1.
Warsaw
–
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world and it was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central Europe. Today Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, an international tourist destination. Warsaws economy, by a variety of industries, is characterised by FMCG manufacturing, metal processing, steel and electronic manufacturing. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is one of the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. It has been said that Warsaw, together with Frankfurt, London, Paris, the city is positioning itself as Eastern Europe’s chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and serious restaurants. The first historical reference to Warsaw dates back to the year 1313, after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Warsaw was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, the city became the capital of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. In accordance with the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, the Russian Empire annexed Warsaw in 1815, only in 1918 did it regain independence from the foreign rule and emerge as a new capital of the independent Republic of Poland. Warsaw gained the title of the Phoenix City because it has survived wars, conflicts. Most notably, the city required painstaking rebuilding after the damage it suffered in World War II. On 9 November 1940, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, the historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period, folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, and his wife, Sawa. According to legend, Sawa was a living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love
Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw
2.
Fiscal year
–
A fiscal year is the period used by governments for accounting and budget purposes, which vary between countries. It is also used for reporting by business and other organizations. Taxation laws generally require accounting records to be maintained and taxes calculated on an annual basis, the calculation of tax on an annual basis is especially relevant for direct taxation, such as income tax. Many annual government fees—such as Council rates, licence fees, etc. —are also levied on a year basis. The fiscal year end is the date marks the end of the fiscal year. Some companies—such as Cisco Systems—end their fiscal year on the day of the week each year. Under such a system, some years will have 52 weeks. Many universities have a year which ends during the summer. In the northern hemisphere this is July to the next June, in the southern hemisphere this is calendar year, January to December. Some media/communication-based organizations use a broadcast calendar as the basis for their fiscal year, the American football league NFL uses the term league year, which in effect forms the leagues fiscal year. In Afghanistan, the year was recently changed from 1 Hamal –29 Hoot to 1 Jadi –30 Qaus. The fiscal year runs with the Afghan calendar, thus resulting in difference of the Gregorian dates once in a four-year span, in Australia, a fiscal year is commonly called a financial year and starts on 1 July and ends on the next 30 June. Financial years are designated by the year of the second half of the period. For example, financial year 2017 is the 12-month period ending on 30 June 2017 and it is used for official purposes, by individual taxpayers and by the overwhelming majority of business enterprises. Business enterprises may opt to use a year that ends at the end of a week. All entities within the one group must use the financial year. The Commonwealth adopted the near-ubiquitous financial year standard since its inception in 1901, the reason given for the change was for convenience, as Parliament typically sits during May and June, while it was difficult for it to meet in November and December to pass a budget. In Austria the fiscal year is the year,1 January to 31 December
Fiscal year
–
Accounting
3.
European Union
–
The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
European Union
–
In 1989, the
Iron Curtain fell, enabling the union to
expand further (
Berlin Wall pictured).
European Union
–
Flag
European Union
–
2009, the
Lisbon Treaty entered into force.
European Union
–
The 65,993 km (41,006 mi) coastline dominates the European climate (
Cyprus).
4.
World Trade Organization
–
The World Trade Organization is an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round. The WTO is attempting to complete negotiations on the Doha Development Round, as of June 2012, the future of the Doha Round remained uncertain, the work programme lists 21 subjects in which the original deadline of 1 January 2005 was missed, and the round is still incomplete. This impasse has made it impossible to launch new WTO negotiations beyond the Doha Development Round, as a result, there have been an increasing number of bilateral free trade agreements between governments. As of July 2012, there were various groups in the WTO system for the current agricultural trade negotiation which is in the condition of stalemate. The WTOs current Director-General is Roberto Azevêdo, who leads a staff of over 600 people in Geneva, a trade facilitation agreement, part of the Bali Package of decisions, was agreed by all members on 7 December 2013, the first comprehensive agreement in the organizations history. Seven rounds of negotiations occurred under GATT, the first real GATT trade rounds concentrated on further reducing tariffs. Then, the Kennedy Round in the mid-sixties brought about a GATT anti-dumping Agreement, because these plurilateral agreements were not accepted by the full GATT membership, they were often informally called codes. Several of these codes were amended in the Uruguay Round, only four remained plurilateral, but in 1997 WTO members agreed to terminate the bovine meat and dairy agreements, leaving only two. Well before GATTs 40th anniversary, its members concluded that the GATT system was straining to adapt to a new globalizing world economy. In response to the problems identified in the 1982 Ministerial Declaration, the GATT still exists as the WTOs umbrella treaty for trade in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations. GATT1994 is not however the only legally binding agreement included via the Final Act at Marrakesh, the highest decision-making body of the WTO is the Ministerial Conference, which usually meets every two years. It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions, the Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements. When agricultural export subsidies were agreed to be phased out and adoption of the European Unions Everything, the WTO launched the current round of negotiations, the Doha Development Round, at the fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. This was to be an effort to make globalization more inclusive and help the worlds poor, particularly by slashing barriers. The initial agenda comprised both further trade liberalization and new rule-making, underpinned by commitments to strengthen substantial assistance to developing countries. Among the various functions of the WTO, these are regarded by analysts as the most important and it provides a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes. Another priority of the WTO is the assistance of developing, least-developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to WTO rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and training
World Trade Organization
–
The economists
Harry White (left) and
John Maynard Keynes at the
Bretton Woods Conference. Both had been strong advocates of a central-controlled international trade environment and recommended the establishment of three institutions: the
IMF (for fiscal and monetary issues); the
World Bank (for financial and structural issues); and the
ITO (for international economic cooperation).
World Trade Organization
–
Members
World Trade Organization
–
During the
Doha Round, the
US government blamed
Brazil and
India for being inflexible and the EU for impeding agricultural imports. The then-
President of Brazil,
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (above right), responded to the criticisms by arguing that progress would only be achieved if the richest countries (especially the US and countries in the EU) made deeper cuts in
agricultural subsidies and further opened their markets for agricultural goods.
World Trade Organization
–
The
World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1998, in the
Palace of Nations (
Geneva,
Switzerland).
5.
Gross domestic product
–
Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
Gross domestic product
–
Selection of GDP PPP data (top 10 countries and blocks) in no particular order
6.
Inflation
–
In economics, inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time resulting in a loss of value of currency. When the price rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods. Consequently, inflation reflects a reduction in the power per unit of money – a loss of real value in the medium of exchange. A chief measure of inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index, usually the consumer price index. The opposite of inflation is deflation, Inflation affects economies in various positive and negative ways. Economists generally believe that high rates of inflation and hyperinflation are caused by a growth of the money supply. However, money supply growth does not necessarily cause inflation, some economists maintain that under the conditions of a liquidity trap, large monetary injections are like pushing on a string. Views on which factors determine low to moderate rates of inflation are more varied, low or moderate inflation may be attributed to fluctuations in real demand for goods and services, or changes in available supplies such as during scarcities. However, the view is that a long sustained period of inflation is caused by money supply growing faster than the rate of economic growth. Today, most economists favor a low and steady rate of inflation, the task of keeping the rate of inflation low and stable is usually given to monetary authorities. Rapid increases in quantity of the money or in the money supply have occurred in many different societies throughout history. By diluting the gold with other metals, the government could issue more coins without also needing to increase the amount of used to make them. When the cost of each coin is lowered in this way and this practice would increase the money supply but at the same time the relative value of each coin would be lowered. As the relative value of the coins becomes lower, consumers would need to give more coins in exchange for the same goods and these goods and services would experience a price increase as the value of each coin is reduced. Song Dynasty China introduced the practice of printing paper money in order to create fiat currency, during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the government spent a great deal of money fighting costly wars, and reacted by printing more money, leading to inflation. Fearing the inflation that plagued the Yuan dynasty, the Ming Dynasty initially rejected the use of paper money, historically, large infusions of gold or silver into an economy also led to inflation. This was largely caused by the influx of gold and silver from the New World into Habsburg Spain. The silver spread throughout a previously cash-starved Europe and caused widespread inflation, demographic factors also contributed to upward pressure on prices, with European population growth after depopulation caused by the Black Death pandemic
Inflation
–
Two 20 kr gold coins from the
Scandinavian Monetary Union, a historical example of an international gold standard.
Inflation
–
Annual inflation rates in the United States from 1666 to 2004.
7.
Consumer price index
–
A consumer price index measures changes in the price level of market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. The CPI is a statistical estimate constructed using the prices of a sample of items whose prices are collected periodically. It is one of several price indices calculated by most national statistical agencies, the annual percentage change in a CPI is used as a measure of inflation. A CPI can be used to index the real value of wages, salaries, pensions, for regulating prices, in most countries, the CPI is, along with the population census one of the most closely watched national economic statistics. Basic types of data that are needed to construct the CPI, price data, the price data are collected for a sample of goods and services from a sample of sales outlets in a sample of locations for a sample of times. The weighting data are estimates of the shares of the different types of expenditure in the total expenditure covered by the index, therefore, the sampling variance cannot be calculated. In any case, an estimate is required in most of the purposes for which the index is used. These indices compare prices each month with prices in the price-reference month and it takes time to assemble and process the information used for weighting which, in addition to household expenditure surveys, may include trade and tax data. Ideally, the weights would relate to the composition of expenditure during the time between the month and the current month. There is a large technical economics literature on index formulae which would approximate this, such an index would show how consumer expenditure would have to move to compensate for price changes so as to allow consumers to maintain a constant standard of living. Approximations can only be computed retrospectively, whereas the index has to appear monthly and, preferably, the coverage of the index may be limited. Saving and investment are always excluded, though the prices paid for services provided by financial intermediaries may be included along with insurance. The index reference period, usually called the year, often differs both from the weight-reference period and the price reference period. This is just a matter of rescaling the whole time-series to make the value for the index reference-period equal to 100. Current Item Price = Base Year Price × Current CPI Base Year CPI or CPI2 CPI1 = Price 2 Price 1 Where 1 is usually the comparison year, alternatively, the CPI can be performed as CPI = updated cost base period cost ×100. The updated cost is divided by that of the initial year, many but not all price indices are weighted averages using weights that sum to 1 or 100. Example, The prices of 85,000 items from 22,000 stores, and 35,000 rental units are added together and averaged. They are weighted this way, Housing,41. 4%, Food and Beverage,17. 4%, Transport,17. 0%, Medical Care,6. 9%, Other,6. 9%, Apparel,6. 0%, Entertainment,4. 4%
Consumer price index
–
A graph of the
US CPI from 1913 to 2014 (in blue), and its percentage annual change (in red)
8.
Gini coefficient
–
The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income or wealth distribution of a nations residents, and is the most commonly used measure of inequality. It was developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini, the Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribution. A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where all values are the same, a Gini coefficient of 1 expresses maximal inequality among values. However, a greater than one may occur if some persons represent negative contribution to the total. For larger groups, values close to or above 1 are very unlikely in practice, the exception to this is in the redistribution of wealth resulting in a minimum income for all people. When the population is sorted, if their distribution were to approximate a well known function. The Gini coefficient was proposed by Gini as a measure of inequality of income or wealth, the global income Gini coefficient in 2005 has been estimated to be between 0.61 and 0.68 by various sources. There are some issues in interpreting a Gini coefficient, the same value may result from many different distribution curves. The demographic structure should be taken into account, Countries with an aging population, or with a baby boom, experience an increasing pre-tax Gini coefficient even if real income distribution for working adults remains constant. Scholars have devised over a dozen variants of the Gini coefficient, the line at 45 degrees thus represents perfect equality of incomes. The Gini coefficient can then be thought of as the ratio of the area lies between the line of equality and the Lorenz curve over the total area under the line of equality. It is also equal to 2A and to 1 - 2B due to the fact that A + B =0.5. If all people have non-negative income, the Gini coefficient can theoretically range from 0 to 1, in practice, both extreme values are not quite reached. If negative values are possible, then the Gini coefficient could theoretically be more than 1, normally the mean is assumed positive, which rules out a Gini coefficient less than zero. An alternative approach would be to consider the Gini coefficient as half of the mean absolute difference. The effects of income policy due to redistribution can be seen in the linear relationships. An informative simplified case just distinguishes two levels of income, low and high, if the high income group is u % of the population and earns a fraction f % of all income, then the Gini coefficient is f − u. An actual more graded distribution with these same values u and f will always have a higher Gini coefficient than f − u, the proverbial case where the richest 20% have 80% of all income would lead to an income Gini coefficient of at least 60%
Gini coefficient
–
Graphical representation of the Gini coefficient The graph shows that the Gini coefficient is equal to the area marked A divided by the sum of the areas marked A and B, that is, Gini = A / (A + B). It is also equal to 2* A due to the fact that A + B = 0.5 (since the axes scale from 0 to 1).
9.
Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
Germany
–
The
Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.
Germany
–
Flag
Germany
–
Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the
Protestant Reformation.
Germany
–
Foundation of the
German Empire in
Versailles, 1871.
Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.
10.
United Kingdom
–
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
United Kingdom
–
Stonehenge, in
Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.
United Kingdom
–
Flag
United Kingdom
–
The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
–
The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
11.
Czech Republic
–
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Czech Republic
–
Přemysl Ottokar II,
King of Bohemia (1253–1278) and
Duke of Austria (1251–1278)
Czech Republic
–
Flag
Czech Republic
–
The
Crown of Saint Wenceslas is the 4th oldest in Europe
Czech Republic
–
The
Defenestration of Prague sparked the
Thirty Years' War
12.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
13.
Italy
–
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
Italy
–
The
Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of
architecture and
engineering of ancient history.
Italy
–
Flag
Italy
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The
Iron Crown of Lombardy, for centuries symbol of the
Kings of Italy.
Italy
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Castel del Monte, built by German Emperor
Frederick II,
UNESCO World Heritage site
14.
Netherlands
–
The Netherlands is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
Netherlands
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The Netherlands in 5500 BC
Netherlands
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Flag
Netherlands
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The Netherlands in 500 BC
Netherlands
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An oak figurine found in
Willemstad, North Brabant (4500 BC).
15.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
China
–
Yinxu, ruins of an ancient
palace dating from the
Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)
China
–
Flag
China
–
Some of the thousands of life-size
Terracotta Warriors of the
Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE
China
–
The
Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the
Chinese interior from incursions by
nomadic pastoralists of the northern
steppes.
16.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
Russia
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Kievan Rus' in the 11th century
Russia
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Flag
Russia
–
The
Baptism of Kievans, by
Klavdy Lebedev
Russia
–
Sergius of Radonezh blessing
Dmitry Donskoy in
Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the
Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by
Ernst Lissner
17.
Foreign direct investment
–
A foreign direct investment is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from foreign investment by a notion of direct control. Broadly, foreign direct investment includes mergers and acquisitions, building new facilities, reinvesting profits earned from overseas operations and intra company loans. In a narrow sense, foreign direct investment refers just to building new facility, FDI is the sum of equity capital, other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown the balance of payments. FDI usually involves participation in management, joint-venture, transfer of technology, stock of FDI is the net cumulative FDI for any given period. Direct investment excludes investment through purchase of shares, FDI is one example of international factor movements. A foreign direct investment is an ownership in a business enterprise in one country by an entity based in another country. Foreign direct investment is distinguished from foreign investment, a passive investment in the securities of another country such as public stocks and bonds. Moreover, control of technology, management, even crucial inputs can confer de facto control, for example, Joe S. Bain only explained the internationalization challenge through three main principles, absolute cost advantages, product differentiation advantages and economies of scale. Furthermore, the theories were created under the assumption of the existence of perfect competition. Facing the challenges of his predecessors, Hymer focused his theory on filling the gaps regarding international investment, the theory proposed by the author approaches international investment from a different and more firm-specific point of view. Furthermore, Hymer proceeds to criticize the neoclassical theories, stating that the theory of capital movements cannot explain international production. Moreover, he clarifies that FDI is not necessarily a movement of funds from a country to a host country. In contrast, if interest rates were the motive for international investment. Another observation made by Hymer went against what was maintained by the neoclassical theories, in fact, foreign direct investment can be financed through loans obtained in the host country, payments in exchange for equity, and other methods. Further studies attempted to explain how firms could monetize these advantages in the form of licenses, removal of conflicts, conflict arises if a firm is already operating in foreign market or looking to expand its operations within the same market. He proposes that the solution for this hurdle arose in the form of collusion, however, it must be taken into account that a reduction in conflict through acquisition of control of operations will increase the market imperfections. The extent to which a company can mitigate risk depends on how well a firm can formulate an internationalization strategy taking these levels of decision into account
Foreign direct investment
–
FDI of RF 1994-2012
Foreign direct investment
–
Main item of inflow investment in Russian Federation
18.
External debt
–
External debt is the total debt a country owes to foreign creditors, complemented by internal debt owed to domestic lenders. The debtors can be the government, corporations or citizens of that country, the debt includes money owed to private commercial banks, other governments, or international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Note that the use of gross liability figures greatly distorts the ratio for countries which contain major money centers such as the United Kingdom due to Londons role as a financial capital, contrast with net international investment position. In this definition, the IMF defines the key elements as follows, Outstanding, principal and interest When the cost of borrowing is paid periodically, as commonly occurs, it is known as an interest payment. All other payments of economic value by the debtor to the creditor that reduce the amount outstanding are known as principal payments. However, the definition of external debt does not distinguish between principal payments or interest payments, or payments for both, also, the definition does not specify that the timing of the future payments of principal and/or interest need be known for a liability to be classified as debt. Residence To qualify as external debt, the debt liabilities must be owed by a resident to a nonresident, residence is determined by where the debtor and creditor have their centers of economic interest—typically, where they are ordinarily located—and not by their nationality. Current and not contingent Contingent liabilities are not included in the definition of external debt and these are defined as arrangements under which one or more conditions must be fulfilled before a financial transaction takes place. Generally, external debt is classified into four heads, public and publicly guaranteed debt, private non-guaranteed credits, central bank deposits, however, the exact treatment varies from country to country. External-debt-sustainability analysis is conducted in the context of medium-term scenarios. In these analysis, macroeconomic uncertainties, such as the outlook for the current account, high external debt is believed to be harmful for the economy. There are various indicators for determining a sustainable level of external debt, while each has its own advantage and peculiarity to deal with particular situations, there is no unanimous opinion amongst economists as to a sole indicator. These indicators are primarily in the nature of ratios—i. e, comparison between two heads and the relation thereon and thus facilitate the policy makers in their external debt management exercise. Examples of debt burden indicators include the Debt-to-GDP ratio, foreign debt to exports ratio and this set of indicators also covers the structure of the outstanding debt, including, Share of foreign debt, Short-term debt, and Concessional debt in the total debt stock. A second set of indicators focuses on the short-term liquidity requirements of the country with respect to its service obligations. These indicators are not only useful early-warning signs of service problems. The dynamic ratios show how the debt-burden ratios would change in the absence of repayments or new disbursements, an example of a dynamic ratio is the ratio of the average interest rate on outstanding debt to the growth rate of nominal GDP
External debt
19.
List of countries by public debt
–
This is a list of countries by public debt to GDP ratio as listed by Eurostat for the EU and by CIAs World Factbook 2012 for the rest of the world. It is the total of all government borrowings less repayments that are denominated in a countrys home currency. Gross government debt is the most relevant data for discussions of government default and it is different from external debt, which includes the foreign currency liabilities of non-government entities. The figures here are represented as a percentage of gross domestic product. The public debt relative information provided by national sources is not always objective and true, note that net debt figures are included where gross debt figures are unavailable in the CIA set
List of countries by public debt
–
Total (gross) government debt as a percent of
GDP by IMF (2012)
List of countries by public debt
–
Public debt as a percent of
GDP by CIA (2012)
20.
Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund
–
The Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund are financial tools set up to implement the regional policy of the European Union. They aim to reduce disparities in income, wealth and opportunities. Europes poorer regions receive most of the support, but all European regions are eligible for funding under the various funds. The current Regional Policy framework is set for a period of seven years, the Structural Funds are made up of the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund. Together with the Common Agricultural Policy, the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund make up the bulk of EU funding. Apart from funds under the Cohesion policy, there are funds that have the potential to contribute to the regional development. The Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund make up one of the largest items of the budget of the European Union, sections below present information about objectives that have been defined for the current programming period, which runs from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013. The overall budget for this period is €347bn, €201bn for the European Regional Development Fund, €76bn for the European Social Fund, the objectives setup shapes the main focus of interventions and the overall allocations of funds from the EU budget. The key indicator for the division of regions under singular objectives is the Gross National Product per capita level and this is subject to criticism based on the fact that GDP p. c. is unable to reflect the real socio-economic reality of regions. Some groups and organisations propose the creation of a set of indicators that could substitute the GDP. This objective covers regions whose GDP per capita is below 75% of the EU average and it is financed by the ERDF, the ESF and the Cohesion Fund. The priorities under this objective are human and physical capital, innovation, knowledge society, environment, the budget allocated to this objective is €283. 3bn in current prices. This objective covers all regions of the EU territory, except those already covered by the Convergence objective and it aims at reinforcing competitiveness, employment and attractiveness of these regions. Innovation, the promotion of entrepreneurship and environment protection are the themes of this objective. The funding – €55bn in current prices – comes from the ERDF, regions and cities from different Member States are encouraged to work together, learning from each other and developing joint projects and networks. With the Convergence Objective and the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective it aims at contributing to reduce regional disparities across Unions territory, history The European Territorial Cooperation Objective replaced the previous INTERREG Community Initiative and thus many European Territorial Cooperation programmes bear the name INTERREG. The Single European Act, that entered into force in 1987, institutionalised the goal of completing the internal market with a total borders opening, Regional competition would be tighter and a Cohesion Policy was needed to mitigate the negative side effects of market unification. The objectives were created to discipline the capture of funds in terms of economic
Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund
–
Less developed regions
21.
List of countries by credit rating
–
The ratings of DBRS, China Chengxin Credit Rating Group, Dagong and JCR are also included. The list also includes all country subdivisions issuing sovereign bonds, but it excludes regions, for S&P, a bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is BBB- or higher. Bonds rated BB+ and below are considered to be speculative grade, for Fitch, a bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is BBB- or higher. Bonds rated BB+ and below are considered to be speculative grade, for Moodys, a bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is Baa3 or higher. Bonds rated Ba1 and below are considered to be speculative grade, for DBRS, a bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is BBB or higher. Bonds rated BB and below are considered to be speculative grade, Japan Credit Rating Agency is a credit rating agency based in Japan. JCR is a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization by the U. S. Securities, Dagong is a credit rating agency based in China. Bond credit rating United States federal government credit-rating downgrades
List of countries by credit rating
–
Financial ratings of European States by Standard & Poor's (foreign currency) on 14 July 2015
22.
Fitch Group
–
Fitch Ratings Inc. is one of the Big Three credit rating agencies, the other two being Moodys and Standard & Poors. It is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations designated by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1975, Fitch Ratings is dual-headquartered in New York, USA, and London, UK. Hearst owns 80% of the company following its acquisition of an additional 30 percent interest in global ratings agency Fitch Group on December 12,2014, the transaction was valued at $1.965 billion. Hearst’s previous equity interest was 50% following expansions on an acquisition on 2006. The remaining 20% of Fitch is owned by FIMALAC SA, fimalac will hold 50% of votes within that Board until 2020. Fitch Ratings and Fitch Solutions are part of the Fitch Group, the firm was founded by John Knowles Fitch on December 24,1914 in New York City as the Fitch Publishing Company. It merged with London-based IBCA Limited in December 1997, in 2000 Fitch acquired both Chicago-based Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. and Thomson Financial BankWatch. In September 2011, Fitch Group announced the sale of Algorithmics to IBM for $387 million, the deal closed on October 21,2011. Fitch Ratings long-term credit ratings are assigned on a scale from AAA to D, first introduced in 1924. Like S&P, Fitch also uses intermediate +/− modifiers for each category between AA and CCC, launched in 2008, Fitch Solutions offers a range of fixed-income products and professional development services for financial professionals. The firm also distributes Fitch Ratings proprietary credit ratings, research, financial data, for instance, losses on $340.7 million worth of collateralized debt obligations issued by Credit Suisse Group added up to about $125 million, despite being rated AAA by Fitch. However, differently from the agencies, Fitch has been warning the market on the constant proportion debt obligations with an early. FIMALAC Kroll Bond Rating Agency List of countries by credit rating Moodys Investors Service Spread Research Standard and Poors Fitch Ratings Fitch Solutions Fitch Learning U. S. Credit, Fitch Ratings
Fitch Group
–
Fitch Ratings Inc.
23.
United States dollar
–
The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
United States dollar
–
Series of 1917
$1 United States bill
United States dollar
–
Federal Reserve Notes
United States dollar
–
Spanish silver real or
peso of 1768
United States dollar
–
Obverse of rare 1934 $500 Federal Reserve Note, featuring a portrait of President
William McKinley.
24.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
Poland
–
Reconstruction of a
Bronze Age,
Lusatian culture settlement in
Biskupin, c. 700 BC
Poland
–
Flag
Poland
–
Earliest known contemporary depiction of a Polish ruler; King
Mieszko II Lambert of Poland being presented with a
Liturgical book by
Matilda of Swabia, 1025–1031
Poland
–
Drawing of the
Battle of Grunwald, which was fought against the
German Order of Teutonic Knights, 15 July 1410
25.
Eastern Bloc
–
The Eastern Bloc was the group of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact. The terms Communist Bloc and Soviet Bloc were also used to denote groupings of states aligned with the Soviet Union, although these terms might include states outside Central and Eastern Europe. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who viewed the Soviet Union as a socialist island, Eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Bessarabia in northern Romania were recognized as parts of the Soviet sphere of influence. Lithuania was added in a secret protocol in September 1939. During the Occupation of East Poland by the Soviet Union, the Soviets liquidated the Polish state, Soviet authorities immediately started a campaign of sovietization of the newly Soviet-annexed areas. Soviet authorities collectivized agriculture, and nationalized and redistributed private and state-owned Polish property, the international community condemned this initial annexation of the Baltic states and deemed it illegal. In June 1941, Germany broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact by invading the Soviet Union, from the time of this invasion to 1944, the areas annexed by the Soviet Union were part of Germanys Ostland. Thereafter, the Soviet Union began to push German forces westward through a series of battles on the Eastern Front, from 1943 to 1945, several conferences regarding Post-War Europe occurred that, in part, addressed the potential Soviet annexation and control of countries in Central Europe. I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he wont try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace. While meeting with Stalin and Roosevelt in Tehran in 1943, Churchill stated that Britain was vitally interested in restoring Poland as an independent country, Britain did not press the matter for fear that it would become a source of inter-allied friction. In February 1945, at the conference at Yalta, Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of influence in Central Europe. Stalin eventually was convinced by Churchill and Roosevelt not to dismember Germany, after resistance by Churchill and Roosevelt, Stalin promised a re-organization of the current pro-Soviet government on a broader democratic basis in Poland. He stated that the new primary task would be to prepare elections. In addition to reparations, Stalin pushed for war booty, which would permit the Soviet Union to directly seize property from conquered nations without quantitative or qualitative limitation, a clause was added permitting this to occur with some limitations. At first, the Soviets concealed their role in other Eastern Bloc politics, as a young communist was told in East Germany, its got to look democratic, but we must have everything in our control. Moscow-trained cadres were put into crucial power positions to fulfill orders regarding sociopolitical transformation, elimination of the bourgeoisies social and financial power by expropriation of landed and industrial property was accorded absolute priority. These measures were publicly billed as reforms rather than socioeconomic transformations, the bloc system permitted the Soviet Union to exercise domestic control indirectly. Crucial departments such as responsible for personnel, general police, secret police
Eastern Bloc
–
The Big Three:
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Premier of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin at the
Yalta Conference, February 1945.
Eastern Bloc
–
Political situation in Europe during the
Cold War
Eastern Bloc
–
World War II Polish Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk fled Poland in 1947 after facing arrest and persecution.
Eastern Bloc
–
Germans watching Western supply planes at
Berlin Tempelhof Airport during the
Berlin Airlift.
26.
World Bank high-income economy
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A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with a gross national income per capita above US$12,475 in 2015, calculated using the Atlas method. While the term high-income is often used interchangeably with First World and developed country, the term first world commonly refers to countries that aligned themselves with the U. S. and NATO during the cold war. According to the United Nations, for example, some countries may also be developing countries. The GCC countries, for example, are classified as developing high-income countries, thus, a high-income country may be classified as either developed or developing. Although the Holy See is a state, it is not classified by the World Bank under this definition. According to the World Bank the following 79 countries are classified as high-income economies, in parenthesis the year during which they held such classification. American Samoa Argentina Equatorial Guinea Mayotte Netherlands Antilles a Russia Venezuela a Dissolved on 10 October 2010, succeeded by Curaçao and Sint Maarten. b Between 1994 and 2009, as part of the Netherlands Antilles. The high-income threshold was set in 1989 at US$6,000 in 1987 prices. Thresholds for subsequent years were adjusted taking into account the average inflation in the G-5 countries, and from 2001, that of Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, thus, the thresholds remain constant in real terms over time. To ensure no country falls right on the threshold, country data are rounded to the nearest 10, the following table shows the high-income threshold from 1987 onwards. Countries with a GNI per capita above this threshold are classified by the World Bank as high-income economies, high income OECD country Developed country Developing country Least developed country North–South divide
World Bank high-income economy
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World map of high-income economies.
27.
Central Statistical Office (Poland)
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The president of GUS reports directly to the Prime Minister of Poland and is considered the equivalent of a Polish government minister. GUS was organized in 1918 by Ludwik Krzywicki, one of the most notable sociologists of his time, inactive during World War II, GUS was reorganized in 1945. The office is divided into separate branches, each responsible for a different set of data. Notable GUS publications include Rocznik Statystyczny, Mały Rocznik Statystyczny, and Wiadomości Statystyczne
Central Statistical Office (Poland)
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Main building of the Central Statistical Office,
Warsaw
Central Statistical Office (Poland)
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Krzywicki
28.
Second Polish Republic
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The Second Polish Republic, also known as the Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland between the First and Second World Wars. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland and it had access to the Baltic Sea via a short strip of coastline either side of the city of Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian governorate of Subcarpathia, the Second Republic was significantly different in territory to the current Polish state. It included substantially more territory in the east and less in the west, the Second Republics land area was 388,634 km2, making it, in October 1938, the sixth largest country in Europe. After the annexation of Zaolzie, this grew to 389,720 km2, according to the 1921 census, the number of inhabitants was 27.2 million. By 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, almost a third of population came from minority groups,13. 9% Ukrainians, 10% Jews,3. 1% Belarusians,2. 3% Germans and 3. 4% Czechs, Lithuanians and Russians. At the same time, a significant number of ethnic Poles lived outside the country borders, Poland maintained a slow but steady level of economic development. By 1939, the Republic had become one of Europes major powers, the victorious Allies of World War I confirmed the rebirth of Poland in the Treaty of Versailles of June 1919. It was one of the stories of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Poland solidified its independence in a series of wars fought by the newly formed Polish Army from 1918 to 1921. The extent of the half of the interwar territory of Poland was settled diplomatically in 1922. In the course of World War I, Germany gradually gained overall dominance on the Eastern Front as the Imperial Russian Army fell back, German and Austro-Hungarian armies seized the Russian-ruled part of what became Poland. In a failed attempt to resolve the Polish question as quickly as possible, Berlin set up a German puppet state on 5 November 1916, with a governing Provisional Council of State, the Council administered the country under German auspices, pending the election of a king. A month before Germany surrendered on 11 November 1918 and the war ended, the Regency Council had dissolved the Council of State, with the notable exception of the Marxist-oriented Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, most Polish political parties supported this move. On 23 October the Regency Council appointed a new government under Józef Świeżyński, in 1918–1919, over 100 workers councils sprang up on Polish territories, on 5 November 1918, in Lublin, the first Soviet of Delegates was established. On 6 November socialists proclaimed the Republic of Tarnobrzeg at Tarnobrzeg in Austrian Galicia, the same day the Socialist, Ignacy Daszyński, set up a Provisional Peoples Government of the Republic of Poland in Lublin. On Sunday,10 November at 7 a. m, Józef Piłsudski, newly freed from 16 months in a German prison in Magdeburg, returned by train to Warsaw. Piłsudski, together with Colonel Kazimierz Sosnkowski, was greeted at Warsaws railway station by Regent Zdzisław Lubomirski, next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski as Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces
Second Polish Republic
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Physical map of the Second Polish Republic (1939)
Second Polish Republic
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Flag
Second Polish Republic
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Józef Piłsudski,
Chief of State (Naczelnik Państwa) between November 1918 and December 1922
Second Polish Republic
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Edward Rydz-Śmigły receiving a
Marshal 's
buława from then-
President of Poland Ignacy Mościcki, Warsaw, 10 November 1936
29.
Global recession of 2009
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The Great Recession was a period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country, in terms of overall impact, the International Monetary Fund concluded that it was the worst global recession since World War II. According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research the recession, as experienced in that country, began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, the Great Recession was related to the financial crisis of 2007–08 and U. S. subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–09. The Great Recession has resulted in the scarcity of valuable assets in the market economy, under the academic definition, the recession ended in the United States in June or July 2009. In the broader, lay sense of the word however, many use the term to refer to ongoing hardship. The Great Recession met the IMF criteria for being a recession, requiring a decline in annual real world GDP per‑capita. According to the U. S. National Bureau of Economic Research the recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, the years leading up to the crisis were characterized by an exorbitant rise in asset prices and associated boom in economic demand. Further, the U. S. shadow banking system had grown to rival the depository system yet was not subject to the regulatory oversight. US mortgage-backed securities, which had risks that were hard to assess, were marketed around the world, the emergence of sub-prime loan losses in 2007 began the crisis and exposed other risky loans and over-inflated asset prices. With loan losses mounting and the fall of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008, the global recession that followed resulted in a sharp drop in international trade, rising unemployment and slumping commodity prices. Several economists predicted that recovery might not appear until 2011 and that the recession would be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Economist Paul Krugman once commented on this as seemingly the beginning of a second Great Depression. Governments and central banks responded with fiscal and monetary policies to national economies. The recession has renewed interest in Keynesian economic ideas on how to combat recessionary conditions, economists advise that the stimulus should be withdrawn as soon as the economies recover enough to chart a path to sustainable growth. Income inequality in the United States has grown from 2005 to 2012 in more than 2 out of 3 metropolitan areas, median household wealth fell 35% in the US, from $106,591 to $68,839 between 2005 and 2011. The majority report of the U. S, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, composed of six Democratic and four Republican appointees, reported its findings in January 2011. There were two Republican dissenting FCIC reports, one of them, signed by three Republican appointees, concluded that there were multiple causes. He wrote, When the bubble began to deflate in mid-2007, There are several narratives attempting to place the causes of the recession into context, with overlapping elements. Four such narratives include, There was the equivalent of a run on the shadow banking system
Global recession of 2009
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Relationship between fiscal tightening (austerity) in
Eurozone countries with their GDP growth rate, 2008–2012
Global recession of 2009
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Countries by real GDP growth rate in 2014 (Countries in red were in recession).
30.
Financial regulation
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This may be handled by either a government or non-government organization. Financial regulation has also influenced the structure of banking sectors, by decreasing borrowing costs, reduction of financial crime – reducing the extent to which it is possible for a regulated business to be used for a purpose connected with financial crime. Regulating foreign participation in the financial markets, ati mathunzi // sup // Acts empower organizations, government or non-government, to monitor activities and enforce actions. There are various setups and combinations in place for the regulatory structure around the global. Leaf parts are in any case, Exchange acts ensure that trading on the exchanges is conducted in a proper manner, most prominent the pricing process, execution and settlement of trades, direct and efficient trade monitoring. Financial regulators ensure that companies and market participants comply with various regulations under the trading acts. The trading acts demands that listed companies publish regular financial reports, whereas market participants are required to Publish major shareholder notifications. Asset management supervision or investment acts ensures the frictionless operation of those vehicles, Banking acts lay down rules for banks which they have to observe when they are being established and when they are carrying on their business. These rules are designed to prevent unwelcome developments that might disrupt the functioning of the banking system. Thus ensuring a strong and efficient banking system, the following is a short listing of regulatory authorities in various jurisdictions, for a more complete listing, please see list of financial regulatory authorities by country. Sometimes more than one institution regulates and supervises the banking market, normally because, apart from regulatory authorities, the Eurozone countries are forming a Single Supervisory Mechanism under the European Central Bank as a prelude to Banking union. There are also associations of financial regulatory authorities, in essence, they forced European banks, and, more importantly, the European Central Bank itself e. g. Pr. ISBN 978-0-691-15264-6 Simpson, D. Meeks, G. Klumpes, P. & Andrews, some cost-benefit issues in financial regulation
Financial regulation
$1.114 trillion (PPP, 2017 est.)[2]
5.4% (Eurostat, January 2017)[6]
Germany 27.1%
United Kingdom 6.7%
Czech Republic 6.6%
France 5.5%
Italy 4.8%
Netherlands 4.4%
China 11.6%
Russia 7.3%
$194.9 (31 December 2012 est.)
![[2]](http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/File:Unemployment_rates,_seasonally_adjusted,_October_2015.png){kind=link}
