were Born.” 24/7 Wall Street. May 25, 2016. https://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/05/25/the-size-of-a-home-the-year-you-were-born/
40 Arumugam, Nadia. “How Size and Color of Plates and Tablecloths Trick Us into Eating Too Much. Forbes. Lifestyle. January 26, 2012. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2012/01/26/how-size-and-color-of-plates-and-tablecloths-trick-us-into-eating-too-much/#771022412fcf
41 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD.Stat). “Non-Medical Determinants of heals: Food supply and consumption.” Data extracted on 13 Jun 2018. https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=30126
42 Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity in 195 Countries over 25 Years. “Table S3.The age‐standardized prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adults by sex in 1980 and 2015 among 195 countries.’ Appendix, p. 35., The New England Journal of Medicine. N Engl J Med 2017; 377:13-27, DOI: 10.1056/ NEJMoa1614362 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1614362
43 US Environmental Protection Agency. “Light-Duty Vehicle CO2 and Fuel Economy Trends.” EPA-420-S-18-001, January 18. https://www.epa.gov/fuel-economy-trends/download-report-co2-and-fuel-economy-trends
44 Nationwide. “How Long Do cars Last? How You Can Maximize Your Car’s Life Expectancy [infographic].” June 10, 2017. https://blog.nationwide.com/how-long-cars-last-infographic/
45 Centennial Light. Home of the World’s Longest Burning Light Bulb! http://www.centennialbulb.org/
6.61 Welcome Black Holes
46 US Department of Agriculture. Office of the Chief Economist. “OCE Home/ US Food Waste Challenge/ FAQ’s” Retrieved June 2018. https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm And, Gunders, Dana. NRDC Issue Paper. Wasted: How America is Losing Up to 40 Percent of its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill.” Natural Resources Defense Council. August 2012 I P :12- 0 6 - B https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf
47 US Department of Agriculture. Miles McEvoy, National Organic Program Deputy Administrator. “Organic 101: Five Steps to Organic Certification.” October 10, 2012. https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/10/10/organic-101-five-steps-organic-certification
48 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Government subsidies: Federal: Agricultural [L312041A027NBEA], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/L312041A027NBEA, June 13, 2018.
49 EPA. “Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2014 Fact Sheet.” November 2016 https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-11/documents/2014_smmfactsheet_508.pdf
50 Harris, Alexander. “U.S. self-storage industry statistics.” SpareFoot. com. News. March 21, 2018. https://www.sparefoot.com/self-storage/news/1432-self-storage-industry-statistics/
51 EPA, ibid.
52 Koffman, Rebecca. “Where Does Your Garbage Go?: The Journey of Trash.” Metro: News. October 2, 2015. https://www.oregonmetro.gov/news/where-does-your-garbage-go-journey-trash
53 US Department of Education. “State and Local Expenditures on Corrections and Education: A Brief from the U.S. Department of Education, Policy and Program Studies Service.” July 2016. https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/other/expenditures-corrections-education/brief.pdf
54 University of London, Institute for Criminal Policy Research, World Prison Brief. “Highest to Lowest- Prison Population Total.” Retrieved June 2018. http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-population-total?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All
55 Sorrel, Charlie. “The Netherlands Keeps Closing Prisons Because it Doesn’t Have Enough prisoners.” Fast Company. Februrary 2, 2017. https://www.fastcompany.com/3067771/the-netherlands-keeps-closing-prisons-because-it-doesnt-have-enough-prisoners
56 Papanicolas, Irene, PhD; Liana R. Woskie, MSc; Shish K. Jha, MD, MPH. “Health Care spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries. JAMA. 2018;319(10):1024 -1039. doi:10.10 01/jama.2018.1150 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2674671
57 Harr-Robins, Jenifer, Principle Researcher. American Institutes for Research. “Center for Special Education Finance (CSEF)”. https://www.air.org/project/center-special-education-finance-csef
58 Kids Count Data Center. A Project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “Children in poverty by race and ethnicity.” https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/44-children-in-poverty-by-race-and-ethnicity#detailed/1/any/false/870,573,869,36,868,867,133,38,35,18/10,11,9,12,1,185,13/324,323
59 Cooper, David and Julia Wolfe. “Poverty declined modestly in 2016; government programs continued to keep tens of millions out of poverty.” Economic Policy Institute; Working Economics Blog. September 12, 2017. https://www.epi.org/blog/poverty-declined-modestly-in-2016-government-programs-continued-to-keep-tens-of-millions-out-of-poverty/
60 National Institute for Health. Taylor, Kyla and Ruthann Rudel. “Chemicals in Personal Care Products.” National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences: Partnerships for Environmental Public Health. Podcast. Retrieved July 2018. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/translational/peph/podcasts/consumer_health/index.cfm
61 Urbina, Ian. “Think Those Chemicals Have Been Tested?” The New York Times; Sunday Review: News Analysis, April 13, 2013. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/sunday-review/think-those-chemicals-have-been-tested.html
62 Urbina, Ian. Ibid
63 Steinemann, Anne. “Ten questions concerning air fresheners and indoor built environments.” Building and Environment, Volume 111, January 2017, Pages 279–284. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132316304334?via%3Dihub
64 Colborn, Theo, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers. Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? New York, NY: Penguin Group. First Plume printing. 1997. Bless my Mother’s heart, she bought a couple dozen copies of this book and passed them out.
65 Dickinson, Tim. “Inside the Koch Brothers’ Toxic Empire.” Rollingstone: Politics. September 24, 2014. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-164403/
66 Sneed, Annie. “Trump’s EPA May Be Weakening Chemical Safety Law: The agency has released controversial new rules for evaluating a chemical’s risk.” Scientific American, Environment, August 16, 2017. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-rsquo-s-epa-may-be-weakening-chemical-safety-law/
67 US. Environmental Protection Agency. “Fiscal Year 2018: Justification of Appropriation Estimates for the Committee on Appropriations.” EPA-190-K-17-002, May 2017 https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-05/documents/fy-2018-congressional-justification.pdf
68 The White House. “Environmental Protection Agency.” Budget of the U.S. Government: Efficient, effective, accountable, an American Budget. P.103. https:// http://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/budget-fy2019.pdf
69 Malkan, Stacy. “Secret Documents Expose Monsanto’s War on Cancer Scientists.” US Right to Know. July 12, 2018. https://usrtk.org/pesticides/secret-documents-expose-monsantos-war-on-cancer-scientists/
70 “GMO Facts.” Non-GMO Project. Retrieved July 2018. https://www.nongmoproject.org/gmo-facts/
71 USDA. “Fertilizer Use and Price.” https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/fertilizer-use-and-price/
NOTE: The consolidated data on pesticide use is no longer available on the link I accessed. The USDA appears to still keep data, but one will have to look through data on different crops and create one’s own summary.
72 National Institute of Health. Levy, Sharon. “Reduced Antibiotic Use in Livestock: How Denmark Tackled Resistance.” Environmental Health Perspectives, Spheres of Influence, June 2014, Volume 122, Issue 6, Environ Health Perspect; DOI:10.1289/ ehp.122-A160. https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/122-a160/
73 US Center for Disease Control. “Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013.” https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/ar-threats-2013-508.pdf
74 Tufts University. Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA). “The Cost of Resistance.” 2014. http://emerald.tufts.edu/med/apua/about_issue/about-the-issue – the-cost-of-resistance.shtml
75 Miller, Molly. “Toxic Exposure: Chemicals Are in Our Water, Food, Air and Furniture.” University of California San Francisco: UCSF News Center. June 22, 2017.
76 Westervelt, Amy. “Flame retardants may be coming off of furniture, but they’re still in your TV sets.” The Guardian. May 19, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/may/19/flame-retardant-chemicals-tvs-electronics-hazard
77 National Institute of Health. US National Library of Medicine. Frontiers in Public Health. “Chemical Pesticides and Human Health: The Urgent Need for a New Concept in Agriculture.” PMCID: PMC4947579, PMID: 27486573. Published online July 18, 2016. 10.3389/fpubh.2016.00148. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4947579/
78 United health Foundation. America’s Health Rankings 2016 Annual Report. https://www.americashealthrankings.org/learn/reports/2016-annual-report/comparison-with-other-nations
79 Urbina, Ian. Ibid.
80 National Public Radio.. “Many Common Sunscreens May Harm Coral. Here’s What To Use Instead.” NPR: Morning Edition. July 2, 2018. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/07/02/624379378/many-common-sunscreens-may-harm-coral-heres-what-to-use-instead
81 Shutt, Jennifer. “GOP Unlikely to Revisit Spending Ban on Gun Violence Research.” Roll Call. February 16, 2018. https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/gop-unlikely-to-revisit-spending-ban-on-gun-violence-research
82 DataBlog. “How many guns are sold in the US?” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/dec/17/how-many-guns-us
83 Chalabi, Mona, “Gun Homicides and Gun Ownership listed by Country.” The Guardian; Datablog. https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jul/22/gun-homicides-ownership-world-list
84 National Public Radio. Aizenman, Nurith. “Gun Violence: How the US Compares With Other Countries.” NPR, October 6, 2017. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/10/06/555861898/gun-violence-how-the-u-s-compares-to-other-countries
85 Everytown for Gun Safety. “Gun Violence by the Numbers.” Summarizing data from the US Centers for Disease Control. https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/
86 “Fatal Force; the number of people that have been shot and killed by police in 2 0 17. ” The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2017/
87 Apuzzo, Mattt. “War Gear Flows to Police Departments.” The New York Times, June 8, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police-departments.html
88 Fox, Justin. “Psst: Crime May Be Near an All-Time Low: Why do Americans remain unconvinced by the data?” Bloomberg. February 12, 2018. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-12/pssst-crime-may-be-near-an-all-time-low
89 Zarlenga, Ibid. p.409.
90 Global military expenditures:. “Global military spending from 2001 to 2016 (in billion US dollars). Statista. The Statistics Portal. Retrieved June 2018. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264434/trend-of-global-military-spending/
Global GDP 2016 https://www.statista.com/statistics/268750/global-gross-domestic-product-gdp/ Global military spending https://www.statista.com/statistics/264434/trend-of-global-military-spending/
World population -2016: 7,466,964,280 (Global spending divided by world population)
91 McCarthy, Niall. “The Top 15 Countries for Military Expenditure in 2016 .” Forbes Magazine, April 24, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/04/24/the-top-15-countries-for-military-expenditure-in-2016-infographic/#597026b443f3
92 US Government Financial Reports 2014–2017.
93 Fleurant, Aude, Pieter D. Wezeman, Siemon T. Wezeman and Nan Tian. “Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2016.” Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. SIPRI Fact Sheet. February 2017. https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/Trends-in-international-arms-transfers-2016.pdf
94 Stone, Mike. “Trump launches effort to boost US weapons sales abroad.” Reuters, April 19, 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-arms/trump-launches-effort-to-boost-u-s-weapons-sales-abroad-idUSKBN1HQ2E6
95 Mehta, Aaron. “US Clears Record Total for Arms Sales in FY17.” Defense News, September 13, 2017. https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2017/09/13/us-clears-record-total-for-arms-sales-in-fy17/
6.62 Hard Times: By Design
96 “State of Global Well-Being: 2014 Country Well-Being Rankings.” Gallup- Healthways Well-Being Index. P. 5. http://info.healthways.com/hubfs/Well-Being_Index/2014_Data/Gallup-Healthways_State_of_Global_Well-Being_2014_Country_Rankings.pdf
6.63 Cycling from Boom to Bust
97 Pollan, Michael. The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World. New York: Random House. 2002).
98 International Monetary Fund, Household Debt to GDP for United States [HDTGPDUSQ163N], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HDTGPDUSQ163N, July 1, 2018.
99 Salmon, Felix. “Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street,” WIRED, February 23, 2009. https://www.wired.com/2009/02/wp-quant/
100 Turak, Natasha. “The US may be where the bond bubble bursts thanks to ‘aggressive debt issuance,’ investor warns.” CNBC. February 28, 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/28/us-aggressive-debt-issuance-may-be-what-bursts-the-bond-bubble.html
101 Elis, Niv. White House budget projects $1 trillion deficit in 2019.” The Hill. July 17, 2018. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/397445-white-house-budget-projects-1-trillion-deficit-in-2019
102 Lee, Don. “Average US family’s wealth plunged 40% in recession, Fed says.” Los Angeles Times. June 11, 2012. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/11/business/la-fi-family-worth-20120612
103 Zillow. “Americans Lose $1.4 Trillion in Home Values in Q4; More than was lost in all of 2007.” Press Release, February 3, 2009. http://zillow.mediaroom.com/2009-02-03-Americans-Lose-1-4-Trillion-in-Home-Values-in-Q4-More-Than-was-Lost-in-All-of-2007
6.64 Testosterone Fueled
104 Irrera, Anna. “Wall Street Wants More Female Traders, but Old Perceptions Die Hard.” Reuters: Business News, June 13, 2018. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-banks-trading-gender/wall-street-wants-more-female-traders-but-old-perceptions-die-hard-idUSKBN1JA0DF
105 Read any of Michael Lewis’s books, or just about any book on any one of the meltdowns over the past twenty years, including the following two. Every one describes this adolescent male culture.
106 Cohan, William D. House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street. New York: Doubleday, 2009.
107 McDonald, Lawrence G. A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers. Crown Business; Reprint edition, 2010.
108 US National Institutes of Health: National Library of Medicine. Cueva, Carlos, R. Edwards Roberts, Tom Spencer, Nisha Rani, Michelle Tempest, Philippe N. Tobler, Joe Herbert, and Aldo Rustichini. “Cortisol and testosterone increase financial risk taking and may destabilize markets.” PMC4489095. Sci Rep. 2015; 5: 11206. PMID: 26135946. Published online July 2, 2015. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4489095/
109 Associated Press. “’Liar loans’ Threaten to Prolong Mortgage Mess.” NBCNEWS. com. Updated August 18, 2008. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26270434/ns/business-real_estate/t/liar-loans-threaten-prolong-mortgage-mess/#.Wzlz8X4naN8
110 University of Rochester Medical Center. “Understanding the Teen Brain.” URMC Encyclopedia. Retrieved July 2018.
111 NOTE: There are many reports about the sales of complex derivatives to naïve cities, towns, businesses and even nations. Consistently the brokers selling these financial instruments were making their highest priority their own money-making. They played a role in debt-meltdowns in Greece, Italy, Ireland, Puerto Rico, etc. Here’s one report from hearings in Congress: Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich). “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of Investment Banks.” The Hill. April, 27, 2010. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/campaign/94549-wall-street-and-the-financial-crisis-the-role-of-investment-banks-sen-carl-levin
112 Phillips, Matt. “Goldman Sachs’ Blankfein on Banking: ‘Doing God’s Work’.” Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2009. https://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2009/11/09/goldman-sachs-blankfein-on-banking-doing-gods-work/
113 Balzli, Beat. “Greek Debt Crisis: How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt.” Spiegel Online, February 08, 2010. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greek-debt-crisis-how-goldman-sachs-helped-greece-to-mask-its-true-debt-a-676634.html
114 Cullen, Terri. “Goldman Sachs CEO Blankfein Received a $2 million pay bump in 2017.” CNBC Online. Published February 16, 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/16/goldman-sachs-ceo-blankfein-received-a-2-million-pay-bump-in-2017.html
115 Sapolsky, Robert M. The Trouble with Testosterone. New York, NY: Touchstone; Simon & Schuster Publishers, 1998, p.89.
116 Massachusetts Institute of Technology: “Collective intelligence: Number of women in group linked to effectiveness in solving difficult problems.” Science News, October 2, 2010. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100930143339.htm
117 Kovach, Gretel C. “Exclusive: Marines found benefits to women in combat, significant risks.” The San Diego Union-Tribune, September 23, 2015. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sdut-marines-report-to-commandant-women-in-combat-2015sep23-htmlstory.html
118 Byttner, Karl-Johan. “Norway became the first country in the world to pass a gender quota law for boards 10 year ago – here’s the verdict.” Business Insider-Nordic, March 14, 2018. https://nordic.businessinsider.com/norway-passed-a-gender-quota-law-on-corporate-boards-10-years-ago--heres-the-verdict--/
119 VanderBrug, Jackie and Joseph Quinlan. GenderLens Investing: Uncovering Opportunities for Growth, Returns and Impact. First Edition. New Jersey: Wiley Publishing. 2016.
6.65 Speculation Reigns
120 Forbes. Investing: #MarketMoves. “Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers 2017.” Forbes Online. Retrieved June 2016 and 2017. https://www.forbes.com/pictures/mdg45ekhgi/1-michael-platt/#357fb8f55a27
121 “Top 20 U.S. Cities by Budget – and their CIOs. Government Technology, May 8, 2017. http://www.govtech.com/biz/Top-20-US-Cities-By-Budget-and-Their-CIOs.html
122 Harding, Sy. “Stock Market Becomes Short Attention Span Theater of Trading.” Forbes. Jan 21, 2011. https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2011/01/21/stock-market-becomes-short-attention-span-theater-of-trading/#2885db3f703e
123 Lewis, Michael. Flash Boys. First Edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2014.
124 Engdahl, F. William. “Rigging the Oil Market: ‘Perhaps 60% of Today’s Oil Price is Pure Speculation.” GlobalResearch: Center for Research on Globalization. May 2, 2008. https://www.globalresearch.ca/perhaps-60-of-today-s-oil-price-is-pure-speculation/8878 Price of oil going to speculation 60% - https://www.globalresearch.ca/perhaps-60-of-today-s-oil-price-is-pure-speculation/8878 Not everyone agrees that speculators are increasing prices. Here’s a counter view. http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/apr/24/bill-nelson/share-speculators-oil-market-has-doubled-past-10-y/
125 Andreou, Alex. “The Rise of Money Trading Has Made Our Economy All Muc and No Brick.” The Guardian, November 20, 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/20/money-trading-economy-foreign-exchange-markets-economy
126 Lewis, Michael. Ibid.
127 Chokshi, Niraj. “The States That Rely on Powerball and Lotteries the Most.” The Washington Post, January 13, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/13/the-states-that-rely-on-powerball-and-lotteries-the-most/?utm_term=.6449241a62c6
128 Isidore, Chris. “Americans spend more on the lottery than on…” CNN Money, February 11, 2015. http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/11/news/companies/lottery-spending/index.html
129 Johnston, David Cay. “U.S. Lotteries and the State Taxman.” Reuters, July 15, 2011. http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/2011/07/15/u-s-lotteries-and-the-state-taxman/
6.67 Loss of Common Wealth
130 Linares, Veronica. “Ogallala Aquifer could dry up in 50 years.” UPI.com, Science News. August 28, 2013. https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2013/08/28/Ogallala-Aquifer-could-dry-up-in-50-years/9221377716516/
131 Schlanger, Zoe. “Nestle’s California Water Permit Expired 27 Years ago.” Newsweek, US Edition. April 13, 2015. http://www.newsweek.com/nestles-california-water-permit-expired-27-years-ago-321940
132 TheGlobalEconomy.com. “USA: Arable land, percent of total area.” Data from the World Bank. https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/USA/arable_land_percent/
133 American Farmland Trust. https://www.farmland.org/our-work/areas-of-focus/farmland
134 Stevens, Matt. “102 million dead California trees ‘unprecedented in our modern history,’ officials say.” The Los Angeles Times, L.A. Now, Local. November 18, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-dead-trees-20161118-story.html
135 “Glacier shrinkage is past the point of no return; but stringent action could forestall further melting in future centuries.” Nature Magazine. March 19, 2018. http://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03356-5
136 Doyle, Alister, Environment Correspondent. “U.N. urges world to slow extinctions: 3 each hour.” Reuters, Environment. May 22, 2007. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-extinctions-idUSL2253331920070522
137 American Museum of Natural History Press Release, April 20, 1998. “National Survey Reveals Biodiversity Crisis – Scientific Experts Believe We Are in Midst of Fastest Mass Extinction in Earth’s History; Crisis Poses Major Threat to Human Survival; Public Unaware of Danger.” http://www.mysterium.com/amnh.html
138 Mulvey, Kathy and Seth Shulman. “The Climate Deception Dossiers: Internal Fossil Fuel Industry Memos Reveal Decades of Corporate Disinformation.” The Union of Concerned Scientists. July 2015. https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/07/The-Climate-Deception-Dossiers.pdf
139 Mayer, Jane. Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. First Edition. New York: Doubleday. 2016.
140 Neuman, William. “For Your Health, Froot Loops.” The New York Times: Business Day. September 4, 2009. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/business/05smart.html
141 Kruse, Kevin. One Nation Under god: How Corporate America Invented Christian America. New York, NY: Perseus Books Group, Basic Books. 2015.
6.68 A Private Wealth Transfer System: From the 99% to the One Percent
142 Sanders, Katie. “Bernie Sanders says 99 percent of ‘new’ income is going to top 1 percent – ‘mostly true.” Politifact. April 19, 2015. NOTE: income is measured pre-tax. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/apr/19/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-says-99-percent-new-income-going-to/
143 Dayen, David. “Your New Landlord Works on Wall Street.” The New Republic, February 11, 2013. https://newrepublic.com/article/112395/wall-street-hedge-funds-buy-rental-properties
144 Gara, Antoine. “Blackstone’s $9.6 Billion Bet On the US Housing Recovery Files to Go Public.” Forbes; Investing; #BigBusiness. January 6, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2017/01/06/blackstones-big-bet-on-the-u-s-housing-recovery-files-to-go-public/#651b51f63dba Marino, Jonathan. “Blackstone is now ‘the largest owner of real estate in the world’.” Business Insider. November 15, 2015. http://www.businessinsider.com/blackstone-is-largest-owner-of-real-estate-2015-11
145 Feloni, Richard. “Here are the 17 executives who met with Trump for his first business advisory council.” Business Insider. February 3, 2107. http://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-on-trump-business-advisory-council-2017-2
146 Gelles, David, Landon Thomas Jr., Andrew Ross Sorkin and Kate Kelly. “Inside the C.E.O. Rebellion Against Trump’s Advisory Councils.” The New York Times, August 16, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/business/trumps-council-ceos.html
147 Horsley, Scott. “White House Economic Adviser Gary Cohn Quits.” NPR: Politics. March 6 , 2018. https://www.npr.org/2018/03/06/585786755/white-house-economic-adviser-gary-cohn-quits
148 Riley, Theresa. “Making the Rent on Minimum Wage.” Bill Moyers.com. April 2, 2012 https://billmoyers.com/2012/04/02/making-the-rent-on-minimum-wage/
149 Jacobson, Louis. “Are 90 million Americans not working or not looking for work?” PolitiFact. July 30, 2013. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jul/30/blog-posting/are-90-million-americans-not-working-or-looking-wo/
150 Joffe-Walt, Chana. “Unfit for Work: The startling Rise of Disability in America.” NPR: Planet Money. (no date) Retrieved July 2018. http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/
151 US BLS. “Household Data Annual Averages. 36. Multiple jobholders by selected characteristics.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat36.pdf
152 US BLS. “Economic News Release: Union Members Summary.” January 19, 2018. USDL-18-0080. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm
153 Matthews, Dylan. “In Germany, workers help run their companies. And it’s going great!” The Washington Post: Wonkblog. October 7, 2012. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/10/07/in-germany-workers-help-run-their-companies-and-its-going-great/?utm_term=.55d9e0586232
154 US Government Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). “Consumer Response Annual Report January 1 – December 31, 2016; Message from Richard Cordray, Director of the CFPB.” https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201703_cfpb_Consumer-Response-Annual-Report-2016.PDF
155 CFPB. “Factsheet – December 2016.” https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201701_cfpb_CFPB-By-the-Numbers-Factsheet.pdf
156 CFPB. Press Release: “CFPB Releases Strategic Plan.” February 12, 2018. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-releases-strategic-plan/
QUOTE & NOTE: “If there is one way to summarize the strategic changes occurring at the Bureau, it is this: we have committed to fulfill the Bureau’s statutory responsibilities, but go no further,” said Acting Director Mick Mulvaney….”Among changes from the prior Strategic Plan, the Bureau will now focus on equally protecting the legal rights of all, including those regulated by the Bureau, and will engage in rulemaking where appropriate to address unwarranted regulatory burdens …” In other words, the agency is no longer aiming to serve as the protector of consumers; it will make protecting business from the burdens of rules that protect consumers but that might pinch their profit-making.
157 US Department of Labor. “The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974; Fiduciary Responsibilities.” https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/retirement/fiduciaryresp
158 Snyder, Bill. “William Sharpe: How to Invest In a Turbulent Market.” Stanford Business: Insights: Finance. April 18, 2013. https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/william-sharpe-how-invest-turbulent-market
159 The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. “Fact Sheet: Middle Class Economics: Strengthening Retirement Security by Cracking down on Conflicts of Interest in Retirement Savings.” April 06, 2016. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/04/06/fact-sheet-middle-class-economics-strengthening-retirement-security
160 Snyder, Bill. Ibid.
161 White House. “Presidential Memorandum on Fiduciary Duty Rule.” February 3, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-memorandum-fiduciary-duty-rule/
162 O’Connor, Clare. “Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion in Public Assistance.” Forbes. April 15, 2014. https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/#1b76cb96720b
163 Moorhead, Molly. “Bernie Sanders says Walmart heirs own more wealth than bottom 40 percent of Americans – True.” Politifact.com. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/31/bernie-s/sanders-says-walmart-heirs-own-more-wealth-bottom-/
164 Johnston, David Cay. Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill). First Edition. 2007; Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich – and Cheat Everyone Else. 2003; The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use “Plain English” to Rob You Blind,.2012. New York, NY: Portfolio Publications, a Penguin Group.
165 Piketty, Thomas. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014. Chapter 11, p. 378-.
166 Weissmann, Jordan. “How Wall Street Devoured Corporate America.” The Atlantic: Business. March 5, 2013. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/how-wall-street-devoured-corporate-america/273732/
167 BEA. News Release: “Gross domestic Product: First Quarter 2018 (Third Estimate) Corporate Profits: First Quarter 2018 (Revised Estimate): Table 12. Corporate Profits by Industry: Level and Change From Preceding Period.” P.17. https://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/2018/pdf/gdp1q18_3rd.pdf
168 Zuesse, Eric. “U.S. Wealth-Concentration: Wealthiest Tenth (10%) of Americans Own 75% of America.” Global Research, Centre for Research on Globalization. July 08, 2015. http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-wealth-concentration-wealthiest-tenth-10-of-americans-own-75-of-america/5461246
169 Oxfam International. “Just 8 men own same wealth as half the world.” January 16, 2017. https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/just-8-men-own-same-wealth-half-world
6.69 From Common Wealth to Private Wealth
170 Rand, Ayn. The Virtue of Selfishness: Fifthieth Anniversary Edition. New York: Signet Mass Paperback Edition. 1964.
171 Cummins, Denise. “This is what happens when you take Ayn Rand Seriously.” PBS News Hour. February 16, 2016. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/column-this-is-what-happens-when-you-take-ayn-rand-seriously
172 US Bureau of Land Management. “BLM and Forest Serve announce 2017 Grazing Fee.” https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-and-forest-service-announce-2017-grazing-fee
173 McMaken, Ryan. “Oregon and the Problem of Federal Lands.” The Mises Institute. January 4, 2016. https://mises.org/wire/oregon-and-problem-federal-lands
174 Bureau of Land Management. This mission statement is no longer on the website where I found it several years ago. The site has been updated. I’ve assumed the mission is still similar.
175 The National Park Service. “American Antiquities Act of 1906.” Legislative and Congressional Affairs; The Law; Monuments. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/legal/american-antiquities-act-of-1906.htm
176 Schlossberg, Tatiana. “What is the antiquities Act and Why Does President Trump Want to Change It?” The New York Times. April 26, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/climate/antiquities-act-federal-lands-donald-trump.html
177 US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. “Instruction Memorandum No. 2018-034.” January 31, 2018. https://www.blm.gov/policy/im-2018-034
178 The Trump White House. “Presidential Proclamation Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument.” December 4, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-modifying-bears-ears-national-monument/
And, “Presidential Proclamation Modifying the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument.” December 4, 2017. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-modifying-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument/
179 Popovich, Nadja. “Bears Ear National Monument Is Shrinking. Here’s What is Being Cut.” The New York Times. December 8, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/08/climate/bears-ears-monument-trump.html
180 D’Angelo, Chris. “Leaked Documents Reveal the Trump Administration’s Plan to Sell off Our Public Lands.” Mother Jones, January 27, 2018. Includes a link to the referenced document, which mentions the sale of land on p.3, paragraph VI. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/01/leaked-documents-reveal-the-trump-administrations-plan-to-sell-off-our-public-lands/
181 Carpenter, Zoe. “5 Myths About the EpiPen Scandal.” The Nation. September 8, 2016. https://www.thenation.com/article/5-myths-about-the-epipen-scandal/
182 Ivory, Danielle, Ben Protess and Kitty Bennett. “When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers.” The New York Times; Business Day. June 25, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/business/dealbook/when-you-dial-911-and-wall-street-answers.html?emc=edit_th_20160626&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=49276086&_r=0
183 Ivory, Danielle, ibid.
184 AllGov.com. “Contractors Account for 22% of Defense Dept. Workforce, but 50% of Workforce Cost.” http://www.allgov.com/news/where-is-the-money-going/contractors-account-for-22-percent-of-defense-dept-workforce-but-50-percent-of-workforce-cost?news=850315
185 BillMoyers.com. “US Government pays Contractors Twice as Much as Civil Servants for the Same Work.” December 12, 2013. https://billmoyers.com/2013/12/12/ripoff-us-government-pays-contractors-twice-as-much-as-civil-servants-for-the-same-work/
186 Here’s an example of how cities lose when they privatize basic services: “Chicago Parking Meter Revenue Surged $30 Million in 2012, City Council to Take UP Deal Tweaks.” Huffpost. May 8, 2013, updated December 6, 2017. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/chicago-parking-meter-rev_n_3238231.html
6.70 Innovation Is Compromised
187 Hecht, Jared. “Are Small Businesses Really the Backbone of the Economy?” Inc. December 17, 2017. https://www.inc.com/jared-hecht/are-small-businesses-really-the-backbone-of-the-economy.html
6.71 Plutocracy: Rule by a Wealthy Few
188 Editorial. “New research shows yet again that social mobility in Britain is dead. Politicians must act now.” Independent. April 12, 2016. Referencing a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/new-research-shows-yet-again-that-social-mobility-in-britain-is-dead-politicians-must-act-now-a6981106.html https://www.ifs.org.uk/research/73
189 JPMorgan Chase and Co. Annual Report 2017. -Total Assets: $2,533.6 billion = 18.3% of M2 https://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/investor-relations/document/annualreport-2017.pdf FRED. M2 Money Stock January 1, 2018 - $13,823 billion https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2
190 American Association for the Advancement of Science -AAAS. “Historical Trends in Federal R&D: Federal R&D as a Percent of GDP, 1976–2018 and $&D as a Percent of the Total Federal Budget, 1962–2017.” Last updated April 2018. https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/RDGDP.jpg https://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/Budget.jpg
191 US Government. Financial Report of the US Government 2017. https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/rpt/finrep/fr/17frusg/02142018_FR(Final).pdf NOTE: There were no federal financial reports in 1966, the height of the space race. Federal Financial Reports began in 1997, one has to access the budgets. And, Aull, Charles. “Fact Check: Is NASA’s budget less than 2 percent of the federal budget?” Ballotpedia: Fact Check. July 14, 2015. https://ballotpedia.org/Fact_check/Is_NASA%27s_budget_less_than_2_percent_of_the_federal_budget%3F
192 Reisner, Mark. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. New York: Penguin Books. Originally published in 1986, revised in 1993
193 American Commodity Company, LLC. “The Facts About California Rice Production: as reported in part from the May 2012, Environmental Sustainability Report prepared by the California Rice Commission.” May 2012.
194 SolarEnergyBase.com. “History of Solar Energy.” https://www.solarenergybase.com/history-of-solar-energy/
195 Climate Reality Project. “Follow the Leader: How 11 Countries are shifting to renewable energy.” February 03, 2016. https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/follow-leader-how-11-countries-are-shifting-renewable-energy
196 JPMC. “2017 Annual Report.” Balance sheet, p. 38, Off-balance information, p.262. Note: (total stockholder equity/assets…when you subtract $54 billion in goodwill, and add the off balance sheet assets, the ratio drops to $5.70.)
197 NPR. “Charts: See How Much of GOP Tax Cuts Will Go to the Middle Class.” NPR:Politics. December 19, 2017. https://www.npr.org/2017/12/19/571754894/charts-see-how-much-of-gop-tax-cuts-will-go-to-the-middle-class
198 IRS. “SOI Tax Stats- Historical Table 23: U.S. Individual Income Tax: Personal Exemptions and Lowest and Highest Bracket Tax Rates, and Tax Base for Regular
Tax – Tax Years 1913–2015.” https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-historical-table-23
199 Greenberg, Scott. “Summary of the Latest Federal Income Tax Data, 2016 Update.” The Tax Foundation. February 1, 2017. https://taxfoundation.org/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data-2016-update/
200 Tax Policy Center: Urban Institute and Brookings Institute. “Briefing Book: A citizen’s guide to the fascinating (though often complex elements of the federal tax system.” Retrieved June 2018. https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-many-people-pay-estate-tax
201 Domhoff, G. William. “Wealth, Income, and Power.” Who Rules America? Updated April 2017. https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/wealth.html
202 IRS. “Corporation Income Tax Brackets and Rates, 1909–2002.” https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02corate.pdf
203 Amadeo, Kimberly. “Corporate Income Tax, Its History and the Effective Rate.” The Balance: US Economy: Economy Stats. Updated April 16, 2018. https://www.thebalance.com/corporate-income-tax-definition-history-effective-rate-3306024
204 Rieman, Maxime. “NerdWallet Study: Top Companies Paid 9% U.S. Tax Rate.” NerdWallet. July 24, 2012. https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/investing/investing-data/corporate-taxes-only-9-percent/#.UB-zQshYu9c
205 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “Fact Sheet: The 35 Percent Corporate Tax Myth.” March 2017. https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/corpstudyfact2017.pdf
206 Tax Policy Center. “Corporate Income Tax as a Share of GDP, 1946–2015.” Updated May 8, 2017. https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/corporate-income-tax-share-gdp-1946-2015
207 GAO. US Government Financial Report, 2017. p. 51.
208 Jacobson, Louis. “Bernie Sanders says tax share paid by corporations has fallen from 33% to 9% since 1952 – Mostly True.” Politifact. August 28, 2014. I used this data for 1952, but adjusted it to reflect only the share of operating fund revenue. It is misleading to include the retirement fund income. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/aug/28/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-says-tax-share-paid-corporations-ha/
209 U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. “National income: Corporate profits before tax (without IVA and CCAdj) [A053RC1Q027SBEA],” retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A053RC1Q027SBEA, July 8, 2018.
210 Institute for Policy Studies: Center for Effective Government. “Fleecing Uncle Sam: A growing number of corporations spend more on executive compensation than federal income taxes.” 2014. https://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/IPS_Fleecing_Uncle_Sam_Report_Nov2014.pdf
211 Strahan, Philip E. “FRBSF Economic Letter: Liquidity Risk and Credit in the Financial Crisis.” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. May 14, 2012. https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2012/may/liquidity-risk-credit-financial-crisis/
212 Pinsker, Joe. “Why Aren’t Any Bankers in Prison for Causing the Financial Crisis?” The Atlantic. August 17, 2016. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/why-arent-any-bankers-in-prison-for-causing-the-financial-crisis/496232/
213 Isidore, Chris. “35 bankers were sent to prison for financial crisis crimes.” CNN Money. April 28, 2016. https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/news/companies/bankers-prison/index.html
214 BBC. “The Big Bank Fix.” BBC One: Panorama. Last on BBC Two, April 15, 2017. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08nfvpn
215 Enrich, David. The Spider Network: The Wild story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History. Reprint edition. New York: Custom House. 2018.
216 Clifford, Steven. “How Companies Actually Decide What to Pay CEOs.” The Atlantic: Business. June 14, 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/how-companies-decide-ceo-pay/530127/
217 SEC. “17 CFR Parts 229 and 249 [Release Nos. 33-9877; 34-75610; File No. S7-07-13] RIN 3235-AL47 –Final Rule.” https://www.sec.gov/rules/final/2015/33-9877.pdf
218 Edmans, Alex. “Why We Need to Stop Obsessing Over CEO Pay Ratios.” Harvard Business Review. February 23, 2017. https://hbr.org/2017/02/why-we-need-to-stop-obsessing-over-ceo-pay-ratios
219 Guillot, Craig. “Does Higher CEO Pay Produce Better Company Performance?” Chief Executive. July 29, 2016. https://chiefexecutive.net/higher-ceo-pay-produce-better-company-performance/
6.72 No ‘of by and for the People’
220 Piff, Paul K, and Daniel M. Stancato, Stephane Cote, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner. “Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior.” PNAS, March 13, 2012. 109 (11) 4086-4091; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118373109 Stellar JE, Manzo VM, Kraus MW, Keltner D. “Class and compassion: socioeconomic factors predict responses to suffering.” June 2012. PMID: 22148992, DOI: 10.1037/a0026508
221 Cassidy, John. “Is America an Oligarchy?” The New Yorker. April 18, 2014. https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/is-america-an-oligarchy
222 Liptak, Adam. “Courts Take On Campaign Finance Decision.” The New York Times. March 26, 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/us/politics/27campaign.html
223 Alexander, Madi. “PACs Made Up Nearly Half of 2016 Election Spending.” Bloomberg News. April 18, 2017. https://www.bna.com/pacs-made-nearly-n57982086803/
224 Albert, Zachary. “Trends in Campaign Financing, 1980–2016.” Bipartisan Policy Center. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Trends-in-Campaign-Financing-1980-2016.-Zachary-Albert.pdf
225 Bipartisan Policy Center. P.4.
226 Edkins, Brett. “In the Wake of Trump’s Win, Here Are 5 Ways the Media Can Regain Credibility.” Forbes. November 17, 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettedkins/2016/11/17/in-the-wake-of-trumps-win-how-does-the-media-regain-credibility/#78cab37b2ca5
227 Naureckas, Jim. “Trump: Bad for America, Good for CBS.” FAIR- Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. April 2016. https://fair.org/home/trump-bad-for-america-good-for-cbs/
228 Hooker, Brad. “Corporations Represented on ALEC’s Private Enterprise Board Are Big Spenders in Washington.” Center for Responsive Politics. September 12, 2011. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/09/alec-corporations-are-big-spenders/
229 Duignan, Brian. “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Law Case.” Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Citizens-United-v-Federal-Election-Commission
230 Regan, Michael D. “What does voter turnout tell us about the 2016 election?” PBS News Hour. November 20, 2016. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/voter-turnout-2016-elections
231 US Election Assistance Commission. “The Election Administration and Voting Survey 2016 Comprehensive Report: A Report to the 115th Congress.” https://www.eac.gov/assets/1/6/2016_EAVS_Comprehensive_Report.pdf
232 The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). “Voter Turnout Database.” https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/voter-turnout
233 Layton, Lyndsey. “How Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolution.” The Washington Post. June 7, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-bill-gates-pulled-off-the-swift-common-core-revolution/2014/06/07/a830e32e-ec34-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html?utm_term=.d7d7d9436fde
234 Strauss, Valerie. “Five Reasons standardized testing isn’t likely to let up.” The Washington Post. March 11, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/11/five-reasons-standardized-testing-isnt-likely-to-let-up/?utm_term=.e7e3738bd6a1
235 Ward, Steven. “Crisis in American education as teacher morale hits an all-time low.” The Conversation. April 7, 2015. https://theconversation.com/crisis-in-american-education-as-teacher-morale-hits-an-all-time-low-39226
236 Murphy, Tim. “Inside the Mammoth Backlash to Common Core: How a bipartisan education reform effort became the biggest conservative bogeyman since Obamacare.” Mother Jones. September/October 2014. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/common-core-education-reform-backlash-obamacare/
237 Layton. Washington Post. Ibid.
238 Herman, Edward S. and Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1988. NOTE: There is also a 2002 update of this book.
239 McKew, Molly. “Did Russia Affect the 2016 Election? It’s Now Undeniable.” Wired Magazine, February 16, 2018. https://www.wired.com/story/did-russia-affect-the-2016-election-its-now-undeniable/
240 Rendall, Steve. “The Fairness Doctrine: How we lost it, and why we need it back.” FAIR. January 2005. https://fair.org/extra/the-fairness-doctrine/
241 Thierer, Adam. “Why the Fairness Doctrine Is Anything But Fair.” The Heritage Foundation. October 29, 1993. https://www.heritage.org/government-regulation/report/why-the-fairness-doctrine-anything-fair
242 “Big Media: Media Regulation Timeline.” OPB:PBS. January 30, 2004. http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/mediatimeline.html
243 Perlstein, Jeff. “Clear Channel: The Media Mammoth That Stole the Airwaves.” Davy D. Retrieved July 2018. http://www.daveyd.com/articlesclearchannelbyjeffpearlstein.html
244 Vinton, Kate. “These 15 Billionaires Own America’s News Media Companies.” Forbes. June 1, 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevinton/2016/06/01/these-15-billionaires-own-americas-news-media-companies/#33790488660a
245 Stewart, James B. “When Media Mergers Limit More Than Competition.” New York Times. July 25, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/26/business/a-21st-century-fox-time-warner-merger-would-narrow-already-dwindling-competition.html
246 Johnson, Ted. “PBS Stations Express Cautious Optimism About Federal Funding.” Variety. February 27, 2018. https://variety.com/2018/politics/news/pbs-federal-funding-trump-budget-cuts-1202710960/
247 Schmeiser, Lisa. “The Effect of Facebook’s Social Media Silo on Itself and You; It turns out the behemoth is dividing communities and stunting social discourse. The Observer. May, 3, 2017. http://observer.com/2017/05/facebook-social-media-silo-effect-social-discourse/
248 Lapowsky, Issie. Here’s How Facebook Actually Won Trump the Presidency.” WIRED. November 15, 2016. https://www.wired.com/2016/11/facebook-won-trump-election-not-just-fake-news/
249 OPB:PBS. Timeline. Ibid.
250 Rushkoff, Douglas. Coercion; Why we listen to what ‘they’ say. New York, NY: Riverhead Books a member of Penguin Putnam Inc. 1999.
251 Donohue, Julie. “A History of Drug Advertising: The Evolving Roles of Consumers and Consumer Protection.” The Milbank Quarterly. December 2006. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0009.2006.00464.x
252 McCaffrey, Kevin. “Drugmakers again boost DTC spending, to $5.6 billion in 2016 .” MM&M. March 03, 2017. https://www.mmm-online.com/commercial/drugmakers-again-boost-dtc-spending-to-56-billion-in-2016/article/642028/
253 “US prescription drug spending as high as $610 billion by 2021: Report.” Reuters. May 4, 2017. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/04/us-prescription-drug-spending-as-high-as-610-billion-by-2021-report.html
254 US Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2016. Table 79 (page 1 of 2). Prescription drug use in the past 30 days, by sex, race and Hispanic origin, and age: United States selected years 1988–1994 through 2011– 2014.” p. 293 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus16.pdf#079
255 US Dept. of Health. Ibid.
256 Nuaw, Ingrid. “Do antidepressants do more harm than good?” ScienceNordic. April 18, 2017. http://sciencenordic.com/do-antidepressants-do-more-harm-good
257 OPB:PBS. Timeline. Ibid.
258 Moses, Lucia. “A Look at Kids’ Exposure to Ads.” Adweek. March 11, 2014. https://www.adweek.com/digital/look-kids-exposure-ads-156191/
259 US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “Childhood Obesity Facts.” Updated January 29, 2018. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/obesity/facts.htm
260 NOTE: Google “post truth era.” 130,000,000 results appear.
261 “Survey confirms: people have no idea about how money is created.” PositiveMoney. September 20, 2015. http://positivemoney.org/2015/09/survey-confirms-people-have-no-idea-about-how-money-is-created/
262 Glasser, Susan B. “It’s True: Trump is Lying More, and He’s Doing it On Purpose.” The New Yorker. “5:00 A.M.”….if that’s the day I retrieved the story, it’s August 3, 2018. https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/trumps-escalating-war-on-the-truth-is-on-purpose
6.73 No Free Market
263 Rushkoff, Douglas. Ibid.
264 Daley, Jason. “Five Things to Know About the New GMO Labeling Bill.” Smithsonian.com. July 15, 2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/five-things-know-about-new-gmo-labeling-bill-180959821/
265 Goday, Maria. “The Science of Twinkies: How Do They Last So Darned Long?” NPR: The Salt. July 10, 2013. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/07/09/200465360/the-science-of-twinkies-how-do-they-last-so-long
266 Gunnars, Kris, BSc. “Nine ways that processed foods are harming people.” Medical News Today. August 1, 2017. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318630.php
267 Kotch, Alex. “Charles Koch’s Disturbing High School Economics Project Teaches ‘Sacrificing Lives for Profits.’ Alternet. May 9, 2016. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/charles_kochs_disturbing_high_school_economics_20160602
268 Gwartney, James D.; Richard L. Stroup; Dwight R. Lee. Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperity. New York, NY: Macmillan: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.
269 Lee, Dwight R. “Sacrificing Lives for Profits: Adults Should Be Allowed to Choose Their Own Levels of Risk-Taking.” FEE Foundation for Economic Education November 1, 2000. https://fee.org/articles/sacrificing-lives-for-profits/
270 Worstall, Tim. “Sorry, Salon: The Koch Brothers are Actually Right.” Forbes. May 17, 2016 https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/05/17/its-a-bit-strange-to-shout-at-the-koch-brothers-when-theyre-actually-right/#45edfff17802
271 CDC- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Policy Impact: Seat Belts.” Last updated January 21, 2014. https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/seatbeltbrief/index.html
272 Mayer, Jane. Ibid.
6.74 Idolatry of Money
273 Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. “Chapter III: Of the corruption of our moral sentiments, which is occasioned by this disposition to admire the rich and the great, and to despise or neglect persons of poor and mean condition.” Retrieved from University of Pennsylvania. http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Smith/tms133.html
274 USDA. “Food Security Status of U.S. Households in 2016.” https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx
275 Shute, Nancy. “CDC: Developmental Disabilities Affect 1 in 7 U.S. Kids.” NPR: Your Health. May 23, 2011. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2011/05/23/136582348/cdc-developmental-disabilities-affect-1-in-7-u-s-kids
NOTE: Curiously while the CDC reported over 14 percent in 2011, by 2014, they decided that it was really only 6 percent if you left out many diagnoses of difficulties. Are they changing how they calculate the data to obscure the problem, or to quiet concern? Among the teachers I know there is a general consensus that it’s closer to one in five. National Center for Health Statistics. Zablotsky, Benjamin, PhD. “Estimated Prevalence of Children With Diagnosed Developmental Disabilities in the United States, 2014-2016.” NCHS Data Brief No. 291, November 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db291.pdf
276 McPhillips, Deidre. “This Labor Day weekend, a Look at the Hardest- Working Countries.” USNews. September 2, 2016. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2016-09-02/hardest-working-countries-ranked-by-hours-worked-per-year
277 Moore, Michael, Director. Where to Invade Next. Distributed by Neon. February 12, 2016.
278 Kurtzleben, Danielle. “Lots of Other Countries Mandate Paid Leave. Why Not the U.S.? NPR: Politics. July 15, 2015, charts updated May 6, 2016. https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/07/15/422957640/lots-of-other-countries-mandate-paid-leave-why-not-the-us
279 Schulze, Elizabeth. “Vacation can make you more productive – just ask the Europeans.” CNBC. August 25, 2017. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/25/vacation-can-make-you-more-productive--just-ask-the-europeans.html
280 Kurtzleben. Ibid.
281 Zarlenga, Ibid. p. 409–412.
6.75 Moral Hazard
282 McCallister, Doreen. “Ex-Massey energy CEO Completes 1-Year Federal Criminal Sentence.” NPR: America. May 11, 2017. h<ttps://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/11/527886633/ex-massey-energy-ceo-completes-1-year-federal-criminal-sentence>
283 Gabriel, Trip. “Don Blankenship Loses West Virginia Republican Primary for Senate.” New York Times. May 8, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/us/politics/blankenship-west-virginia.html
284 Kristof, Nicholas. “When Crime Pays: J& J’s Drug Risperdal.” New York Times. September 17, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/opinion/nicholas-kristof-when-crime-pays-jjs-drug-risperdal.html
285 Public Citizen. “Penalties for Corporate Violations Plummet by Double Digits Under Trump.” July 25, 2018. https://www.citizen.org/media/press-releases/penalties-corporate-violations-plummet-double-digits-under-trump
286 Shen, Lucinda. “Here’s What Just Wiped More Than $80 Billion Off Wall Street’s Trump Bump.” Fortune. March 21, 2017. http://fortune.com/2017/03/21/donald-trump-stock-market-rally-bank/
6.76 The End of the Road
287 Amadeo, Kimberly. “Dow Highest Closing Records.” The Balance. Updated June 11, 2018. https://www.thebalance.com/dow-jones-closing-history-top-highs-and-lows-since-1929-3306174
288 Kopf, Dan. “Trump’s first 17 cabinet-level picks have more money than a third of American households combined.” Quartz. December 15, 2016. https://qz.com/862412/trumps-16-cabinet-level-picks-have-more-money-than-a-third-of-american-households-combined/
289 Richter, Wolf. “Here’s why efforts to reduce the dollar’s dominance won’t work anytime soon.” Business Insider: Wolf Street. July 2, 2018. https://www.businessinsider.com/us-dollar-heres-why-it-will-remain-dominant-around-the-world-2018-7
290 International Monetary Fund. “Press Release No. 17/108: IMF Releases Data on the Currency Composition of Foreign Exchange Reserves Including Holdings in Renminbi.” IMF News. March 31, 2017. https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2017/03/31/pr17108-IMF-Releases-Data-on-the-Currency-Composition-of-Foreign-Exchange-Reserves
291 Wike, Richard, Bruce Stokes, Jacob Poushter and Janell Fetterolf. “U.S. Image Suffers as Publics Around World Question Trump’s Leadership.” Pew Research Center: Global Attitudes & Trends. June 26, 2017. http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/u-s-image-suffers-as-publics-around-world-question-trumps-leadership/
292 NOTE: Trump has insulted so many people. He calls somebody a childish name every day it seems. I’m not going to track all these insults down. If you doubt he made any, ask, and I’ll find it. But, there isn’t enough coffee or ice cream to make me do it today.
293 Richter, Wolf. Ibid.
294 Edwards, Kyle. “Could Ottawa slap the Trump Organization with trade sanctions?” Maclean’s: Politics. June 13, 2018. https://www.macleans.ca/politics/could-ottawa-slap-the-trump-organization-with-trade-sanctions/
295 The Editors. “How Germany Is, Reluctantly, Assuming a Leadership Role in NATO.” World Politics Review. April 13, 2017. https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/21838/how-germany-is-reluctantly-assuming-a-leadership-role-in-nato
296 “China Global Investment Tracker: Worldwide Chinese Investments & Construction (2009–2018).” American Enterprise Institute. Retrieved August 3, 2018. http://www.aei.org/china-global-investment-tracker/
297 Oxfam. Ibid.