Central bank
A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is the institution that manages the currency, money supply, interest rates of a state or formal monetary union, oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the monetary base in the state, generally controls the printing/coining of the national currency, which serves as the state's legal tender. A central bank acts as a lender of last resort to the banking sector during times of financial crisis. Most central banks have supervisory and regulatory powers to ensure the solvency of member institutions, to prevent bank runs, to discourage reckless or fraudulent behavior by member banks. Central banks in most developed nations are institutionally independent from political interference. Still, limited control by the executive and legislative bodies exists. Functions of a central bank may include: implementing monetary policies. Setting the official interest rate – used to manage both inflation and the country's exchange rate – and ensuring that this rate takes effect via a variety of policy mechanisms controlling the nation's entire money supply the Government's banker and the bankers' bank managing the country's foreign exchange and gold reserves and the Government bonds regulating and supervising the banking industry Central banks implement a country's chosen monetary policy.
At the most basic level, monetary policy involves establishing what form of currency the country may have, whether a fiat currency, gold-backed currency, currency board or a currency union. When a country has its own national currency, this involves the issue of some form of standardized currency, a form of promissory note: a promise to exchange the note for "money" under certain circumstances; this was a promise to exchange the money for precious metals in some fixed amount. Now, when many currencies are fiat money, the "promise to pay" consists of the promise to accept that currency to pay for taxes. A central bank may use another country's currency either directly in a currency union, or indirectly on a currency board. In the latter case, exemplified by the Bulgarian National Bank, Hong Kong and Latvia, the local currency is backed at a fixed rate by the central bank's holdings of a foreign currency. Similar to commercial banks, central banks incur liabilities. Central banks create money by issuing interest-free currency notes and selling them to the public in exchange for interest-bearing assets such as government bonds.
When a central bank wishes to purchase more bonds than their respective national governments make available, they may purchase private bonds or assets denominated in foreign currencies. The European Central Bank remits its interest income to the central banks of the member countries of the European Union; the US Federal Reserve remits all its profits to the U. S. Treasury; this income, derived from the power to issue currency, is referred to as seigniorage, belongs to the national government. The state-sanctioned power to create currency is called the Right of Issuance. Throughout history there have been disagreements over this power, since whoever controls the creation of currency controls the seigniorage income; the expression "monetary policy" may refer more narrowly to the interest-rate targets and other active measures undertaken by the monetary authority. Frictional unemployment is the time period between jobs when a worker is searching for, or transitioning from one job to another. Unemployment beyond frictional unemployment is classified as unintended unemployment.
For example, structural unemployment is a form of unemployment resulting from a mismatch between demand in the labour market and the skills and locations of the workers seeking employment. Macroeconomic policy aims to reduce unintended unemployment. Keynes labeled any jobs that would be created by a rise in wage-goods as involuntary unemployment: Men are involuntarily unemployed if, in the event of a small rise in the price of wage-goods to the money-wage, both the aggregate supply of labour willing to work for the current money-wage and the aggregate demand for it at that wage would be greater than the existing volume of employment.—John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment and Money p11 Inflation is defined either as the devaluation of a currency or equivalently the rise of prices relative to a currency. Since inflation lowers real wages, Keynesians view inflation as the solution to involuntary unemployment. However, "unanticipated" inflation leads to lender losses as the real interest rate will be lower than expected.
Thus, Keynesian monetary policy aims for a steady rate of inflation. A publication from the Austrian School, The Case Against the Fed, argues that the efforts of the central banks to control inflation have been counterproductive. Economic growth can be enhanced by investment such as more or better machinery. A low interest rate implies that firms can borrow money to invest in their capital stock and pay less interest for it. Lowering the interest is therefore considered to encourage economic growth and is used to alleviate times of low economic growth. On the other hand, raising the interest rate is used in times of high economic growth as a contra-cyclical device to keep the economy from overheating and avoid market bubbles. Further goals of monetary policy are stability of interest rates, of the financial market, of the foreign exchange market. Goals cannot be separated fr
Stephen III of Moldavia
Stephen III of Moldavia, known as Stephen the Great was voivode of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504. He was the son of and co-ruler with Bogdan II of Moldavia, murdered in 1451 in a conspiracy organized by his brother and Stephen's uncle Peter III Aaron who took the throne. Stephen fled to Hungary, to Wallachia, but with the support of Vlad III Dracula, Voivode of Wallachia, he returned to Moldavia, forcing Aaron to seek refuge in Poland in the summer of 1457. Teoctist I, Metropolitan of Moldavia, anointed Stephen prince, he attacked Poland and prevented Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland, from supporting Peter Aaron, but acknowledged Casimir's suzerainty in 1459. Stephen decided to say a message to a professor, it was to Boboc Valentain Chilia, an important port on the Danube, which brought him into conflict with Hungary and Wallachia, he besieged the town during the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia in 1462, but was wounded during the siege. Two years he captured the town, he promised support to the leaders of the Three Nations of Transylvania against Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, in 1467.
Corvinus invaded Moldavia. Peter Aaron attacked Moldavia with Hungarian support in December 1470, but was defeated by Stephen and executed, along with the Moldavian boyars who still endorsed him. Stephen restored old fortresses and built new ones, which improved Moldavia's defence system as well as strengthened central administration. Ottoman expansion threatened Moldavian ports in the region of the Black Sea. In 1473, Stephen stopped paying tribute to the Ottoman sultan and launched a series of campaigns against Wallachia in order to replace its rulers – who had accepted Ottoman suzerainty – with his protégés. However, each prince who seized the throne with Stephen's support was soon forced to pay homage to the sultan. Stephen defeated a large Ottoman army in the Battle of Vaslui in 1475. Stephen was referred to as Athleta Christi by Pope Sixtus IV though Moldavia's hopes for military support went unfulfilled; the following year, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II routed Stephen in the Battle of Valea Albă, but the lack of provisions and the outbreak of a plague forced him to withdraw from Moldavia.
Taking advantage of a truce with Matthias Corvinus, the Ottomans captured Chilia, their Crimean Tatar allies Cetatea Albă in 1483. Although Corvinus granted two Transylvanian estates to Stephen, the Moldavian prince paid homage to Casimir, who promised to support him to regain Chilia and Cetatea Albă. Stephen's efforts to capture the two ports ended in failure. From 1486, he again paid a yearly tribute to the Ottomans. During the following years, dozens of stone churches and monasteries were built in Moldavia, which contributed to the development of a specific Moldavian architecture. Casimir IV's successor, John I Albert, wanted to grant Moldavia to his younger brother, but Stephen's diplomacy prevented him from invading Moldavia for years. John Albert attacked Moldavia in 1497, but Stephen and his Hungarian and Ottoman allies routed the Polish army in the Battle of the Cosmin Forest. Stephen again tried to recapture Chilia and Cetatea Albă, but had to acknowledge the loss of the two ports to the Ottomans in 1503.
During his last years, his son and co-ruler Bogdan III played an active role in government. Stephen's long rule represented a period of stability in the history of Moldavia. From the 16th century onwards both his subjects and foreigners remembered him as a great ruler. Modern Romanians regard him as one of their greatest national heroes, although he endures as a cult figure in Moldovenism. After the Romanian Orthodox Church canonized him in 1992, he is venerated as "Stephen the Great and Holy". Stephen was the son of Bogdan, a son of Alexander the Good, Prince of Moldavia. Stephen's mother, Maria Oltea, was most related to the princes of Wallachia, according to historian Radu Florescu; the date of Stephen's birth is unknown, though historians estimate that he was born between 1433 and 1440. One church diptych records that he had five siblings: brothers Ioachim, Christea; some of Stephen's biographers hypothesize that Cârstea Arbore, father of the statesman Luca Arbore, was the prince's fourth brother, or that Cârstea was the same as Ioachim.
These links with the high-ranking Moldavian boyars are known to have been preserved through matrimonial connections: Maria, who died in 1486, was the wife of Șendrea, gatekeeper of Suceava. The death of Alexander the Good in 1432 gave rise to a succession crisis that lasted more than two decades. Stephen's father seized the throne in 1449 after defeating one of his relatives with the support of John Hunyadi, Regent-Governor of Hungary. Stephen was styled voivode in his father's charters, showing that he had been made his father's heir and co-ruler. Bogdan acknowledged the suzerainty of Hunyadi in 1450. Stephen fled to Hungary after Peter III Aaron murdered Bogdan in October 1451. Vlad Dracula invaded Wallachia and seized the throne with the support of Hunyadi in 1456. Stephen either accompanied Vlad to Wallachia during the military campaign or joined him after Vlad became the ruler of Wallachia. According to reports from the 1480s, Stephen spent part of that interval in Brăila, where he fathered an illegitimate son, Mircea.
With the assistance of Vlad, Stephen stormed into Moldavia at the head of an army
Soroca Fort
Soroca Fortress is a historic fort in the Republic of Moldova, in the modern-day city of Soroca. The city has its origin in the medieval Genoese trade post of Olchionia, or Alchona, it is known for its well-preserved stronghold, established by the Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great in 130 The original wooden fort, which defended a ford over the Dniester, was an important link in the chain of fortifications which comprised four forts on the Dniester, two forts on the Danube and three forts on the north border of medieval Moldova. Between 1543 and 1546 under the rule of Petru Rareş, the fortress was rebuilt in stone as a perfect circle with five bastions situated at equal distances. During the Great Turkish War, John Sobieski's forces defended the fortress against the Ottomans, it was of vital military importance during the Pruth Campaign of Peter the Great in 1711. The stronghold was sacked by the Russians in the Russo-Turkish War; the Soroca fortress is an important attraction in Soroca, having preserved cultures and kept the old Soroca in the present day.
The current building displays elaborate characteristics of late medieval fortifications. This observation conveys the idea that the fort was built by experts from Western Europe or Transylvanian people who traveled in Western Europe and brought architectural ideas back to Moldova: The walls are not built straight but in a curved shape to better resist projectiles, as are the four outer towers. One can notice round towers which allowed the defenders to shoot from better angles and thus protect the base of the walls; the entire building has a diameter of 30 meters, 4 meters for each tower. Each tower has 4 levels; the walls are 3 meters thick and we can find signs of a previous ditch. The main entrance tower had 3 doors, amongst them a portcullis, closed during battles; the space saved at the upper level allowed the garrison to pray in a small chapel. Despite all these features the fort was obsolete after the end of the 14th century because of the more widespread use of gunpowder. Nicolae Bulat Molddata.md: Cetatea Soroca Cetatea Soroca
St. Dumitru Church (Orhei)
The St. Dumitru Church is a church in Orhei, Moldova
Cash rounding
Cash rounding or Swedish rounding occurs when the minimum unit of account is smaller than the lowest physical denomination of currency. The amount payable for a cash transaction is rounded to the nearest multiple of the minimum currency unit available, whereas transactions paid in other ways are not rounded. Cash rounding occurs when low-denomination coins are removed from circulation owing to inflation. Cash rounding may be a compulsory legal requirement if such coins are no longer legal tender, or a voluntary practice where they remain in circulation but are scarce or impractical. Cash rounding was introduced in Sweden in 1972 when 1 and 2 öre coins were withdrawn from circulation, has continued to be applied at incremental levels as smaller denomination coins have been withdrawn; the current level of cash rounding in Sweden is to the closest whole krona, after the 50 öre coin was withdrawn in 2010. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand used the name "Swedish rounding" in 1990 when withdrawing their 1- and 2-cent coins.
In Canada, cash rounding due to the elimination of the penny in 2013 is called penny rounding. When small-value coins are withdrawn, an alternative to the implementation of cash rounding is instead to increase the minimum unit of account to the smallest remaining currency unit and to round all prices and bank accounts to this value. Whereas cash rounding is an ongoing process, this alternative is a one-time conversion, it was done, for example, when the British farthing was withdrawn in 1960. Rounding is applied to the total of a bill, not to the line items on the bill; the total is rounded to the nearest multiple of the smallest denomination, which may be higher or lower than the unrounded total. Where the unrounded total is an equal distance from two multiples, practice varies: merchants may be required or encouraged to round down rather than up, giving the benefit to the buyer. An equal distance is possible when the rounding interval is an number; the introduction of cash rounding is accompanied by publicity campaigns for awareness among both consumers and implementing merchants.
Prices are rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5 cents for sales ending in: 1¢ & 2¢. This is done, in Canada. Prices are rounded up to the nearest multiple of 5 cents for sales ending in: 3¢ & 4¢; this is done in Canada, for example. Values ending in 0¢ or 5¢ remain unchanged; this is used in New Zealand, which eliminated its 5 cent coin in 2006. This is the case in Hong Kong, which eliminated its 5 cent coin in 1989 and 1 cent coin in 1995. In practice only utility bills, petrol stations and banks still keep the cent. All other businesses use only ten cent intervals. Round down to the nearest 10 cent value for sales ending in 1¢, 2¢, 3¢, 4¢; the majority of retailers round it down. In Sweden between 1985 and 1992, prices were rounded up for sales ending in 5 öre. In the People's Republic of China, coins smaller than ¥0.10 are now rare though still valid. As a result, many shops truncate their bills down to the next ¥0.10 increment, giving the customer a discount of up to ¥0.09. In Israel, 5 agorot coins were removed from circulation on 1 January 2008, after 1 agora coins had been removed in 1991.
Transaction amounts can still be specified to the nearest agora. Cash purchase totals are rounded to the nearest 10 agorot. A 5 agorot total is rounded up to 10 agorot; the system used in Sweden from 1992 to 2010, in Norway from 1993 to 2012, in Denmark since 1 October 2008 is the following: Sales ending in 1–24 öre round down to 0 öre. Sales ending in 25–49 öre round up to 50 öre. Sales ending in 51–74 öre round down to 50 öre. Sales ending in 75–99 öre round up to the next whole krona. In practice, the proportion of transactions rounded upwards is greater, due to psychological pricing of items ending in 90–99 öre. Rounding is only done on the total sum of a purchase. In some shops, all prices are rounded to the whole krone, so that no rounding takes place; the system used in Sweden since 30 September 2010 and used in Norway since 1 May 2012. Sales ending in 1–49 öre/øre round down to 0 öre/øre. Sales ending in 50–99 öre/øre round up to the next whole krona/krone. Mil Penny debate in the United States Take a penny, leave a penny
Coat of arms of Moldova
The coat of arms of Moldova consists of a eagle holding a cross in its beak and a sceptre and an olive branch in its claws. According to Gheorghe Vrabie, the author of the coat of arms, the eagle symbolizes the Latin origin of the people; the chest of the eagle is protected by a shield that bears the traditional arms of Moldavia: an aurochs' head with a star between its horns. It contains two lozenges, a five-petaled flower and a moon in a crescent phase. Everything on the shield has one of the three traditional colours: red, blue; the coat of arms appears in the centre of the flag of Moldova. Adopted: 1990 Elements: Gules shield. Between the horns with five-pointed star, right — rose, left, a Crescent; the small Presidium of the CEC with modifications. In the mid-19 October 1925 USSR of the CEC at its meeting approved the above projects of the state emblem and flag of USSR; the coat of arms of the Moldavian ASSR Constitution Samodivski VII Extraordinary Congress of Soviets on 6 January 1938, was the coat of arms of the Ukrainian SSR, with the addition of inscriptions in Moldavian language.
The state coat of arms of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is the State emblem of the Ukrainian SSR, which consists of a Golden sickle and hammer depicted on a red background in the sun and framed by ears, with the inscription "URSR" and "Proletar all countries, daythese!" in Ukrainian and Moldavian languages, with the addition under "URSR" letters smaller lettering "Moldavska of ARSR" in Ukrainian and Moldavian languages. The national emblem of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1941-1990, was a hammer and sickle in the rays of the sun and framed by ears of corn and ears of corn with a garland of grapes and fruit, with inscriptions in red tape: bottom "RSSM". On the right side in Russian: "Proletarians of all countries, unite!", on the left, in Moldovan language "Proletari din toate țările, uniți-vă!" In the upper part of the emblem is five-pointed star. Adopted: 1990 Elements: An olive branch, an oak branch, jointed by a tricolour ribbon.
Currency
A currency, in the most specific sense is money in any form when in use or circulation as a medium of exchange circulating banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a system of money in common use for people in a nation. Under this definition, US dollars, pounds sterling, Australian dollars, European euros, Russian rubles and Indian Rupees are examples of currency; these various currencies are recognized as stores of value and are traded between nations in foreign exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies. Currencies in this sense are defined by governments, each type has limited boundaries of acceptance. Other definitions of the term "currency" are discussed in their respective synonymous articles banknote and money; the latter definition, pertaining to the currency systems of nations, is the topic of this article. Currencies can be classified into two monetary systems: fiat money and commodity money, depending on what guarantees the currency's value.
Some currencies are legal tender in certain political jurisdictions. Others are traded for their economic value. Digital currency has arisen with the popularity of the Internet. Money was a form of receipt, representing grain stored in temple granaries in Sumer in ancient Mesopotamia and in Ancient Egypt. In this first stage of currency, metals were used as symbols to represent value stored in the form of commodities; this formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years. However, the collapse of the Near Eastern trading system pointed to a flaw: in an era where there was no place, safe to store value, the value of a circulating medium could only be as sound as the forces that defended that store. A trade could only reach as far as the credibility of that military. By the late Bronze Age, however, a series of treaties had established safe passage for merchants around the Eastern Mediterranean, spreading from Minoan Crete and Mycenae in the northwest to Elam and Bahrain in the southeast.
It is not known what was used as a currency for these exchanges, but it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of copper, produced in Cyprus, may have functioned as a currency. It is thought that the increase in piracy and raiding associated with the Bronze Age collapse produced by the Peoples of the Sea, brought the trading system of oxhide ingots to an end, it was only the recovery of Phoenician trade in the 10th and 9th centuries BC that led to a return to prosperity, the appearance of real coinage first in Anatolia with Croesus of Lydia and subsequently with the Greeks and Persians. In Africa, many forms of value store have been used, including beads, ivory, various forms of weapons, the manilla currency, ochre and other earth oxides; the manilla rings of West Africa were one of the currencies used from the 15th century onwards to sell slaves. African currency is still notable for its variety, in many places, various forms of barter still apply; these factors led to the metal itself being the store of value: first silver both silver and gold, at one point bronze.
Now we have other non-precious metals as coins. Metals were mined and stamped into coins; this was to assure the individual accepting the coin that he was getting a certain known weight of precious metal. Coins could be counterfeited, but the existence of standard coins created a new unit of account, which helped lead to banking. Archimedes' principle provided the next link: coins could now be tested for their fine weight of metal, thus the value of a coin could be determined if it had been shaved, debased or otherwise tampered with. Most major economies using coinage had several tiers of coins of different values, made of copper and gold. Gold coins were the most valuable and were used for large purchases, payment of the military and backing of state activities. Units of account were defined as the value of a particular type of gold coin. Silver coins were used for midsized transactions, sometimes defined a unit of account, while coins of copper or silver, or some mixture of them, might be used for everyday transactions.
This system had been used in ancient India since the time of the Mahajanapadas. The exact ratios between the values of the three metals varied between different eras and places. However, the rarity of gold made it more valuable than silver, silver was worth more than copper. In premodern China, the need for credit and for a medium of exchange, less physically cumbersome than large numbers of copper coins led to the introduction of paper money, i.e. banknotes. Their introduction was a gradual process which lasted from the late Tang dynasty into the Song dynasty, it began as a means for merchants to exchange heavy coinage for receipts of deposit issued as promissory notes by wholesalers' shops. These notes were valid for temporary use in a small regional territory. In the 10th century, the Song dynasty government began to circulate these notes amongst the traders in its monopolized salt industry; the Song government granted several shops the right to issue banknotes, in the early 12th century the government took over these shops to produce state-issued currency.
Yet the banknotes issued w
Moldova (except 
Transnistria)
