1.
Ticker symbol
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A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both, ticker symbol refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker tape of a ticker tape machine. Stock symbols are unique identifiers assigned to each security traded on a particular market, for example, AAPL is for Apple Inc. OODH is for Orion DHC, Inc. and HD is for Home Depot, a stock symbol can consist of letters, numbers, or a combination of both, and is a way to uniquely identify that stock. The symbols were kept as short as possible to reduce the number of characters that had to be printed on the ticker tape, the allocation of symbols and formatting convention is specific to each stock exchange. In the US, for example, stock tickers are typically between 1 and 4 letters and represent the name where possible. In Europe, most exchanges use three-letter codes, for example Dutch consumer goods company Unilever traded on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange has the symbol UNA, while in Asia, numbers are often used as stock tickers to avoid issues for international investors when using non-Latin scripts. For example, the bank HSBCs stock traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has the ticker symbol 0005, symbols sometimes change to reflect mergers. Prior to the 1999 merger with Mobil Oil, Exxon used a spelling of the company XON as its ticker symbol. The symbol of the firm after the merger was XOM, symbols are sometimes reused, in the US the single-letter symbols are particularly sought after as vanity symbols. For example, since Mar 2008 Visa Inc. has used the symbol V that had previously used by Vivendi which had delisted. To fully qualify a stock, both the ticker and the exchange or country of listing needs to be known, on many systems both must be specified to uniquely identify the security. This is often done by appending the location or exchange code to the ticker, although stock tickers identify a security, they are exchange dependent, generally limited to stocks and can change. These limitations have led to the development of other codes in financial markets to identify securities for settlement purposes, the most prevalent of these is the International Securities Identifying Number. An ISIN uniquely identifies a security and its structure is defined in ISO6166, Securities for which ISINs are issued include bonds, commercial paper, stocks, and warrants. The ISIN identifies the security, not the exchange on which it trades, for instance, Daimler AG stock trades on twenty-two different stock exchanges worldwide, and is priced in five different currencies, it has the same ISIN on each, though not the same ticker symbol. ISIN cannot specify a particular trade in this case, and another identifier, following the introduction of the Sequence trading platform in 1996, EPICs were renamed Tradable Instrument Display Mnemonics, but they are still widely referred to as EPICs. Stocks can also be identified using their SEDOL number or their ISIN, in the United States, modern letter-only ticker symbols were developed by Standard & Poors to bring a national standard to investing
2.
New York Stock Exchange
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The New York Stock Exchange, is an American stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York. It is by far the worlds largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its companies at US$19.3 trillion as of June 2016. The average daily trading value was approximately US$169 billion in 2013, the NYSE trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is composed of 21 rooms used for the facilitation of trading. A fifth trading room, located at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007, the main building and the 11 Wall Street building were designated National Historic Landmarks in 1978. The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, an American holding company that it also lists, previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext, which was formed by the NYSEs 2007 merger with Euronext. NYSE and Euronext now operate as divisions of Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE has been the subject of several lawsuits regarding fraud or breach of duty and in 2004 was sued by its former CEO for breach of contract and defamation. The earliest recorded organization of securities trading in New York among brokers directly dealing with each other can be traced to the Buttonwood Agreement, previously securities exchange had been intermediated by the auctioneers who also conducted more mundane auctions of commodities such as wheat and tobacco. In 1817 the stockbrokers of New York operating under the Buttonwood Agreement instituted new reforms, after sending a delegation to Philadelphia to observe the organization of their board of brokers, restrictions on manipulative trading were adopted as well as formal organs of governance. Several locations were used between 1817 and 1865, when the present location was adopted, the invention of the electrical telegraph consolidated markets, and New Yorks market rose to dominance over Philadelphia after weathering some market panics better than other alternatives. The Civil War greatly stimulated speculative securities trading in New York, by 1869 membership had to be capped, and has been sporadically increased since. The latter half of the century saw rapid growth in securities trading. Securities trade in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was prone to panics. The Stock Exchange Luncheon Club was situated on the floor from 1898 until its closure in 2006. The main building, located at 18 Broad Street, between the corners of Wall Street and Exchange Place, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, as was the 11 Wall Street building. The NYSE announced its plans to merge with Archipelago on April 21,2005, NYSEs governing board voted to merge with rival Archipelago on December 6,2005, and became a for-profit, public company. It began trading under the name NYSE Group on March 8,2006, Wall Street is the leading US money center for international financial activities and the foremost US location for the conduct of wholesale financial services. It comprises a matrix of wholesale financial sectors, financial markets, financial institutions, the principal sectors are securities industry, commercial banking, asset management, and insurance. Prior to the acquisition of NYSE Euronext by the ICE in 2013, Marsh Carter was the Chairman of the NYSE, presently, the chairman is Jeffrey Sprecher
3.
S&P 500
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The S&P500 index components and their weightings are determined by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It differs from other U. S. stock market indices, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the Nasdaq Composite index, because of its diverse constituency and weighting methodology. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices, and many consider it one of the best representations of the U. S. stock market, the National Bureau of Economic Research has classified common stocks as a leading indicator of business cycles. The S&P500 was developed and continued to be maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, S&P Dow Jones Indices publishes many stock market indices such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P MidCap 400, the S&P SmallCap 600, and the S&P Composite 1500. It is a free-float capitalization-weighted index, and has many symbols, such as, ^GSPC, INX. The Composite Index, as the S&P500 was first called when it introduced its first stock index in 1923, three years later in 1926, the Composite Index expanded to 90 stocks and then in 1957 it expanded to its current 500. Standard & Poors, a company that doles out financial information, in 1941 Poors Publishing merged with Standard Statistics and therein assumed the name Standard and Poors Corporation. The S&P500 index in its present form began on March 4,1957, technology has allowed the index to be calculated and disseminated in real time. The S&P500 is widely used as a measure of the level of stock prices. In September 1962, Ultronic Systems Corp. entered into an agreement with Standard, under the terms of this agreement, Ultronics computed the S&P500 Stock Composite Index, the 425 Stock Industrial Index, the 50 Stock Utility Index, and the 25 Stock Rail Index. Throughout the market day these statistics were furnished to Standard & Poors, in addition, Ultronics also computed and reported the 94 S&P sub-indexes. On August 12,1982, the index closed at 102.42, the index reached a relative intraday high—which was not exceeded for over seven years—of 1,552.87, on March 24,2000, during the dot-com bubble. The index then declined by approximately 50%, to 768.63, on October 10,2002, on May 30,2007, the S&P500 closed at 1,530.23, to set its first all-time closing high in more than seven years. Less than a later, it dropped to 1,400. In mid-2007, the mortgage crisis spread to the wider U. S. financial sector. On November 20,2008, the index closed at 752.44, a modest recovery the following day still left the index down 45. 5% for the year. This year-to-date loss was the greatest since 1931, when the market declined more than 50%. The index closed the year at 903.25, for a loss of 38. 5%, the market continued to decline in early 2009, surrounding the financial crisis of 2008
4.
Technology services
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The quaternary sector is based on knowledge and skill. It consists of intellectual industries providing information services, such as computing and ICT, consultancy, according to some definitions, the quaternary sector includes other pure services, such as the entertainment industry, and the term has been used to describe media, culture, and government. It has been argued that intellectual services is distinct enough to warrant a separate sector and this sector evolves in well-developed countries and requires a highly educated workforce. Between them, the tertiary and quaternary sectors form the largest part of the UK economy, the number of people who earn their living in these activities is increasing. Companies invest in the sector to promote further expansion. It is seen as a way to higher margins or returns on investment. Research will be directed into cutting costs, tapping into markets, producing innovative ideas, new methods and methods of manufacture. To many industries, such as the industry, the sector is the most valuable because it creates future secondary-sector branded products from which companies may profit. Zoltan Kenessey, U. S. Federal Reserve Board, primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Quaternary Sectors of the Economy
5.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
6.
Republic of Ireland
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Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a sovereign state in north-western Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, which is located on the part of the island. The state shares its land border with Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. It is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, Saint Georges Channel to the south-east, and it is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The head of government is the Taoiseach, who is elected by the Dáil and appointed by the President, the state was created as the Irish Free State in 1922 as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was officially declared a republic in 1949, following the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, Ireland became a member of the United Nations in December 1955. It joined the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union, after joining the EEC, Ireland enacted a series of liberal economic policies that resulted in rapid economic growth. The country achieved considerable prosperity between the years of 1995 and 2007, which known as the Celtic Tiger period. This was halted by a financial crisis that began in 2008. However, as the Irish economy was the fastest growing in the EU in 2015, Ireland is again quickly ascending league tables comparing wealth and prosperity internationally. For example, in 2015, Ireland was ranked as the joint sixth most developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index and it also performs well in several national performance metrics, including freedom of the press, economic freedom and civil liberties. Ireland is a member of the European Union and is a member of the Council of Europe. The 1922 state, comprising 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, was styled, the Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, provides that the name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland. Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 states, It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland. The 1948 Act does not name the state as Republic of Ireland, because to have done so would have put it in conflict with the Constitution. The government of the United Kingdom used the name Eire, and, from 1949, Republic of Ireland, for the state, as well as Ireland, Éire or the Republic of Ireland, the state is also referred to as the Republic, Southern Ireland or the South. In an Irish republican context it is referred to as the Free State or the 26 Counties. From the Act of Union on 1 January 1801, until 6 December 1922, during the Great Famine, from 1845 to 1849, the islands population of over 8 million fell by 30%
7.
Chairman
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The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, a committee, or a deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chair presides over meetings of the group and conducts its business in an orderly fashion. When the group is not in session, the officers duties include acting as its head, its representative to the outside world. In some organizations, this position is called president, in others, where a board appoints a president. Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include chair, chairperson, chairwoman, presiding officer, president, moderator, facilitator, the chairman of a parliamentary chamber is often called the speaker. The term chair is used in lieu of chairman, in response to criticisms that using chairman is sexist. In his 1992 State of the Union address, then-U. S, president George H. W. Bush used chairman for men and chair for women. A1994 Canadian study found the Toronto Star newspaper referring to most presiding men as chairman, the Chronicle of Higher Education uses chairman for men and chairperson for women. An analysis of the British National Corpus found chairman used 1,142 times, chairperson 130 times, the National Association of Parliamentarians does not approve using chairperson. In World Schools Style debating, male chairs are called Mr. Chairman, the FranklinCovey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication, as well as the American Psychological Association style guide, advocate using chair or chairperson, rather than chairman. The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style suggests that the forms are gaining ground. It advocates using chair to refer both to men and to women, the word chair can refer to the place from which the holder of the office presides, whether on a chair, at a lectern, or elsewhere. During meetings, the person presiding is said to be in the chair and is referred to as the chair. Major dictionaries state that the word derives from chair and man, some authorities, however, including Riddicks Rules of Procedure, suggest that the second part of chairman derives from the Latin manus, and thus claim gender-neutrality for the word. Vladimir Lenin, for example, officially functioned as the head of Soviet Russia not as tsar or as president, note in particular the popular standard method for referring to Mao Zedong, Chairman Mao. In the absence of the chairman and vice chairman, groups sometimes elect a chairman pro tempore to fill the role for a single meeting. In some organizations that have titles, deputy chairman ranks higher than vice chairman, as there are often multiple vice chairs
8.
Computer
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A computer is a device that can be instructed to carry out an arbitrary set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. The ability of computers to follow a sequence of operations, called a program, such computers are used as control systems for a very wide variety of industrial and consumer devices. The Internet is run on computers and it millions of other computers. Since ancient times, simple manual devices like the abacus aided people in doing calculations, early in the Industrial Revolution, some mechanical devices were built to automate long tedious tasks, such as guiding patterns for looms. More sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in the early 20th century, the first digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II. The speed, power, and versatility of computers has increased continuously and dramatically since then, conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit, and some form of memory. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logical operations, and a sequencing, peripheral devices include input devices, output devices, and input/output devices that perform both functions. Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source and this usage of the term referred to a person who carried out calculations or computations. The word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century, from the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives the first attested use of computer in the 1640s, one who calculates, the Online Etymology Dictionary states that the use of the term to mean calculating machine is from 1897. The Online Etymology Dictionary indicates that the use of the term. 1945 under this name, theoretical from 1937, as Turing machine, devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device was probably a form of tally stick, later record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi which represented counts of items, probably livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay containers. The use of counting rods is one example, the abacus was initially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was developed from used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC. Since then, many forms of reckoning boards or tables have been invented. In a medieval European counting house, a checkered cloth would be placed on a table, the Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest mechanical analog computer, according to Derek J. de Solla Price. It was designed to calculate astronomical positions and it was discovered in 1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to circa 100 BC
9.
Technology
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Technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, the human species use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The steady progress of technology has brought weapons of ever-increasing destructive power. It has helped develop more advanced economies and has allowed the rise of a leisure class, many technological processes produce unwanted by-products known as pollution and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earths environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and raise new questions of the ethics of technology, examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics. Philosophical debates have arisen over the use of technology, with disagreements over whether technology improves the condition or worsens it. The use of the technology has changed significantly over the last 200 years. Before the 20th century, the term was uncommon in English, the term was often connected to technical education, as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The term technology rose to prominence in the 20th century in connection with the Second Industrial Revolution, the terms meanings changed in the early 20th century when American social scientists, beginning with Thorstein Veblen, translated ideas from the German concept of Technik into technology. In German and other European languages, a distinction exists between technik and technologie that is absent in English, which translates both terms as technology. By the 1930s, technology referred not only to the study of the industrial arts, dictionaries and scholars have offered a variety of definitions. Ursula Franklin, in her 1989 Real World of Technology lecture, gave another definition of the concept, it is practice, the way we do things around here. The term is used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics. Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time,1, defines technology in two ways, as the pursuit of life by other than life, and as organized inorganic matter. Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems and it is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material, virtual technology, such as software and business methods. W. Brian Arthur defines technology in a broad way as a means to fulfill a human purpose
10.
Business operations
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The outcome of business operations is the harvesting of value from assets owned by a business. Assets can be physical or intangible. An example of value derived from an asset, like a building, is rent. An example of value derived from an asset, like an idea, is a royalty. The effort involved in harvesting this value is what constitutes business operations cycles, the following basic tenets illustrate this interdependency, The more recurring income an asset generates, the more valuable it becomes. For example, the products that sell at the highest volumes and prices are usually considered to be the most valuable products in a product portfolio. The more valuable a product becomes the more recurring income it generates, for example, a luxury car can be leased out at a higher rate than a normal car. The intrinsic value and income-generating potential of an asset cannot be realized without a way to secure it, for example, petroleum deposits are worthless unless processes and equipment are developed and employed to extract, refine, and distribute it profitably. The business model of a business describes the means by which the three management imperatives are achieved, in this sense, business operations is the execution of the business model. This is the most straightforward and well-understood management imperative of business operations, the funds directly acquired by the business in exchange for the goods and services it delivers is the businesss revenue. The cost of developing, producing, and delivering these goods, a business whose revenues are sufficiently greater than its expenses makes profit or income. As such, generating recurring revenue is not the focus of operations management, efficient processes that reduce costs even while prices remain the same expand the gap between revenue and expenses and derive higher profitability. Types of recurring income- Long term sales contracts - monthly to yearly based contracts for a service and/or product, multiple revenue streams - different sources of business income that support each other, example - sell printers and toners. The more profitable a business is, the more valuable it is, a businesss profitability is measured on the basis of how much income it generates for the, amount of assets its business operations employ — its business return. Amount of revenue it realizes — its business margin, growth strategies Expand market, offer product or service to a wider section of an existing market or to a new demographic, psychographic or geographic market. Develop brand, a recognised, respected and developed brand is highly valuable, develop through research, design and marketing of companies name, logo and tagline. Management systems Show growth potential, create a business that has potential to be efficiently expanded, example, developing an efficient business system and operating manuals allows the business to potentially be franchised or licensed. Maintain intangible assets, Maintaining intangible assets can protect elements that add value to a business - patenting, copyrighting or trademarking anything believed to be an intangible asset
11.
Earnings before interest and taxes
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In accounting and finance, earnings before interest and taxes, is a measure of a firms profit that includes all expenses except interest and income tax expenses. It is the difference between operating revenues and operating expenses, when a firm does not have non-operating income, then operating income is sometimes used as a synonym for EBIT and operating profit. To calculate EBIT, expenses are subtracted from revenues, net income is later obtained by subtracting interest and taxes from the result
12.
Net income
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In business, net income is an entitys income minus cost of goods sold, expenses and taxes for an accounting period. In the context of the presentation of financial statements, the IFRS Foundation defines net income as synonymous with profit, net income is a distinct accounting concept from profit but the same as net profit. Net income can also be calculated by adding a companys operating income to non-operating income, net income can be distributed among holders of common stock as a dividend or held by the firm as an addition to retained earnings. As profit and earnings are used synonymously for income, net earnings, often, the term income is substituted for net income, yet this is not preferred due to the possible ambiguity. Net income is called the bottom line because it is typically found on the last line of a companys income statement. The items deducted will typically include tax expense, financing expense, likewise, preferred stock dividends will be subtracted too, though they are not an expense. For a merchandising company, subtracted costs may be the cost of goods sold, sales discounts, for a product company advertising, manufacturing, and design and development costs are included
13.
Asset
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In financial accounting, an asset is an economic resource. Anything tangible or intangible that can be owned or controlled to produce value, simply stated, assets represent value of ownership that can be converted into cash. The balance sheet of a firm records the value of the assets owned by that firm. It covers money and other valuables belonging to an individual or to a business, one can classify assets into two major asset classes, tangible assets and intangible assets. Tangible assets contain various subclasses, including current assets and fixed assets, current assets include inventory, while fixed assets include such items as buildings and equipment. Intangible assets are resources and rights that have a value to the firm because they give the firm some kind of advantage in the marketplace. Examples of intangible assets include goodwill, copyrights, trademarks, patents and computer programs, an asset is a resource controlled by the entity as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the entity. One of the most widely accepted accounting definitions of asset is the one used by the International Accounting Standards Board, employees are not considered assets like machinery is, even though they can generate future economic benefits. This is because an entity does not have sufficient control over its employees to satisfy the Frameworks definition of an asset, similarly, in economics an asset is any form in which wealth can be held. The accounting equation is the structure of the balance sheet. It relates assets, liabilities, and owners equity, Assets = Liabilities + Capital Liabilities = Assets − Capital Equity = Assets − Liabilities Assets are listed on the balance sheet. On a companys balance sheet certain divisions are required by generally accepted accounting principles, Assets can be divided into e. g. current assets and fixed assets, often with further subdivisions such as cash, receivables and inventory. Assets are formally controlled and managed within larger organizations via the use of asset tracking tools and these monitor the purchasing, upgrading, servicing, licensing, disposal etc. of both physical and non-physical assets. Current assets are cash and other assets expected to be converted to cash or consumed either in a year or in the operating cycle and these assets are continually turned over in the course of a business during normal business activity. There are 5 major items included into current assets, Cash and cash equivalents – it is the most liquid asset, which includes currency, deposit accounts, short-term investments – include securities bought and held for sale in the near future to generate income on short-term price differences. Receivables – usually reported as net of allowance for non-collectable accounts, inventory – trading these assets is a normal business of a company. The inventory value reported on the sheet is usually the historical cost or fair market value. This is known as the lower of cost or market rule, prepaid expenses – these are expenses paid in cash and recorded as assets before they are used or consumed
14.
Equity (finance)
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In accounting, equity is the difference between the value of the assets and the value of the liabilities of something owed. Equity can be negative if liabilities exceeds assets, shareholders equity represents the equity of a company as divided among shareholders of common or preferred stock. Negative shareholders equity is often referred to as a shareholders deficit, alternatively, equity can also refer to the capital stock of a corporation. The value of the stock depends on the future economic prospects. For a company in liquidation proceedings, the equity is that which remains after all liabilities have been paid, when starting a business, the owners fund the business to finance various operations. Throughout the businesss existence, the equity of the business will be the difference between its assets and debt liabilities, this is the accounting equation, when a business liquidates during bankruptcy, the proceeds from the assets are used to reimburse creditors. The creditors are ranked by priority, with secured creditors being paid first, other creditors being paid next, owners equity is this remaining or residual claim against assets, which is paid only after all other creditors are paid. In such cases where even creditors could not get money to pay their bills. In financial accounting, owners equity consists of the net assets of an entity, net assets is the difference between the total assets and total liabilities. Equity appears on the sheet, one of the four primary financial statements. The assets of an entity can be tangible and intangible items. Intangible assets include such as brand names, copyrights or goodwill. Tangible assets include land, equipment, and cash, issue of new equity in which the firm obtains new capital increases the total shareholders equity. Share repurchases, in which a firm returns money to investors, reducing on the side its financial assets. For practical purposes, share repurchasing is similar to a dividend payment, rather than giving money to all shareholders immediately in the form of a dividend payment, a share repurchase reduces the number of shares outstanding. Dividends paid out to preferred stock owners are considered an expense to be subtracted from net income, sometimes assets bought and held in other countries get translated back into the reporting currency at different exchange rates, resulting in a changed value. When the owners are shareholders, the interest can be called shareholders equity, the remains the same. If all shareholders are in one and the class, they share equally in ownership equity from all perspectives
15.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
16.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
17.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
18.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
19.
Arthur Andersen
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One of the few revenue-generating assets that the Andersen firm still has is Q Center, a conference and training facility outside of Chicago. In 1908, at age 23, he became the youngest CPA in Illinois, the firm of Arthur Andersen was founded in 1913 by Arthur Andersen and Clarence DeLany as Andersen, DeLany & Co. The firm changed its name to Arthur Andersen & Co. in 1918, Arthur Andersens first client was the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company of Milwaukee. In 1915, due to his contacts there, the Milwaukee office was opened as the firms second office. In 1908, after attending courses at night while working full-time, Andersen had an unwavering faith in education as the basis upon which the new profession of accounting should be developed. He created the professions first centralized training program and believed in training during working hours. He was generous in his commitment to aiding educational, civic, in 1927, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University and served as its president from 1930 to 1932. He was also chairman of the board of certified public accountant examiners of Illinois, Andersen, who headed the firm until his death in 1947, was a zealous supporter of high standards in the accounting industry. A stickler for honesty, he argued that responsibility was to investors. Andersen refused in no uncertain terms, replying that there was not enough money in the city of Chicago to make him do it, for many years, Andersens motto was Think straight, talk straight. Arthur Andersen also led the way in a number of areas of accounting standards, being among the first to identify a possible sub-prime bust, Arthur Andersen dissociated itself from a number of clients in the 1970s. Having established a reputation for IT consultancy in the 1980s, Arthur Andersen was no exception, by the late-1990s, Arthur Andersen had succeeded in tripling the per-share revenues of its partners. Two of the last three Comptrollers General of the US General Accounting Office were top executives of Arthur Andersen. The consulting wing of the firm became increasingly important during the 1970s and 1980s, growing at a faster rate than the more established accounting, auditing. This disproportionate growth, and the consulting division partners belief that they were not garnering their fair share of firm profits, in 1989, Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting became separate units of Andersen Worldwide Société Coopérative. Arthur Andersen increased its use of accounting services as a springboard to sign up clients for Andersen Consultings more lucrative business, the two businesses spent most of the 1990s in a bitter dispute. Andersen Consulting saw a surge in profits during the decade. The consultants, however, continued to resent transfer payments they were required to make to Arthur Andersen
20.
General Electric
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General Electric, often abbreviated as GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in New York and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2011, GE ranked among the Fortune 500 as the 68th-largest firm in the U. S. by gross revenue, as of 2012, the company was listed the fourth-largest in the world among the Forbes Global 2000, further metrics being taken into account. The Nobel Prize has twice been awarded to employees of General Electric, Irving Langmuir in 1932, on January 13,2016, it was announced that GE will be moving its corporate headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut to the South Boston Waterfront neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The first group of workers arrived in the summer of 2016, morgan and the Vanderbilt family for Edisons lighting experiments. The new company also acquired Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company in the same year, both plants continue to operate under the GE banner to this day. The company was incorporated in New York, with the Schenectady plant used as headquarters for years thereafter. Around the same time, General Electrics Canadian counterpart, Canadian General Electric, was formed, in 1896, General Electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. After 120 years, it is the one of the original companies still listed on the Dow index. In 1911, General Electric absorbed the National Electric Lamp Association into its lighting business, GE established its lighting division headquarters at Nela Park in East Cleveland, Ohio. Nela Park is still the headquarters for GEs lighting business, owen D. Young, through GE, founded the Radio Corporation of America in 1919 to further international radio. GE used RCA as its retail arm for radio sales from 1919, in 1927, Ernst Alexanderson of GE made the first demonstration of his television broadcasts at his General Electric Realty Plot home at 1132 Adams Rd, Schenectady, NY. The sound was broadcast on GEs WGY, experimental television station W2XAD evolved into station WRGB which—along with WGY and WGFM —was owned and operated by General Electric until 1983. GEs history of working with turbines in the field gave them the engineering know-how to move into the new field of aircraft turbosuperchargers. Led by Sanford Alexander Moss, GE introduced the first superchargers during World War I, superchargers became indispensable in the years immediately prior to World War II, and GE was the world leader in exhaust-driven supercharging when the war started. This experience, in turn, made GE a natural selection to develop the Whittle W.1 jet engine that was demonstrated in the United States in 1941, GE ranked ninth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. In 2002, GE acquired the assets of Enron during its bankruptcy proceedings. Some consumers boycotted GE light bulbs, refrigerators and other products in the 1980s and 1990s to protest GEs role in weapons production. With IBM, Burroughs, NCR, Control Data Corporation, Honeywell, RCA and UNIVAC, GE had a line of general purpose and special purpose computers
21.
GE Appliances
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GE Appliances & Lighting, is an American manufacturer, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. GE Appliances & Lighting is a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate Haier and is one of the largest suppliers of appliances in the world and it was created in January 2004 when GE Consumer Products merged with GE Industrial Systems. From 2010 to late 2014, GE Appliances & Lighting was a sub-business under GE Home & Business Solutions, on 8 September 2014, General Electric agreed to sell GE Appliances & Lighting to the Swedish appliance manufacturer Electrolux for US$3.3 billion in cash. The deal will combine Electroluxs existing primary U. S. mainstream appliance brand, Frigidaire, with GEs stable of products, as part of the deal, Electrolux agreed to continue using the G. E. Appliances brand names, such as the mainstream GE appliance marque, for a period, and also agreed to assume General Electrics 48. 4% stake in Mabe. The transaction — the largest ever for Electrolux, the second-largest consumer appliance manufacturer after Whirlpool — would have nearly doubled Electroluxs business in North America, the deal carried a US$175 million termination fee clause if Electrolux was unable to complete the acquisition. It was terminated in December 2015 due to regulatory concerns, GE announced in early 2016 that Chinese appliance conglomerate Haier will purchase the appliance division for $5.4 billion. In 1951 construction began in Louisville, Kentucky on Appliance Park, at the start of the park, Appliance Park was a self-sufficient city that provided for its own needs, right down to mail handling. In fact, Appliance Park was such a large and self-sustaining facility that the Postal Service granted Appliance Park its own ZIP code,40225, Building 1 was opened by late 1951 with washers and dryers being manufactured in the 10-acre building. AP1 was the location of the worlds first non-government used computer that was stored in what is today the GE Industrial Data Center, in 1953, Appliance Park Buildings 2 through 6 were finished, beginning large-scale production at Appliance Park. Building 2 made ranges and ovens until 2000, when GE moved production to Roper Corporation, currently, AP2 houses operations to support AP3 and is the home of the GE Geospring high-efficiency water heater. Hotpoint, GE Profile, and GE Monogram models are all made here, AP3 makes up the largest percentage of Appliance Park employees, with over 1,000. Building 4 utilizes empty space to support AP3s dishwasher operations and contains the Appliance Parks medical, aP4 is also the Information Technology headquarters for GE Appliances & Lighting, housing a Platinum-LEED certified data center as of August 2011. Building 5 assembles refrigerators with parts made in other Appliance Park locations, until the 1980s, AP5 was the largest building in terms of employees, production, and production space. Building 6 contained air conditioner manufacturing operations until the division was sold in 1982, since then, AP6 has been leased out to vendors and suppliers for GE and other companies. AP6 was also the new location for various GE electrical systems engineering teams that moved from that divisions previous headquarters in Connecticut in 2005 and it was destroyed by a 8-alarm fire on the morning of April 3,2015. The remaining buildings at the Appliance Park are Production Support Operations, over three miles of conveyors deliver completed products from the assembly lines to the warehouse for storage. Building 21 is the electrical substation that is powered from LG&E, Building 24 is an industrial waste treatment plant that treats all of the solid waste from Appliance Park
22.
Louisville, Kentucky
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Louisville is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 30th-most populous city in the United States. It is one of two cities in Kentucky designated as first-class, the other being the states second-largest city of Lexington, Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County. Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark and is named after King Louis XVI of France, making Louisville one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachian Mountains. Sited beside the Falls of the Ohio, the major obstruction to river traffic between the upper Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico, the settlement first grew as a portage site. It was the city of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Its main airport is also the site of United Parcel Services worldwide air hub, since 2003, Louisvilles borders have been the same as those of Jefferson County because of a city-county merger. The official name of this consolidated city-county government is the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, the citys total consolidated population as of the 2014 census estimate was 760,026. However, the total of 612,780 excludes other incorporated places and semiautonomous towns within the county and is the population listed in most sources. As of 2014, the MSA had a population of 1,269,702, the history of Louisville spans hundreds of years, and has been influenced by the areas geography and location. The rapids at the Falls of the Ohio created a barrier to river travel, the first European settlement in the vicinity of modern-day Louisville was on Corn Island in 1778 by Col. George Rogers Clark, credited as the founder of Louisville. Several landmarks in the community are named after him, two years later, in 1780, the Virginia General Assembly approved the town charter of Louisville. The city was named in honor of King Louis XVI of France, early residents lived in forts to protect themselves from Indian raids, but moved out by the late 1780s. In 1803, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark organized their expedition across America in the town of Clarksville, Indiana at the present-day Falls of the Ohio opposite Louisville, Kentucky. The citys early growth was influenced by the fact river boats had to be unloaded and moved downriver before reaching the falls. By 1828, the population had swelled to 7,000, the city grew rapidly in its formative years. Louisville was a shipping port and slaves worked in a variety of associated trades. The city was often a point of escape for slaves to the north, during the Civil War, Louisville was a major stronghold of Union forces, which kept Kentucky firmly in the Union. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting, and transportation for numerous campaigns, by the end of the war, Louisville had not been attacked, although skirmishes and battles, including the battles of Perryville and Corydon, took place nearby
23.
UNIVAC I
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The UNIVAC I was the first commercial computer produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, design work was started by their company, Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation, and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. In the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the first Univac was accepted by the United States Census Bureau on March 31,1951, and was dedicated on June 14 that year. The fifth machine was used by CBS to predict the result of the 1952 presidential election, with a sample of just 1% of the voting population it famously predicted an Eisenhower landslide while the conventional wisdom favored Stevenson. As such the UNIVAC competed directly against punch-card machines, though the UNIVAC originally could neither read nor punch cards and that shortcoming hindered sales to companies concerned about the high cost of manually converting large quantities of existing data stored on cards. This was corrected by adding offline card processing equipment, the UNIVAC Card to Tape converter, however, the early market share of the UNIVAC I was lower than the Remington Rand Company wished. To promote sales, the company joined with CBS to have UNIVAC I predict the result of the 1952 Presidential election, UNIVAC I predicted Eisenhower would have a landslide victory over Adlai Stevenson whom the pollsters favored. The result was a public awareness of computing technology. The first contracts were with government agencies such as the Census Bureau, the U. S. Air Force, contracts were also signed by the ACNielsen Company, and the Prudential Insurance Company. Following the sale of Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation to Remington Rand, due to the cost overruns on the project, Remington Rand convinced Nielsen and Prudential to cancel their contracts. The first sale, to the Census Bureau, was marked with a ceremony on March 31,1951, at the Eckert–Mauchly Divisions factory at 3747 Ridge Avenue. As a result, the first installation was with the second computer, UNIVAC installations, 1951–1954 Originally priced at US$159,000, the UNIVAC I rose in price until they were between $1,250,000 and $1,500,000. A total of 46 systems were built and delivered. The UNIVAC I was too expensive for most universities, and Sperry Rand, a few UNIVAC I systems stayed in service long after they were made obsolete by advancing technology. The Census Bureau used its two systems until 1963, amounting to 12 and nine years of service, respectively, Sperry Rand itself used two systems in Buffalo, New York until 1968. The insurance company Life and Casualty of Tennessee used its system until 1970, UNIVAC I used 5,000 vacuum tubes, weighed 16,000 pounds, consumed 125 kW, and could perform about 1,905 operations per second running on a 2.25 MHz clock. The Central Complex alone was 4.3 m by 2.4 m by 2.6 m high, the complete system occupied more than 35.5 m² of floor space. The main memory consisted of 1000 words of 12 characters, when representing numbers, they were written as 11 decimal digits plus sign
24.
International Chamber of Commerce
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The International Chamber of Commerce is the largest, most representative business organization in the world. Its hundreds of thousands of companies in over 130 countries have interests spanning every sector of private enterprise. ICC has three activities, rule setting, dispute resolution, and policy advocacy. Because its member companies and associations are engaged in international business. Although these rules are voluntary, they are observed in countless thousands of transactions every day and have part of international trade. A world network of committees in over 90 countries advocates business priorities at national and regional level. More than 3,000 experts drawn from ICC’s member companies feed their knowledge, ICC lobbies the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and many other intergovernmental bodies, both international and regional, on behalf of international business. ICC was the first organization granted general consultative status with the United Nations Economic, the International Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1919 to serve world business by promoting trade and investment, open markets for goods and services, and the free flow of capital. The organizations international secretariat was established in Paris and the ICCs International Court of Arbitration was created in 1923, ICCs first chairman was 20th-century French Minister of Finance Etienne Clémentel. ICCs current chairman is Sunil Bharti Mittal, in June 2014, John Danilovich was elected Secretary General of ICC by the ICC World Council. There are two ways to become a member of ICC,1, through affiliation with an ICC national committee or group. By direct membership with the ICC International Secretariat when a national committee/group has not yet established in the country/territory. ICCs supreme governing body is the World Council, consisting of representatives of national committees, the World Council elects ICC’s highest officers, including the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman, each of whom serves a two-year term. The Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the Honorary Chairman provide the organization with high-level world leadership. They play an important role in ICC section, strategic direction for ICC is provided by its Executive Board, consisting of up to 30 business leaders and ex-officio members. It is elected by the World Council on the recommendation of the Chairmanship, meeting three times a year, the Executive Board oversees the establishment of ICC’s strategic priorities and the implementation of its policies. The ICC International Secretariat, based in Paris, is the arm of ICC. It develops and carries out ICC’s work programme, feeding business views into intergovernmental organizations on issues directly affect business operations. The International Secretariat is led by the Secretary General, who is appointed by the World Council, in 92 of the world’s nations, members have established formal ICC structures called national committees
25.
Initial public offering
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Through this process, a privately held company transforms into a public company. Initial public offerings are used by companies to raise the expansion of capital, possibly to monetize the investments of early private investors. A company selling shares is never required to repay the capital to its public investors, after the IPO, when shares trade freely in the open market, money passes between public investors. The IPO process is known as going public. Details of the offering are disclosed to potential purchasers in the form of a lengthy document known as a prospectus. Most companies undertake an IPO with the assistance of an investment banking firm acting in the capacity of an underwriter, underwriters provide several services, including help with correctly assessing the value of shares and establishing a public market for shares. Alternative methods such as the dutch auction have also been explored, in terms of size and public participation, the two most notable examples of this method is the Google IPO and Snapchats parent company Snap Inc. China has recently emerged as a major IPO market, with several of the largest IPOs taking place in that country, the earliest form of a company which issued public shares was the case of the publicani during the Roman Republic. Like modern joint-stock companies, the publicani were legal bodies independent of their members whose ownership was divided into shares, there is evidence that these shares were sold to public investors and traded in a type of over-the-counter market in the Forum, near the Temple of Castor and Pollux. The shares fluctuated in value, encouraging the activity of speculators, mere evidence remains of the prices for which partes were sold, the nature of initial public offerings, or a description of stock market behavior. Publicanis lost favor with the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, the first modern IPO occurred in March 1602 when the Dutch East India Company offered shares of the company to the public in order to raise capital. All the shares were tradable, and the shareholders received receipts for the purchase, a share certificate documenting payment and ownership such as we know today was not issued but ownership was instead entered in the companys share register. In the United States, the first IPO was the offering of Bank of North America around 1783. An IPO, therefore, allows a company to tap into a pool of potential investors to provide itself with capital for future growth, repayment of debt. A company selling shares is never required to repay the capital to its public investors. Those investors must endure the unpredictable nature of the market to price. After the IPO, when shares trade freely in the open market, for early private investors who choose to sell shares as part of the IPO process, the IPO represents an opportunity to monetize their investment. This type of offering is not dilutive, since no new shares are being created, once a company is listed, it is able to issue additional common shares in a number of different ways, one of which is the follow-on offering
26.
Goldman Sachs
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Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 and is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, with additional offices in other international financial centers. The firm provides asset management, mergers and acquisitions advice, prime brokerage, and securities underwriting to its clients, which include corporations, governments, and individuals. The firm also engages in making and private equity deals. The loan was made in November 2008 and repaid with interest in June 2009, the list of former employees of Goldman Sachs who moved on to government positions includes former U. S. In addition, former Goldman employees have headed the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank, Goldman Sachs was founded in New York in 1869 by Marcus Goldman. In 1882, Goldmans son-in-law Samuel Sachs joined the firm, in 1885, Goldman took his son Henry and his son-in-law Ludwig Dreyfuss into the business and the firm adopted its present name, Goldman Sachs & Co. The company made a name for itself pioneering the use of paper for entrepreneurs. By 1898, the firms capital stood at $1.6 million, Goldman entered the initial public offering market in 1906 when it took Sears, Roebuck and Company public. The deal occurred due to Henry Goldmans personal friendship with the owner of Sears, other IPOs followed, including F. W. Woolworth and Continental Can. In 1912, Henry S. Bowers became the first non-family member, in 1917, under growing pressure from the other partners in the firm due to his pro-German stance, Henry Goldman resigned. Control of the firm was now in the hands of the Sachs family, waddill Catchings joined the company in 1918. In 1920, the firm moved from 60 Wall Street to $1.5 million 12-story premises on 30–32 Pine Street, by 1928, Catchings was the Goldman partner with the single largest stake in the firm. On December 4,1928, the firm launched the Goldman Sachs Trading Corp. a closed-end fund, the fund failed during the Stock Market Crash of 1929, amid accusations that Goldman had engaged in share price manipulation and insider trading. In 1930, the firm ousted Catchings, and Sidney Weinberg assumed the role of partner and shifted Goldmans focus away from trading. It was Weinbergs actions that helped to some of Goldmans tarnished reputation. On the back of Weinberg, Goldman was lead advisor on the Ford Motor Companys IPO in 1956, under Weinbergs reign the firm also started an investment research division and a municipal bond department. It also was at time that the firm became an early innovator in risk arbitrage. For most of the 1950s and 1960s, this would be Weinberg, Levy was a pioneer in block trading and the firm established this trend under his guidance
27.
Morgan Stanley
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Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. It is headquartered at 1585 Broadway in the Morgan Stanley Building, Midtown Manhattan, with offices in more than 42 countries and more than 55,000 employees, the firms clients include corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. Morgan Stanley, formed by J. P. Morgan & Co, in its first year the company operated with a 24% market share in public offerings and private placements. The main areas of business for the firm today are Institutional Securities, the company operates in three business segments, Institutional Securities, Wealth Management, and Investment Management. Morgan Stanley traces its roots in the history of J. P. Morgan & Co, following the Glass–Steagall Act, it was no longer possible for a corporation to have banking and commercial banking businesses under a single holding entity. J. P. Morgan & Co. chose the commercial banking business over the investment banking business. As a result, some of the employees of J. P. Morgan & Co. most notably Henry S. Morgan and Harold Stanley, left J. P. Morgan & Co. and joined some others from the Drexel partners to form Morgan Stanley. The firm formally opened the doors for business on September 16,1935, at Floor 19,2 Wall Street, within its first year, it achieved 24% market share among public offerings. The firm was involved with the distribution of 1938 US$100 million of debentures for the United States Steel Corporation as the lead underwriter, the firm also obtained the distinction of being the lead syndicate in the 1939 U. S. rail financing. The firm went through a reorganization in 1941 to allow for more activity in its securities business. The firm was led by Perry Hall, the last founder to lead Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley credits itself with having created the first viable computer model for financial analysis in 1962, thereby starting a new trend in the field of financial analysis. Future president and chairman Dick Fisher contributed to the model as a young employee, learning the FORTRAN. In 1967 it established the Morgan & Cie, International in Paris in an attempt to enter the European securities market and it acquired Brooks, Harvey & Co. Inc. in 1967 and established a presence in the real estate business. By 1971 the firm had established its Mergers & Acquisitions business along with Sales & Trading, the sales and trading business is believed to be the brainchild of Bob Baldwin. In 1996 Morgan Stanley acquired Van Kampen American Capital, on February 5,1997 the company merged with Dean Witter Reynolds and Discover & Co. the spun-off financial services business of Sears Roebuck. Dean Witters Chairman and CEO, Philip J. Purcell, held the roles in the newly merged Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Discover & Co. In 1998 the name was changed to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and in late 2001 Dean Witter was dropped, Morgan Stanley had offices located on 24 floors across buildings 2 and 5 of the World Trade Center in New York City. These offices had been inherited from Dean Witter which had occupied the space since the mid-1980s, the firm lost thirteen employees during the September 11 attacks in 2001 in the towers, while 2,687 were successfully evacuated
28.
Government Accountability Office
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The Government Accountability Office is a government agency that provides auditing, evaluation, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the audit institution of the federal government of the United States. The GAO was established as the General Accounting Office by the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. reports recommendations looking to greater economy or efficiency in public expenditures. The name was changed in 2004 to Government Accountability Office by the GAO Human Capital Reform Act to better reflect the mission of the office, while most other countries have government entities similar to the GAO, their focus is primarily on conducting financial audits. The GAOs auditors conduct not only financial audits, but also engage in an assortment of performance audits. News media often draw attention to the GAOs work by publishing stories on the findings, members of Congress also frequently cite the GAOs work in statements to the press, congressional hearings, and floor debates on proposed legislation. The GAO is headed by the general of the U. S. a professional. The comptroller general is appointed by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a 15-year, the president selects a nominee from a list of at least three individuals recommended by an eight-member bipartisan, bicameral commission of congressional leaders. During such term, the general has standing to pursue litigation to compel access to federal agency information. The comptroller general may not be removed by the president, since 1921, there have been only seven comptrollers general, and no formal attempt has ever been made to remove a comptroller general. Labor-management relations became fractious during the 9-year tenure of the 7th comptroller general, on September 19,2007, GAO analysts voted by a margin of two to one, in a 75% turnout, to establish the first union in the GAOs 86-year history. The analysts voted to affiliate with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, there are more than 1,800 analysts in the GAO analysts bargaining unit, the local voted to name itself IFPTE Local 1921, in honor of the date of the GAOs establishment. On February 14,2008, the GAO analysts union approved its first-ever negotiated pay contract with management and these standards pertain to auditors professional qualifications, the quality of audit effort, and the characteristics of professional and meaningful audit reports. In 1992 the GAO hosted XIV INCOSAI, the triennial convention of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. Due to its nature of a specific meta-study, the Ig Nobel Prize motivation described it as a report about the report about reports about reports, GAO often produces highlights of its reports that serve as a statement for the record for various subcommittees of the United States Congress. Many reports are issued periodically and take a view of U. S. agencies operations. GAO also produces annual reports on key issues such as Duplication and Cost savings, the GAO prepares some 900 reports annually. GAO publishes reports and information relating to, inter alia, Each year the GAO issues a report on the financial statements of the United States Government
29.
Tax haven
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A tax haven is a jurisdiction that offers favorable tax or other conditions to its taxpayers as relative to other jurisdictions. There is no accepted definition of what renders a country or jurisdiction a tax haven. The term most commonly refers to countries or jurisdictions that have a low-tax or no-tax regime or which offer generous tax incentives. Some refer to secrecy jurisdictions as an alternative to tax havens to emphasise the element. Earnings from income generated from real estate can also be eliminated in this way, if taxes are paid in the tax haven jurisdiction, companies can avoid taxes in their home jurisdiction because the tax had already been paid in the lower tax rate jurisdiction. The only thing that can be done is picking a country that has the smallest rates on these taxes before buying any real estate, individuals or corporate entities may establish shell subsidiaries or move themselves to areas with reduced or no taxation levels relative to typical international taxation. This creates a situation of tax competition among jurisdictions, different jurisdictions may be havens for different types of taxes, and for different categories of people or companies. Sovereign jurisdictions or self-governing territories under international law have the power to tax laws affecting their territories. A2012 report by the British Tax Justice Network estimated that between US$21 trillion and $32 trillion is sheltered from taxes in unreported tax havens worldwide. If such wealth earns 3% annually and such capital gains were taxed at 30%, if such hidden offshore assets are considered, many countries with governments nominally in debt are shown to be net creditor nations. Another recent study estimated the amount of global offshore wealth at the smaller—but still sizable—figure of US$7.6 trillion and this estimate included financial assets only, My method probably delivers a lower bound, in part because it only captures financial wealth and disregards real assets. After all, high-net-worth individuals can stash works of art, jewelry, and gold in freeports, warehouses that serve as repositories for valuables—Geneva, Luxembourg, high-net-worth individuals also own real estate in foreign countries. A study of 60 large US companies found that they deposited $166 billion in offshore accounts during 2012, there are several definitions of tax havens. In 2002 The Economist adopted the description by Geoffrey Colin Powell, the Economist points out that this definition would still exclude a number of jurisdictions traditionally thought of as tax havens. Similarly, an Australian journalist suggested that any country which modifies its tax laws to attract foreign capital could be considered a tax haven. According to other definitions, the feature of a haven is that its laws. This prevents the transmittance of information about taxpayers who are benefiting from the low tax jurisdiction, lack of transparency – A lack of transparency in the operation of the legislative, legal or administrative provisions is another factor used to identify tax havens. The OECD is concerned that laws should be applied openly and consistently, lack of transparency in one country can make it difficult, if not impossible, for other tax authorities to apply their laws effectively
30.
CNN
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The Cable News Network is an American basic cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. It was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel, upon its launch, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, and was the first all-news television channel in the United States. While the news channel has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from the Time Warner Center in New York City and its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta is only used for weekend programming. CNN is sometimes referred to as CNN/U. S. to distinguish the American channel from its sister network. As of August 2010, CNN is available in over 100 million U. S. households, broadcast coverage of the U. S. channel extends to over 890,000 American hotel rooms, as well as carriage on cable and satellite providers throughout Canada. Globally, CNN programming airs through CNN International, which can be seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories, as of February 2015, CNN is available to about 96,289,000 cable, satellite, and telco television households in the United States. The Cable News Network was launched at 5,00 p. m. Eastern Time on June 1,1980, after an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the channels first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, the vice president of CNN at its launch, hired most of the channels first 200 employees, including the networks first news anchor. Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to a number of cable and satellite providers, several websites. The company has 36 bureaus, more than 900 affiliated local stations, the channels success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for conglomerate Time Warners eventual acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. A companion channel, CNN2, was launched on January 1,1982, on January 28,1986, CNN carried the only live television coverage of the launch and subsequent break-up of Space Shuttle Challenger, which killed all seven crew members on board. On October 14,1987, Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old toddler, fell down a well in Midland, CNN quickly reported on the story, and the event helped make its name. This was before correspondents reported live from the capital while American bombs were falling. Before Saddam Hussein held a press conference with a few of the hundreds of Americans he was holding hostage. Before the nation watched, riveted but powerless, as Los Angeles was looted and burned, before O. J. Simpson took a slow ride in a white Bronco, and before everyone close to his case had an agent and a book contract. This was uncharted territory just a time ago. The moment when bombing began was announced on CNN by Bernard Shaw on January 16,1991, as follows, lets describe to our viewers what were seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated, were seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky
31.
Lou Dobbs
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Louis Carl Lou Dobbs is an American television personality, author, radio host, and anchor of Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox Business Network. He had previously anchored Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN until November 2009, Dobbs was born in Texas and lived there and in Idaho during his childhood. After graduating from Harvard University, he worked in government and banking before becoming a reporter for several local media outlets. He had worked with CNN since its founding in 1980, serving as a reporter and he was the host and managing editor for CNNs Moneyline, which premiered in 1980 and was renamed Lou Dobbs Tonight in 2003. Dobbs resigned from CNN in 1999, rejoined in 2001, in 2011, he resumed anchoring Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox Business Network. He also hosts a radio show, Lou Dobbs Radio and has written several books since 2001. Dobbs describes himself as an independent populist and is known for his opposition to NAFTA, for his reporting, he has won Emmy, Peabody, and Cable ACE awards. Born in Childress County, Texas, Dobbs is the son of Frank Dobbs, a co-owner of a business, and Lydia Mae. When Dobbs was 12, his fathers business failed and the family moved to Rupert. He attended Minico High School in Minidoka County, where he played tackle on the team, played the sousaphone in the band. After graduating, Dobbs worked for federal anti-poverty programs in Boston and Washington and he briefly attended law school at the UI College of Law in Moscow, then worked as a cash-management specialist for Union Bank of California in Los Angeles. He married his school sweetheart in 1969, and in 1970 their first son was born. Dobbs moved to Yuma, Arizona, and got a job as a police, by the mid-1970s he was a television anchor and reporter in Phoenix, and he later joined Seattles KING-TV. In 1979, he was contacted by a recruiter for Ted Turner, Dobbs divorced his first wife in 1981 and is now married to Debi Lee Segura, a former CNN sports anchor. The couple has had four children together, Dobbs resides on a 300-acre horse farm in Wantage Township, New Jersey. Dobbs joined CNN when it launched in 1980, serving as its chief economics correspondent, Dobbs also served as a corporate executive for CNN, as its executive vice president and as a member of CNNs executive committee. He founded CNN fn, serving as its president and anchoring the program Business Unusual, Dobbs repeatedly clashed with Rick Kaplan, who became president of CNN in 1997. Dobbs said Kaplan, noted friend of then president Bill Clinton, was clearly partisan and was pushing Clinton stories, on April 20,1999, CNN was covering Clintons speech in Littleton, Colorado, following the Columbine High School massacre
32.
Tax avoidance
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Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to ones own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. Tax sheltering is very similar, although unlike tax avoidance tax sheltering is not necessarily legal, Tax havens are jurisdictions which facilitate reduced taxes. While forms of tax avoidance which use tax laws in ways not intended by governments may be considered legal, many corporations and businesses which take part in the practice experience a backlash, either from their active customers or online. Since 1995, trillions of dollars have been transferred from OECD, though the specifics may vary according to jurisdiction, these rules invalidate tax avoidance which is technically legal but not for a business purpose or in violation of the spirit of the tax code. Related terms for tax avoidance include tax planning and tax sheltering, Tax evasion, on the other hand, is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Both tax evasion and some forms of tax avoidance can be viewed as forms of tax noncompliance, a company may choose to avoid taxes by establishing their company or subsidiaries in an offshore jurisdiction. Individuals may also avoid tax by moving their tax residence to a tax haven, such as Monaco and they may also reduce their tax by moving to a country with lower tax rates. However, a number of countries tax their citizens on their worldwide income regardless of where they reside. As of 2012, only the United States and Eritrea have such a practice, whilst Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, in cases such as the US, taxation cannot be avoided by simply transferring assets or moving abroad. U. S. citizens therefore cannot avoid U. S. taxes simply by emigrating from the U. S, the 2012 limit on the amount that can be excluded is US$95,100. Most countries impose taxes on income earned or gains realized within that country regardless of the country of residence of the person or firm, to avoid tax, it is usually not enough to simply move ones assets to a tax haven. One must also move to a tax haven to avoid tax. Without changing country of residence, personal taxation may be avoided by the creation of a separate legal entity to which ones property is donated. The separate legal entity is often a company, trust, or foundation and these may also be located offshore, such as in the case of many private foundations. Assets are transferred to the new company or trust so that gains may be realized, or income earned, if assets are later transferred back to an individual, then capital gains taxes would apply on all profits. Also income tax would still be due on any salary or dividend drawn from the legal entity, for a settlor to avoid tax there may be restrictions on the type, purpose and beneficiaries of the trust. For example, the settlor of the trust may not be allowed to be a trustee or even a beneficiary, Tax results depend on definitions of legal terms which are usually vague. For example, vagueness of the distinction between business expenses and personal expenses is of concern for taxpayers and tax authorities
33.
National Health Service
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The National Health Service is the name of the public health services of England, Scotland and Wales, and is commonly used to refer to those of Northern Ireland. They were established together as one of the social reforms following the Second World War on the founding principles of being comprehensive, universal. Today, each provides a range of health services, the vast majority of which are free for people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom. Taken together, the four National Health Services in 2015-16 employed around 1.6 million people with a budget of £136.7 billion. For non-residents, the NHS is free at the time of use, for general practitioner, the NHS began on the Appointed Day of 5 July 1948. This put into practice Westminster legislation for England and Wales from 1946 and Scotland from 1947, when Clement Attlees Labour Party won the 1945 election he appointed Aneurin Bevan as Health Minister. Bevan then embarked upon what the historian of the NHS, Charles Webster. Three years after the founding of the NHS, Bevan resigned from the Labour government in opposition to the introduction of charges for the provision of dentures and glasses, the following year, Winston Churchills Conservative government introduced prescription charges. These charges were the first of many controversies over reforms to the NHS throughout its history, each of the UKs four nations have their own separate NHS, each with its own history. From its earliest days, the history of the NHS has shown its place in British society reflected and debated in film, TV, cartoons. However, some functions might be performed by one health service on behalf of another. There have been issues about cross-border payments, taken together, the four National Health Services in 2015-16 employed around 1.6 million people with a combined budget of £136.7 billion. In 2014 the total health sector workforce across the UK was 2,165,043 and this broke down into 1,789,586 in England,198,368 in Scotland,110,292 in Wales and 66,797 in Northern Ireland. The NHS is free at the time of use, for general practitioner and emergency treatment not including admission to hospital, people with the right to medical care in European Economic Area nations are also entitled to free treatment by using the European Health Insurance Card. Those from other countries with which the UK has reciprocal arrangements also qualify for free treatment, people not ordinarily resident in the UK are in general not entitled to free hospital treatment, with some exceptions such as refugees. People not ordinarily resident may be subject to an interview to establish their eligibility, patients who do not qualify for free treatment are asked to pay in advance, or to sign a written undertaking to pay, except for emergency treatment. The provision of treatment to non-UK-residents, formerly interpreted liberally, has been increasingly restricted. As of 2016 the surcharge was £200 per year, with exemptions and reductions in some cases, the systems are 98. 8% funded from general taxation and National Insurance contributions, plus small amounts from patient charges for some services
34.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
35.
Bermuda
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Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 1,070 km east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina,1,236 km south of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Bermuda is an associate member of Caribbean Community. The first person known to have reached Bermuda was the Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez in 1503 and he claimed the islands for the Spanish Empire. Bermúdez never landed on the islands, but made two visits to the archipelago, of which he created a recognisable map, shipwrecked Portuguese mariners are now thought to have been responsible for the 1543 inscription on Portuguese Rock. Subsequent Spanish or other European parties are believed to have released pigs there, the island was administered as an extension of Virginia by the Company until 1614. Its spin-off, the Somers Isles Company, took over in 1615, at that time, the companys charter was revoked, and the English Crown took over administration. The islands became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the parliaments of Scotland and England, after 1949, when Newfoundland became part of Canada, Bermuda became the oldest remaining British Overseas Territory. Since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, it is the most populous Territory and its first capital, St. Georges, was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World. Bermudas economy is based on insurance and reinsurance, and tourism. Bermuda had one of the worlds highest GDP per capita for most of the 20th century, recently, its economic status has been affected by the global recession. The island is in the belt and prone to severe weather. However, it is protected from the full force of a hurricane by the coral reef that surrounds the island. It is 898 nautical miles northeast of Miami, Florida, and 667 nautical miles from Cape Sable Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada. The islands lie due east of Fripp Island, South Carolina, west-northwest of Cape Verde, southeast of New York City, New York, north-northwest of Brazil and north of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The archipelago is formed by points on the rim of the caldera of a submarine volcano that forms a seamount. The volcano is one part of a range that was formed as part of the process that formed the floor of the Atlantic. It has 103 km of coastline, the two incorporated municipalities in Bermuda are the City of Hamilton and the Town of St George. Bermuda is divided into nine parishes, which have some localities called villages, such as Flatts Village, although usually referred to in the singular, the territory consists of 181 islands, with a total area of 53.3 square kilometres
US$34.85 billion (2017)[4] 
US$4.63 billion (2017)[4]
