1.
Neoclassical economics
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Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics focusing on the determination of goods, outputs, and income distributions in markets through supply and demand. Neoclassical economics dominates microeconomics, and together with Keynesian economics forms the neoclassical synthesis which dominates mainstream economics today. – Veblen It was later used by John Hicks, George Stigler, and others to include the work of Carl Menger, William Stanley Jevons, Léon Walras, John Bates Clark, neoclassical economics is characterized by several assumptions common to many schools of economic thought. Individuals maximize utility and firms maximize profits, people act independently on the basis of full and relevant information. Heres how William Stanley Jevons presented the problem of Economics, from the basic assumptions of neoclassical economics comes a wide range of theories about various areas of economic activity. Utility maximization is the source for the theory of consumption, the derivation of demand curves for consumer goods. Market supply and demand are aggregated across firms and individuals and their interactions determine equilibrium output and price. The market supply and demand for each factor of production is derived analogously to those for market final output to determine equilibrium income, factor demand incorporates the marginal-productivity relationship of that factor in the output market. Neoclassical economics emphasizes equilibria, where equilibria are the solutions of agent maximization problems, regularities in economies are explained by methodological individualism, the position that economic phenomena can be explained by aggregating over the behavior of agents. Institutions, which might be considered as prior to and conditioning individual behavior, are de-emphasized, Classical economics, developed in the 18th and 19th centuries, included a value theory and distribution theory. The value of a product was thought to depend on the involved in producing that product. The explanation of costs in Classical economics was simultaneously an explanation of distribution, a landlord received rent, workers received wages, and a capitalist tenant farmer received profits on their investment. This classic approach included the work of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, however, some economists gradually began emphasizing the perceived value of a good to the consumer. They proposed a theory that the value of a product was to be explained with differences in utility to the consumer, the third step from political economy to economics was the introduction of marginalism and the proposition that economic actors made decisions based on margins. This differs from the decision making of classical political economy in that it explains how vital goods such as water can be cheap. The change in theory from classical to neoclassical economics has been called the marginal revolution. It is frequently dated from William Stanley Jevonss Theory of Political Economy, Carl Mengers Principles of Economics, in particular, Jevons saw his economics as an application and development of Jeremy Benthams utilitarianism and never had a fully developed general equilibrium theory. Jevons built on the conception of Bentham or of Mill
2.
Economics
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Economics is a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work, consistent with this focus, textbooks often distinguish between microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics examines the behaviour of elements in the economy, including individual agents and markets, their interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, macroeconomics analyzes the entire economy and issues affecting it, including unemployment of resources, inflation, economic growth, and the public policies that address these issues. Economic analysis can be applied throughout society, as in business, finance, health care, Economic analyses may also be applied to such diverse subjects as crime, education, the family, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, science, and the environment. At the turn of the 21st century, the domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism. The ultimate goal of economics is to improve the conditions of people in their everyday life. There are a variety of definitions of economics. Some of the differences may reflect evolving views of the subject or different views among economists, to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue for the publick services. Say, distinguishing the subject from its uses, defines it as the science of production, distribution. On the satirical side, Thomas Carlyle coined the dismal science as an epithet for classical economics, in this context and it enquires how he gets his income and how he uses it. Thus, it is on the one side, the study of wealth and on the other and more important side, a part of the study of man. He affirmed that previous economists have usually centred their studies on the analysis of wealth, how wealth is created, distributed, and consumed, but he said that economics can be used to study other things, such as war, that are outside its usual focus. This is because war has as the goal winning it, generates both cost and benefits, and, resources are used to attain the goal. If the war is not winnable or if the costs outweigh the benefits. Some subsequent comments criticized the definition as overly broad in failing to limit its subject matter to analysis of markets, there are other criticisms as well, such as in scarcity not accounting for the macroeconomics of high unemployment. The same source reviews a range of included in principles of economics textbooks. Among economists more generally, it argues that a particular definition presented may reflect the direction toward which the author believes economics is evolving, microeconomics examines how entities, forming a market structure, interact within a market to create a market system
3.
Exchange rate
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In finance, an exchange rate between two currencies is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another. It is also regarded as the value of one currency in relation to another currency. For example, an exchange rate of 119 Japanese yen to the United States dollar means that ¥119 will be exchanged for each US$1 or that US$1 will be exchanged for each ¥119. In this case it is said that the price of a dollar in relation to yen is ¥119, trading from 20,15 GMT on Sunday until 22,00 GMT Friday. The spot exchange rate refers to the current exchange rate, the forward exchange rate refers to an exchange rate that is quoted and traded today but for delivery and payment on a specific future date. In the retail currency exchange market, different buying and selling rates will be quoted by money dealers, most trades are to or from the local currency. The buying rate is the rate at which money dealers will buy foreign currency, the quoted rates will incorporate an allowance for a dealers margin in trading, or else the margin may be recovered in the form of a commission or in some other way. Different rates may also be quoted for cash, a form or electronically. The higher rate on documentary transactions has been justified as compensating for the additional time, on the other hand, cash is available for resale immediately, but brings security, storage, and transportation costs, and the cost of tying up capital in a stock of banknotes. Currency for international travel and cross-border payments is predominantly purchased from banks, foreign exchange brokerages and these retail outlets source currency from the inter-bank markets, which are valued by the Bank for International Settlements at 5.3 trillion US dollars per day. The purchase is made at the contract rate. Retail customers will be charged, in the form of commission or otherwise, to cover the providers costs, one form of charge is the use of an exchange rate that is less favourable than the wholesale spot rate. The difference between retail buying and selling prices is referred to as the bid-ask spread, in the foreign exchange market, a currency pair is the quotation of the relative value of a currency unit against the unit of another currency. The quotation EUR/USD1.3225 means that 1 Euro will buy 1.3225 US dollars, in other words, this is the price of a unit of Euro in US dollars. Here, EUR is called the Fixed currency, while USD is called the Variable currency, there is a market convention that determines which is the fixed currency and which is the variable currency. In most parts of the world, the order is, EUR – GBP – AUD – NZD – USD – others. Accordingly, in a conversion from EUR to AUD, EUR is the currency, AUD is the variable currency. Cyprus and Malta, which were quoted as the base to the USD, in some areas of Europe and in the retail market in the United Kingdom, EUR and GBP are reversed so that GBP is quoted as the fixed currency to the euro
4.
United States dollar
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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
5.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
6.
Foreign exchange market
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The foreign exchange market is a global decentralized market for the trading of currencies. This includes all aspects of buying, selling and exchanging currencies at current or determined prices, in terms of trading volume, it is by far the largest market in the world, followed by the Credit market. The main participants in this market are the international banks. Financial centers around the function as anchors of trading between a wide range of multiple types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends. The foreign exchange market does not determine the values of different currencies. The foreign exchange market works through financial institutions, and operates on several levels, behind the scenes, banks turn to a smaller number of financial firms known as dealers, who are actively involved in large quantities of foreign exchange trading. Most foreign exchange dealers are banks, so this behind-the-scenes market is called the interbank market. Trades between foreign exchange dealers can be large, involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Because of the sovereignty issue when involving two currencies, Forex has little supervisory entity regulating its actions, the foreign exchange market assists international trade and investments by enabling currency conversion. It also supports direct speculation and evaluation relative to the value of currencies, in a typical foreign exchange transaction, a party purchases some quantity of one currency by paying with some quantity of another currency. The modern foreign exchange market began forming during the 1970s. e, as such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal of perfect competition, notwithstanding currency intervention by central banks.1 trillion per day in April 2016. This is down from $5.4 trillion in April 2013, Foreign exchange swaps were the most actively traded instruments in April 2016, at $2.4 trillion per day, followed by spot trading at $1.7 trillion. According to the Bank for International Settlements, as of April 2016 and this marks a decline of approximately 5% from the $5.355 trillion daily volume as of April 2013. Some firms specializing in the exchange market had put the average daily turnover in excess of US$4 trillion. Money-changers were living in the Holy Land in the times of the Talmudic writings and these people used city stalls, and at feast times the Temples Court of the Gentiles instead. Money-changers were also the silversmiths and/or goldsmiths of more recent ancient times, during the 4th century AD, the Byzantine government kept a monopoly on the exchange of currency. Papyri PCZ I59021, shows the occurrences of exchange of coinage in Ancient Egypt, Currency and exchange were important elements of trade in the ancient world, enabling people to buy and sell items like food, pottery and raw materials. If a Greek coin held more gold than an Egyptian coin due to its size or content, then a merchant could barter fewer Greek gold coins for more Egyptian ones, or for more material goods
7.
Costing
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In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. In this case, money is the input that is gone in order to acquire the thing, usually, the price also includes a mark-up for profit over the cost of production. More generalized in the field of economics, cost is a metric that is totaling up as a result of a process or as a differential for the result of a decision, hence cost is the metric used in the standard modeling paradigm applied to economic processes. Costs are often further described based on their timing or their applicability, in accounting, costs are the monetary value of expenditures for supplies, services, labor, products, equipment and other items purchased for use by a business or other accounting entity. It is the amount denoted on invoices as the price and recorded in bookkeeping records as an expense or asset cost basis. Opportunity cost, also referred to as economic cost is the value of the best alternative that was not chosen in order to pursue the current endeavor—i. e, what could have been accomplished with the resources expended in the undertaking. In theoretical economics, cost used without qualification often means opportunity cost, when a transaction takes place, it typically involves both private costs and external costs. Private costs are the costs that the buyer of a good or service pays the seller and this can also be described as the costs internal to the firms production function. External costs, in contrast, are the costs that people other than the buyer are forced to pay as a result of the transaction, the bearers of such costs can be either particular individuals or society at large. Note that external costs are often both non-monetary and problematic to quantify for comparison with monetary values. They include things like pollution, things that society will likely have to pay for in some way or at time in the future. Social costs are the sum of private costs and external costs, for example, the manufacturing cost of a car reflects the private cost for the manufacturer. The polluted waters or polluted air also created as part of the process of producing the car is an external cost borne by those who are affected by the pollution or who value unpolluted air or water. Because the manufacturer does not pay for this external cost, and does not include this cost in the price of the car, the air pollution from driving the car is also an externality produced by the car user in the process of using his good. The driver does not compensate for the damage caused by using the car. When developing a plan for a new or existing company, product, or project. This is done in both business and government, costs are often underestimated, resulting in cost overrun during execution
8.
School of Salamanca
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The School of Salamanca is the Renaissance of thought in diverse intellectual areas by Spanish and Portuguese theologians, rooted in the intellectual and pedagogical work of Francisco de Vitoria. These new problems were addressed by the School of Salamanca, the name refers to the University of Salamanca, where de Vitoria and others of the school were based. The first began with Francisco de Vitoria, and reached its point with Domingo de Soto. The Conimbricenses were Jesuits who, from the end of 16th century took over the leadership of the Catholic world from the Dominicans. Among those Jesuits were Luis de Molina, the aforementioned Francisco Suárez, and Giovanni Botero, the juridical doctrine of the School of Salamanca represented the end of medieval concepts of law, with a revindication of liberty not habitual in Europe of that time. The natural rights of man came to be, in one form or another, the School of Salamanca reformulated the concept of natural law, law originating in nature itself, with all that exists in the natural order sharing in this law. Their conclusion was, given that all share the same nature, they also share the same rights to life. Such views constituted a novelty in European thought and went counter to those then predominant in Spain, one direct consequence of the separation of realms of power is that the king or emperor does not legitimately have jurisdiction over souls, nor does the pope have legitimate temporal power. This included the proposal that there are limits on the powers of government. Counter to this, several adherents of the School sustained that the people are the vehicle of divine sovereignty, men are born free by their nature and not as slaves of another man, and can disobey even to the point of deposing an unjust government. Gabriel Vázquez held that law is not limited to the individual. For Suárez, the power of society is contractual in origin because the community forms by consensus of free wills. Francisco de Vitoria was perhaps the first to develop a theory of ius gentium and he extrapolated his ideas of legitimate sovereign power to society at the international level, concluding that this scope as well ought to be ruled by just forms respectable of the rights of all. The common good of the world is of a superior to the good of each state. This meant that relations between states ought to pass from being justified by force to being justified by law and justice, Francisco Suárez subdivided the concept of ius gentium. Working with already well-formed categories, he carefully distinguished ius inter gentes from ius intra gentes, ius inter gentes was something common to the majority of countries, although being positive law, not natural law, was not necessarily universal. On the other hand, ius intra gentes, or civil law, is specific to each nation. Given that war is one of the worst evils suffered by mankind, a diplomatic agreement is preferable, even for the more powerful party, before a war is started
9.
Gustav Cassel
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Karl Gustav Cassel was a Swedish economist and professor of economics at Stockholm University. Cassels perspective on reality, and especially on the role of interest, was rooted in British neoclassicism. He is perhaps best known through John Maynard Keynes article Tract on Monetary Reform, Cassel was beyond doubt one of the outstanding figures in economic science during the inter-war period. His authority was only to that of Lord Keynes, and his advice was eagerly sought on many occasions by his own Government. He was also a member of the Swedish school of economics, along with Knut Wicksell. Cassel came to economics from mathematics, apart from the rudiments of a purchasing power parity theory of exchange rates, he produced an overconsumption theory of the trade cycle. He also worked on the German reparations problem and he was a member of many committees dealing with matters of state in Sweden and devoted much labour to the creation of a better system of budget exposition and control. He was one of the Swedish representatives at the International Chamber of Commerce meeting in London in 1921 and he became a member of Svenska Vetenskapsakademien and correspondent for Sweden to the Royal Economic Society. In addition to his books in Swedish, he published the works in other languages, Das Recht auf den vollen Arbeitsertrag, The Nature and Necessity of Interest. His Memorandum on the Worlds Monetary Problems, published by the League of Nations for the International Financial Conference in Brussels in 1920, some of his notable students include Nobel Prize in Economics laureates Bertil Ohlin and Gunnar Myrdal, and the future Moderate Party leader Gösta Bagge
10.
Transaction cost
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In economics and related disciplines, a transaction cost is a cost incurred in making an economic exchange of some sort, or in other words the cost of participating in a market. Bargaining costs are the required to come to an acceptable agreement with the other party to the transaction, drawing up an appropriate contract. In game theory this is analyzed for instance in the game of chicken, on asset markets and in market microstructure, the transaction cost is some function of the distance between the bid and ask. Policing and enforcement costs are the costs of making sure the other party sticks to the terms of the contract, for example, the buyer of a used car faces a variety of different transaction costs. The search costs are the costs of finding a car and determining the cars condition, the bargaining costs are the costs of negotiating a price with the seller. The policing and enforcement costs are the costs of ensuring that the seller delivers the car in the promised condition, the idea that transactions form the basis of an economic thinking was introduced by the institutional economist John R. Commons. He said that, These individual actions are really trans-actions instead of individual behavior or the exchange of commodities. The shift is a change in the unit of economic investigation. The classic and hedonic economists, with their communistic and anarchistic offshoots, founded their theories on the relation of man to nature, the smallest unit of the classic economists was a commodity produced by labor. The smallest unit of the hedonic economists was the same or similar commodity enjoyed by ultimate consumers, one was the objective side, the other the subjective side, of the same relation between the individual and the forces of nature. The outcome, in case, was the materialistic metaphor of an automatic equilibrium, analogous to the waves of the ocean. But the smallest unit of the institutional economists is a unit of activity – a transaction, however, the term is actually absent from his early work up to the 1970s. The term Transaction Costs itself can instead be traced back to the economics literature of the 1950s. Arguably, transaction cost reasoning became most widely known through Oliver E. Williamsons Transaction Cost Economics, today, transaction cost economics is used to explain a number of different behaviours. According to Williamson, the determinants of transaction costs are frequency, specificity, uncertainty, limited rationality, at least two definitions of the phrase transaction cost are commonly used in literature. For Cheung, if the transaction costs were not already so popular in economics literatures. But many economists seem to restrict the definition to exclude costs internal to an organization, the latter definition parallels Coases early analysis of costs of the price mechanism and the origins of the term as a market trading fee. Starting with the definition, many economists then ask what kind of institutions minimize the transaction costs of producing and distributing a particular good or service
11.
Trade barrier
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Trade barriers are government-induced restrictions on international trade. If two or more nations repeatedly use trade barriers against each other, then a trade war results, economists generally agree that trade barriers are detrimental and decrease overall economic efficiency, this can be explained by the theory of comparative advantage. In theory, free trade involves the removal of all such barriers, in practice, however, even those countries promoting free trade heavily subsidize certain industries, such as agriculture and steel. High income countries tend to have less trade barriers than middle income countries which, in turn, small states tend to have lower trade barriers than large states. The most common trade barriers are on agricultural goods, textiles, apparel and footwear are the manufactured goods which are most commonly protected by trade barriers. Tariffs have been declining in the last twenty years but states have increased their non-tariff barriers, according to Chad Bown and Meredith Crowley, world trade is probably vastly more liberal in current times than was the case historically. According to Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke, for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries trade barriers and transport costs were the most important barriers to trade. They also write, during the mercantilist era price gaps were as likely to be due to trade monopolies, pirates, and wars as to costs and tariffs. Due to steadily decreasing tariff barriers since WWII, countries have become increasingly likely to trade barriers in the form of non-tariff barriers. National firms often lobby their own governments to enact regulations that are designed to keep out foreign firms, trade barriers are often criticized for the effect they have on the developing world. Because rich-country players call most of the shots and set trade policies, tariffs also tend to be anti-poor, with low rates for raw commodities and high rates for labor-intensive processed goods. The Commitment to Development Index measures the effect that rich country trade policies actually have on the developing world, trade barriers are mostly a combination of conformity and per-shipment requirements requested abroad, and weak inspection or certification procedures at home. The impact of trade barriers on companies and countries is highly uneven, one particular study showed that small firms are most affected. Another negative aspect of trade barriers is that they result in a choice of products and would therefore force customers to pay higher prices. Before exporting or importing to other countries, firstly, they must be aware of restrictions that the government imposes on the trade, sometimes the situation becomes even more complicated with the changing of policy and restrictions of a country
12.
World Bank
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries of the world for capital programs. It comprises two institutions, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Development Association, the World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, which is part of the United Nations system. The World Banks stated official goal is the reduction of poverty, the president of the World Bank is, traditionally, an American. The World Bank and the IMF are both based in Washington, D. C. and work closely with each other, although many countries were represented at the Bretton Woods Conference, the United States and United Kingdom were the most powerful in attendance and dominated the negotiations. Before 1974 the reconstruction and development loans provided by the World Bank were relatively small, the Banks staff were aware of the need to instill confidence in the bank. Fiscal conservatism ruled, and loan applications had to meet strict criteria, the first country to receive a World Bank loan was France. The Banks president at the time, John McCloy, chose France over two other applicants, Poland and Chile, the loan was for US$250 million, half the amount requested, and it came with strict conditions. France had to agree to produce a budget and give priority of debt repayment to the World Bank over other governments. World Bank staff closely monitored the use of the funds to ensure that the French government met the conditions. In addition, before the loan was approved, the United States State Department told the French government that its members associated with the Communist Party would first have to be removed, the French government complied with this diktat and removed the Communist coalition government - the so-called tripartisme. Within hours, the loan to France was approved, when the Marshall Plan went into effect in 1947, many European countries began receiving aid from other sources. Faced with this competition, the World Bank shifted its focus to non-European countries, in 1960, the International Development Association was formed, providing soft loans to developing countries. From 1974 to 1980 the bank concentrated on meeting the needs of people in the developing world. The size and number of loans to borrowers was greatly increased as loan targets expanded from infrastructure into social services and these changes can be attributed to Robert McNamara, who was appointed to the presidency in 1968 by Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara implored bank treasurer Eugene Rotberg to seek out new sources of capital outside of the banks that had been the primary sources of funding. Rotberg used the bond market to increase the capital available to the bank. One consequence of the period of poverty alleviation lending was the rise of third world debt. From 1976 to 1980 developing world debt rose at an annual rate of 20%
13.
Renminbi
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The renminbi /ˌrɛnmɪnˈbiː/ is the official currency of the Peoples Republic of China. The yuan is the unit of the renminbi, but is also used to refer to the Chinese currency in general. The distinction between the terms renminbi and yuan is similar to that between sterling and pound, which refer to the British currency and its primary unit. One yuan is subdivided into 10 jiao, and a jiao in turn is subdivided into 10 fen, the ISO code for renminbi is CNY, or also CNH when traded in off-shore markets such as Hong Kong. The currency is often abbreviated RMB, or indicated by the yuan sign ¥, in Chinese texts the currency may also be indicated with the Chinese character for the yuan, 圆. The renminbi is legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau, renminbi is sometimes accepted in Hong Kong and Macau, and are easily exchanged in the two territories, with banks in Hong Kong allowing people to maintain accounts in RMB. The currency is issued by the Peoples Bank of China, the authority of China. Until 2005, the value of the renminbi was pegged to the US dollar and it has previously been claimed that the renminbis official exchange rate was undervalued by as much as 37. 5% against its purchasing power parity. Since 2006, the exchange rate has been allowed to float in a narrow margin around a fixed base rate determined with reference to a basket of world currencies. The Chinese government has announced that it gradually increase the flexibility of the exchange rate. As a result of the rapid internationalization of the renminbi, it became the worlds 8th most traded currency in 2013, and 5th in 2015. On 1 October 2016, the RMB became the first emerging market currency to be included in the IMFs special drawing rights basket, a variety of currencies circulated in China during the Republic of China era, most of which were denominated in the unit yuán. Each was distinguished by a name, such as the fabi, the gold yuan. During the era of the economy, the value of the renminbi was set to unrealistic values in exchange with western currency. The unrealistic levels at which exchange rates were pegged led to a black market in currency transactions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, China worked to make the RMB more convertible, through the use of swap centres, the exchange rate was brought to realistic levels and the dual track currency system was abolished. As of 2013, the renminbi is convertible on current accounts, the ultimate goal has been to make the RMB fully convertible. From 1949 until the late 1970s, the state fixed Chinas exchange rate at a highly overvalued level as part of the countrys import -substitution strategy
14.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
15.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
16.
Developed country
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Which criteria are to be used and which countries can be classified as being developed are subjects of debate. Developed countries have post-industrial economies, meaning the sector provides more wealth than the industrial sector. They are contrasted with developing countries, which are in the process of industrialization, or undeveloped countries, which are pre-industrial and almost entirely agrarian. As of 2015, advanced economies comprise 60. 8% of global GDP based on values and 42. 9% of global GDP based on purchasing-power parity according to the International Monetary Fund. In 2015, the ten largest advanced economies by GDP in both nominal and PPP terms were Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The term industrialized country may be ambiguous, as industrialization is an ongoing process that is hard to define. The first industrialized country was the United Kingdom, followed by Belgium, later it spread further to Germany, United States, France and other Western European countries. According to some such as Jeffrey Sachs, however, the current divide between the developed and developing world is largely a phenomenon of the 20th century. Economic criteria have tended to dominate discussions, one such criterion is income per capita, countries with high gross domestic product per capita would thus be described as developed countries. Another economic criterion is industrialization, countries in which the tertiary and quaternary sectors of industry dominate would thus be described as developed. More recently another measure, the Human Development Index, which combines an economic measure, national income, with other measures, indices for life expectancy and this criterion would define developed countries as those with a very high rating. According to the United Nations Statistics Division, There is no established convention for the designation of developed, the UN HDI is a statistical measure that gauges a countrys level of human development. While there is a correlation between having a high HDI score and a prosperous economy, the UN points out that the HDI accounts for more than income or productivity. Unlike GDP per capita or per capita income, the HDI takes into account how income is turned into education and health opportunities, since 1990, Norway, Japan, Canada and Iceland have had the highest HDI score. The top 47 countries have scores ranging from 0.793 in Barbados to 0.955 in Norway, many countries listed by IMF or CIA as advanced, possess an HDI over 0.788. Many countries possessing an HDI of 0.788 and over are also listed by IMF or CIA as advanced, thus, many advanced economies are characterized by an HDI score of 0.9 or higher. Since April 2016, the IMF classifies Macau as an advanced economy, the latest index was released on 14 December 2015 and covers the period up to 2014. The following are the 49 countries in the top quartile - having an HDI above 0.8, = Increase = No increase or decrease = Decrease The number in parentheses represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in 2014 report
17.
Inflation
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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
18.
Big Mac Index
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It seeks to make exchange-rate theory a bit more digestible. The index, created in 1986, takes its name from the Big Mac, the Big Mac index was introduced in The Economist in September 1986 by Pam Woodall as a semi-humorous illustration of PPP and has been published by that paper annually since then. The index also gave rise to the word burgernomics, in the Big Mac Index, the basket in question is a single Big Mac burger as sold by the McDonalds fast food restaurant chain. For these reasons, the index enables a comparison between many countries currencies, the Big Mac PPP exchange rate between two countries is obtained by dividing the price of a Big Mac in one country by the price of a Big Mac in another country. As of April 2009, the Big Mac is trading in Germany at 2.99 €, which translates into US$3.96, the Economist sometimes produces variants on the theme. For example, in January 2004, it showed a Tall Latte index with the Big Mac replaced by a cup of Starbucks coffee. In 2007, an Australian bank tried a variation the Big Mac index, being an index, since the iPod is manufactured at a single place. However, this theory can be criticised for ignoring shipping costs, bloomberg L. P. introduced the Billy index where they convert local prices of IKEAs Billy bookshelf into US dollars and compare the prices. A European bank has expanded the idea of the Big Mac index to include the amount of time that a local worker in a given country must work to earn enough to buy a Big Mac. In 2017, the comparison platform Versus did a version called The Chai Latte Global Index, comparing Starbucks Chai Latte prices worldwide, while economists widely cite the Big Mac index as a reasonable real-world measurement of purchasing power parity, the burger methodology has some limitations. The relative cost of products, such as essential pharmaceutical products, or cellular telephony might compare local capacity and willingness to pay. Nevertheless, McDonalds is also using different commercial strategies which can result in huge differences for a product, in some markets, a high-volume and low-margin approach makes most sense to maximize profit, while in others a higher margin will generate more profit. Thus the relative prices reflect more than currency values, for example, a hamburger costs only 1 € in France, and 1.50 € in Belgium, but overall, McDonalds restaurants are cheaper in Belgium. Prices of Big Macs can also vary greatly between different areas within a country, for example, a Big Mac sold in New York City will be more expensive than one sold at a McDonalds located in a rural area. One other example is that Russia has one of the cheapest Big Macs, standard food ingredients are cheap in Russia, while restaurants suitable for business dinners with English speaking staff are expensive. Another limitation of the Big Mac Index is the geographical coverage and this is due to the presence of the McDonalds franchise. For example, in Africa McDonalds is only present in Morocco, Egypt, there has been a similar index created solely for Africa called the KFC Index. As the name suggests, instead of using a Big Mac, the Economist stated in January 2011 that Big Mac index does support claims that Argentina’s government is cooking the books
19.
Big Mac
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The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by international fast food restaurant chain McDonalds. It was introduced in the Greater Pittsburgh area, United States, in 1967 and it is one of the companys signature products. The Big Mac was created by Jim Delligatti, an early Ray Kroc franchisee and it was invented in the kitchen of Delligattis first McDonalds franchise, located on McKnight Road in suburban Ross Township. The Big Mac had two names, both of which failed in the marketplace, the Aristocrat, which consumers found difficult to pronounce and understand. The third name, Big Mac, was created by Esther Glickstein Rose, the Big Mac debuted at Delligattis Uniontown, Pennsylvania restaurant in 1967, selling for 45 cents. It was designed to compete with Big Boy restaurants Big Boy sandwich, the Big Mac proved popular, and it was added to the menu of all U. S. restaurants in 1968. The Big Mac consists of two 1.6 oz 100 per cent beef patties, special sauce, iceberg lettuce, American cheese, pickles, the Big Mac is known worldwide and is often used as a symbol of American capitalism. The Economist has used it as a point for comparing the cost of living in different countries – the Big Mac Index – as it is so widely available and is comparable across markets. This index is sometimes referred to as Burgernomics, the name was popularized by a 1974 advertising campaign featuring a list of the ingredients in a Big Mac, Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun. Its design is similar to a caulking gun, in 2012, McDonalds admitted that the special sauce ingredients were not really a secret because the recipe had been available online for years. It consists of mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish and yellow mustard whisked together with vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder. The Big Mac, along many other McDonalds products, was first served in a clamshell styrofoam container that was phased out beginning in 1990 due to environmental concerns. The product is now sold in an easily collapsible box of thin cardboard, the earliest instances of McDonalds utilizing advertising for the sandwich were mainly print ads, and a TV ad in which Hoyt Axton sings The Ballad of Big Mac which aired in 1969. Originally, the ingredients appeared as a heading for a McDonalds ad developed for college newspapers. The words were set to music created by Mark Vieha. The first run of commercials ran only a year and a half, going off the air in 1976, subsequent to the jingle, McDonalds followed up with a promotion based on its customers spontaneously having a Big Mac Attack. Many franchises in the United States ran promotions during the campaign that awarded a free burger to customers who could recite the slogan within a specified time. One example of its success was that the McDonalds operators in New York City ran out of Big Mac buns
20.
Hamburger
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A hamburger or burger is a sandwich consisting of one or more cooked patties of ground meat, usually beef, placed inside a sliced bread roll or bun. The patty may be pan fried, barbecued, or flame broiled, a hamburger topped with a slice of cheese is called cheeseburger. The term burger can also be applied to the meat patty on its own, especially in the UK where the term patty is rarely used, or the term can even refer simply to ground beef. The term may be prefixed with the type of meat or meat substitute used, as in turkey burger, bison burger, Hamburgers are sold at fast-food restaurants, diners, and specialty and high-end restaurants. There are many international and regional variations of the hamburger, the term hamburger originally derives from Hamburg, Germanys second-largest city. In German, Burg means castle, fortified settlement or fortified refuge and is a component of place names. The first element of the name is perhaps from Old High German hamma, referring to a bend in a river, or Middle High German hamme, referring to an enclosed area of pastureland. Hamburger in German is the demonym of Hamburg, similar to frankfurter and wiener, names for other meat-based foods and demonyms of the cities of Frankfurt and Vienna, there have been many claims about the origin of the hamburger, but the origins remain unclear. The popular book The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse included a recipe in 1758 as Hamburgh sausage, Hamburg steak is reported to have been served between two pieces of bread on the Hamburg America Line, which began operations in 1847. Each of these may mark the invention of the Hamburger, there is a reference to a Hamburg steak as early as 1884 in the Boston Journal. There have been claims by Charlie Nagreen, Frank and Charles Menches, Oscar Weber Bilby. White Castle traces the origin of the hamburger to Hamburg, Germany with its invention by Otto Kuase. However, it gained recognition at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair when the New York Tribune referred to the hamburger as the innovation of a food vendor on the pike. No conclusive argument has ever ended the dispute over invention, an article from ABC News sums up, One problem is that there is little written history. Another issue is that the spread of the burger happened largely at the Worlds Fair, from vendors that came. And it is possible that more than one person came up with the idea at the same time in different parts of the country. Louis Lassen of Louis Lunch, a lunch wagon in New Haven, Connecticut, is said to have sold the first hamburger. A customer ordered a hot meal and Louis was out of steaks
21.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
22.
The Economist
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The Economist is an English-language weekly magazine-format newspaper owned by the Economist Group and edited at offices in London. Continuous publication began under its founder, James Wilson, in September 1843, in 2015 its average weekly circulation was a little over 1.5 million, about half of which were sold in the United States. The publication belongs to the Economist Group and it is 50% owned by the English branch of the Rothschild family and by the Agnelli family through its holding company Exor. The remaining 50% is held by investors including the editors. The Rothschilds and the Agnellis are represented on the board of directors, a board of trustees formally appoints the editor, who cannot be removed without its permission. Although The Economist has an emphasis and scope, about two-thirds of the 75 staff journalists are based in the London borough of Westminster. For the year to March 2016 the Economist Group declared operating profit of £61m, previous major shareholders include Pearson PLC. The Economist takes a stance of classical and economic liberalism which is supportive of free trade, globalisation, free immigration. The publication has described itself as a product of the Caledonian liberalism of Adam Smith and it targets highly educated readers and claims an audience containing many influential executives and policy-makers. The publications CEO described this recent global change, which was first noticed in the 1990s and accelerated in the beginning of the 21st century, on the contents page of each issue, The Economists mission statement is written in italics. The Economist was founded by the British businessman and banker James Wilson in 1843, to advance the repeal of the Corn Laws, articles relating to some practical, commercial, agricultural, or foreign topic of passing interest, such as foreign treaties. An article on the principles of political economy, applied to practical experience, covering the laws related to prices, wages, rent, exchange, revenue. Parliamentary reports, with focus on commerce, agriculture and free trade. Reports and accounts of popular movements advocating free trade, general news from the Court of St. Jamess, the Metropolis, the Provinces, Scotland, and Ireland. Law reports, confined chiefly to areas important to commerce, manufacturing, books, confined chiefly, but not so exclusively, to commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture, and including all treatises on political economy, finance, or taxation. A commercial gazette, with prices and statistics of the week, correspondence and inquiries from the news magazines readers. It has long respected as one of the most competent. Its logo was designed in 1959 by Reynolds Stone, in January 2012 The Economist launched a new weekly section devoted exclusively to China, the first new country section since the introduction of a section about the United States in 1942
23.
McDonald's Corporation
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McDonalds is an American hamburger and fast food restaurant chain. It was founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard. In 1948, they reorganized their business as a hamburger stand, the first McDonalds franchise using the arches logo opened in Phoenix, Arizona in 1953. Businessman Ray Kroc joined the company as an agent in 1955. Based in Oak Brook, Illinois, McDonalds confirmed plans to move its headquarters to Chicago by early 2018. Today, McDonalds is one of the worlds largest restaurant chains, McDonalds primarily sells hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken products, french fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, milkshakes, wraps, and desserts. In response to changing tastes, the company has expanded its menu to include salads, fish, wraps, smoothies. A McDonalds restaurant is operated by either a franchisee, an affiliate, the McDonalds Corporation revenues come from the rent, royalties, and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as sales in company-operated restaurants. According to a BBC report published in 2012, McDonalds is the second largest private employer,1.5 million of whom work for franchises. The business began in 1940, with a restaurant opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald at 1398 North E Street at West 14th Street in San Bernardino, the first McDonalds with the arches opened in Phoenix, Arizona in March 1953. The original mascot of McDonalds was a man with a hat on top of a hamburger-shaped head whose name was Speedee. In 1962, the Golden Arches replaced Speedee as the company symbol, a new mascot, Ronald McDonald was introduced in 1965. The clown-like man having puffed out costume legs served advertising aimed at children. On May 4,1961, McDonalds first filed for a U. S. trademark on the name McDonalds with the description Drive-In Restaurant Services, on September 13,1961, the company filed for a trademark on a new logo—an overlapping, double-arched M symbol. By September 6,1962, this M-symbol was temporarily disfavored, although the Golden Arches logo appeared in various forms, the present version as a letter M did not appear until November 18,1968, when the company applied for a U. S. trademark. Kroc later purchased the McDonald brothers equity in the company and led its expansion. Kroc was also noted for aggressive business practices, compelling the McDonald brothers to leave the fast-food industry, Kroc and the McDonald brothers feuded over control of the business, as documented in Krocs autobiography. The San Bernardino restaurant was demolished in 1976 and the site was sold to the Juan Pollo restaurant chain and this area now serves as headquarters for the Juan Pollo chain, as well as a McDonalds and Route 66 museum
24.
Perfect competition
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In economics and general equilibrium theory, a perfect market is defined by several conditions, collectively called perfect competition. Perfect information – All consumers and producers know all prices of products, homogeneous products – The products are perfect substitutes for each other. Well defined Property rights – These determine what may be sold, profit maximization of sellers – Firms sell where the most profit is generated, where marginal costs meet marginal revenue. Rational buyers, Buyers make all trades that increase their economic utility, No externalities – Costs or benefits of an activity do not affect third parties. This criteria also excludes any government intervention, zero transaction costs – Buyers and sellers do not incur costs in making an exchange of goods in a perfectly competitive market. Non-increasing returns to scale and no network effects – The lack of economies of scale or network effects ensures that there always be a sufficient number of firms in the industry. This equilibrium will be a Pareto optimum, meaning that nobody can be better off by exchange without making someone else worse off. Such markets are efficient, as output will always occur where marginal cost is equal to marginal revenue. But perfectly competitive markets are not necessarily productively efficient as output will not always occur where marginal cost is equal to average cost, in perfect competition, any profit-maximizing producer faces a market price equal to its marginal cost. This implies that a factors price equals the marginal revenue product. It allows for derivation of the curve on which the neoclassical approach is based. This is also the reason why a monopoly does not have a supply curve, the abandonment of price taking creates considerable difficulties for the demonstration of a general equilibrium except under other, very specific conditions such as that of monopolistic competition. Real markets are never perfect, but range from close-to-perfect to very imperfect, share and foreign exchange markets are commonly said to be the most similar to the perfect market. The real estate market is an example of an imperfect market. In a perfect market the sellers operate at zero economic surplus, normal profit is a component of costs and not a component of business profit at all. It represents the opportunity cost, as the time that the owner spends running the firm could be spent on running a different firm. In other words, the cost of normal profit varies both within and across industries, it is commensurate with the associated with each type of investment. Only normal profits arise in circumstances of perfect competition when long run equilibrium is reached
25.
Substitute good
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In consumer theory, substitute goods or substitutes are products that a consumer perceives as similar or comparable, so that having more of one product makes them desire less of the other product. Formally, X and Y are substitutes if, when the price of X rises, there are different degrees of substitutability. For example, a car and a bicycle may substitute to some extent, if the price of fuel increases considerably. In economics, one way that two or more goods can be classified is by examining the relationship of the demand schedules when the price of one good changes and this relationship between demand schedules leads to classification of goods as either substitutes or complements. Substitute goods are goods which, as a result of changed conditions, a substitute good, in contrast to a complementary good, is a good with a positive cross elasticity of demand. This means a goods demand is increased when the price of good is increased. Conversely, the demand for a good is decreased when the price of good is decreased. If goods A and B are substitutes, an increase in the price of A will result in a movement along the demand curve of A. A decrease in the price of A will result in a movement along the demand curve of A. Examples of substitute goods include margarine and butter, tea and coffee, substitute goods not only occur on the consumer side of the market but also the producer side. Substitutable producer goods would include, petroleum and natural gas, the degree to which a good has a perfect substitute depends on how specifically the good is defined. Take for example, the demand for Rice Krispies cereal, which is a narrowly defined good as compared to the demand for cereal generally. An increase in price will result in an increase in demand for its substitute goods, if two goods have a high substitutability, the change in demand will be much greater. It is important to note that when speaking about substitute goods one is referring to two different kinds of goods, so the substitutability of one good for another is always a matter of degree. One good is a substitute for another only if it can be used in exactly the same way. In microeconomics, two types of substitutes are being distinguished, gross substitutes and net substitutes, substitutes differ with respect to their category membership. Within-category substitutes are goods that are members of the taxonomic category. Cross-category substitutes are goods that are members of different taxonomic categories, a person who cannot have the chocolate that she desires, for example, might instead buy ice cream to satisfy her goal to have a dessert
26.
Market power
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In economics and particularly in industrial organization, market power is the ability of a firm to profitably raise the market price of a good or service over marginal cost. In perfectly competitive markets, market participants have no market power, a firm with total market power can raise prices without losing any customers to competitors. Market participants that have market power are sometimes referred to as price makers or price setters. Significant market power occurs when prices exceed marginal cost and long run average cost, a firm with market power has the ability to individually affect either the total quantity or the prevailing price in the market. Price makers face a downward-sloping demand curve, such that price increases lead to a quantity demanded. The decrease in supply as a result of the exercise of power creates an economic deadweight loss which is often viewed as socially undesirable. As a result, many countries have anti-trust or other legislation intended to limit the ability of firms to market power. Such legislation often regulates mergers and sometimes introduces a judicial power to compel divestiture, a firm usually has market power by virtue of controlling a large portion of the market. In extreme cases—monopoly and monopsony—the firm controls the entire market, however, market size alone is not the only indicator of market power. Highly concentrated markets may be if there are no barriers to entry or exit. Market power gives firms the ability to engage in unilateral anti-competitive behavior, some of the behaviours that firms with market power are accused of engaging in include predatory pricing, product tying, and creation of overcapacity or other barriers to entry. The Lerner index and Herfindahl index may be used to market power. When several firms control a significant share of sales, the resulting market structure is called an oligopoly or oligopsony. An oligopoly may engage in collusion, either tacit or overt, a group of firms that explicitly agree to affect market price or output is called a cartel. Monopoly power is an example of failure which occurs when one or more of the participants has the ability to influence the price or other outcomes in some general or specialized market. The most commonly discussed form of power is that of a monopoly, but other forms such as monopsony. A well-known example of market power is Microsofts market share in PC operating systems. The United States v. Microsoft case dealt with an allegation that Microsoft illegally exercised its power by bundling its web browser with its operating system
27.
Vada pav
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Vada pav, sometimes spelled wada pav or vada paav or vada pao or wada pao, is a vegetarian fast food dish native to the Indian state of Maharashtra. The dish is a simple creation involving a deep fried potato patty with some coriander and spices and it originated as cheap street food in Mumbai, but is now offered in stalls and restaurants throughout India. The Marathi compound word batata vada means potato fritter, Pav which is a variant of Portuguese pão is sweetened bread. Boiled mashed potatoes are spiced, commonly with chillies, garlic, asafoetida, turmeric, mustard seeds and garlic, the mass is then coated in gram flour batter and deep fried. The resultant fritter is served in a bun, accompanied by one or more chutneys. The combination of the potato or batata vada in a pav was a hit, despite the ethnocentrism in Maharashtra in particular, vada pav is claimed to be a part of the culture of Marathis despite this sandwich being western in style. The vada pav is now a popular snack across Mumbai and is now found at street stalls, cafes. Pav Bhaji List of sandwiches Misal Pav Aloo Tikki Chinese Bhel
28.
Commonwealth Securities
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Commonwealth Securities, also known as CommSec, is Australias largest discount stockbroking firm operated by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It offers a telephone based brokerage service and advisory service, though its Internet trading platform constitutes the vast majority of its business. The brokerage arm started operations in 1995 and launched its share trading website in 1997 project managed by the then Head of CBA IB Equities, the firms large retail customer base has also allowed it to successfully market a number of initial public offering fund raisings. In 2008 CommSec became the first Australian brokerage firm to offer a website specifically designed for a portable-device. It created CommSec iPhone Edition for the Apple iPhone, the first home-grown iPhone application in Australia, commSecs primary channel for customers is its website. The website provides information that can be refreshed for updates on the frequently changing markets. CommSecs frequent equities, CFDs and options traders use the trading platform CommSecIRESS. It is a solution, developed by IRESS Market Technology. This platform combines the majority of the features of the website, while adding more advanced features, CommSec also offers phone-based trading through its call-centre, advisory service and the automated voice recognition platform PhoneTrader. CommSec now performs broking operations for Colonial First State, TD Waterhouse, AOT, Neville Ward Direct, Auckland Savings Bank, the addition of IWL gave CommSec significant market share in wholesale broking to compliment its existing retail presence. In 2008 CommSec diversified into the term deposit sector with the introduction of its Cash Management product. The product consists of two distinct accounts the CommSec Cash Account and the CommSec Investment Account, the CCA is designed to both be the source of funds for stock trading and also an everyday transaction account, with a linked debit MasterCard. The CIA is designed as a high interest cash deposit distinguished by its lack of tiers, the new CDIA is no longer distinguished by its lack of tiers
29.
Market research
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Market research is any organized effort to gather information about target markets or customers. It is an important component of business strategy. Market research is one of the key used in maintaining competitiveness over competitors. Market research provides important information to identify and analyze the market need, market size, Market research began to be conceptualized and put into formal practice during the 1920s, as an offshoot of the advertising boom of the Golden Age of radio in the United States. Advertisers began to realize the significance of demographics revealed by sponsorship of different radio programs, Market research is a way of getting an overview of consumers wants, needs and beliefs. It can also involve discovering how they act, the research can be used to determine how a product could be marketed. Peter Drucker believed market research to be the quintessence of marketing, there are two major types of market research. Primary Research sub-divided into Quantitative and Qualitative research and Secondary research, Market researchers have a wider role than previously recognized by helping their clients to understand social, technical, and even legal aspects of markets. Market segmentation Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations, for B2B segmentation firmographics is commonly used. Market trends Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market, determining the market size may be more difficult if one is starting with a new innovation. In this case, you will have to derive the figures from the number of potential customers, SWOT analysis SWOT is a written analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to a business entity. Not only should a SWOT be used in the stage of the company. A SWOT may also be written up for the competition to understand how to develop the marketing, another factor that can be measured is marketing effectiveness. It reduces the risks involved in making decisions as well as strategies, some major benefits are - i. Marketing research assists in providing accurate and latest trends related to demand, consumer behavior, sales and it helps in better understanding of the market, thus helps in product design, features and demand forecasts iii. It assists in studying and understanding the competitors, thus identifying unique selling propositions for a business, Market research reaps many such benefits which are Industry and business specific and have high ROIs. It is important to test marketing material for films to see how an audience will receive it and this is stimulated by product-enhancing websites, graphics, and content designed to attract casual surfing shoppers, researching for their particular needs, competitive prices and quality. According to the Small Business Administration, a business is significantly contributed to by gaining knowledge about customers, competitors
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KFC
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Kentucky Fried Chicken, more commonly known by its initials KFC, is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in fried chicken. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the worlds second-largest restaurant chain after McDonalds, the chain is a subsidiary of Yum. Brands, a restaurant company that owns the Pizza Hut. KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his restaurant in Corbin. Sanders identified the potential of the restaurant franchising concept, and the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise opened in Utah in 1952, KFC popularized chicken in the fast food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. By branding himself as Colonel Sanders, Harland became a prominent figure of American cultural history, however, the companys rapid expansion overwhelmed the aging Sanders and he sold it to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. KFC was one of the first American fast food chains to expand internationally, opening outlets in Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Jamaica by the mid-1960s. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it experienced mixed fortunes domestically, in the early-1970s, KFC was sold to the spirits distributor Heublein, which was taken over by the R. J. Reynolds food and tobacco conglomerate, that sold the chain to PepsiCo. The chain continued to expand overseas, however, and in 1987 and it has since expanded rapidly in China, which is now the companys single largest market. PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as Tricon Global Restaurants, which changed its name to Yum. KFCs original product is fried chicken pieces, seasoned with Sanders recipe of 11 herbs. The constituents of the recipe represent a notable trade secret, larger portions of fried chicken are served in a cardboard bucket, which has become a well known feature of the chain since it was first introduced by franchisee Pete Harman in 1957. KFC is known for its former and current slogan Finger Lickin Good, Harland Sanders was born in 1890 and raised on a farm outside Henryville, Indiana. When Sanders was five years old, his father died, forcing his mother to work at a canning plant and this left Sanders, as the eldest son, to care for his two younger siblings. After he reached seven years of age, his mother taught him how to cook, after leaving the family home at the age of 13, Sanders passed through several professions, with mixed success. In 1930, he took over a Shell filling station on US Route 25 just outside North Corbin, Kentucky and it was here that he first served to travelers the recipes that he had learned as a child, fried chicken and other dishes such as steaks and country ham. After four years of serving from his own dining table, Sanders purchased the larger filling station on the other side of the road
31.
Gasoline
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Gasoline /ˈɡæsəliːn/, known as petrol /ˈpɛtrəl/ outside North America, is a transparent, petroleum-derived liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the distillation of petroleum. On average, a 42-gallon barrel of oil yields about 19 US gallons of gasoline when processed in an oil refinery. The characteristic of a gasoline blend to resist igniting too early is measured by its octane rating. Gasoline is produced in several grades of octane rating, sometimes, gasoline also contains ethanol as an alternative fuel, for economic or environmental reasons. Gasoline, as used worldwide in the vast number of combustion engines used in transport and industry, has a significant impact on the environment. Gasoline may also enter the environment uncombusted, as liquid and as vapors, from leakage and handling during production, transport and delivery, from tanks, from spills. As an example of efforts to control leakage, many storage tanks are required to have extensive measures in place to detect. Gasoline contains benzene and other known carcinogens, Gasoline inhalation can produce an intense high, however the practice is thought to cause severe organ damage, including mental retardation. The first automotive combustion engines, so-called Otto engines, were developed in the last quarter of the 19th century in Germany, the fuel was a relatively volatile hydrocarbon obtained from coal gas. With a boiling point near 85 °C, it was suited for early carburetors. The development of a spray nozzle carburetor enabled the use of less volatile fuels, further improvements in engine efficiency were attempted at higher compression ratios, but early attempts were blocked by knocking. In the 1920s, antiknock compounds were introduced by Thomas Midgley Jr. and Boyd and this innovation started a cycle of improvements in fuel efficiency that coincided with the large-scale development of oil refining to provide more products in the boiling range of gasoline. In the 1950s oil refineries started to focus on high octane fuels, the 1970s witnessed greater attention to the environmental consequences of burning gasoline. These considerations led to the out of TEL and its replacement by other antiknock compounds. Subsequently, low-sulfur gasoline was introduced, in part to preserve the catalysts in modern exhaust systems, Gasoline is the term that is used in North America to refer to the most popular automobile fuel. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first use to 1863, when it was spelled gasolene and it was never a trademark, although it may have been derived from older trademarks such as Cazeline and Gazeline. Variant spellings of gasoline had been used to refer to raw petroleum since the 16th century, Petrol is the preferred term in most Commonwealth countries
32.
OECD
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 35 member countries, founded in 1960 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index and are regarded as developed countries, in 1948, the OECD originated as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, led by Robert Marjolin of France, to help administer the Marshall Plan. This would be achieved by allocating American financial aid and implementing programs for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. The OECDs headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris, the OECD is funded by contributions from member states at varying rates. And had a budget of EUR363 million in 2015. It started its operations on 16 April 1948, and originated from the work done by the Committee of European Economic Co-operation in 1947 in preparation for the Marshall Plan, since 1949, it was headquartered in the Château de la Muette in Paris, France. After the Marshall Plan ended, the OEEC focused on economic issues, in 1958, a European Nuclear Energy Agency was set up under the OEEC. By the end of the 1950s, with the job of rebuilding Europe effectively done, some leading countries felt that the OEEC had outlived its purpose and this reconstituted organisation would bring the US and Canada, who were already OEEC observers, on board as full members. It would also set to work away on bringing in Japan. Following the 1957 Rome Treaties to launch the European Economic Community, the Convention was signed in December 1960 and the OECD officially superseded the OEEC in September 1961. It consisted of the European founder countries of the OEEC plus the United States and Canada, the official founding members are, During the next 12 years Japan, Finland, Australia, and New Zealand also joined the organisation. Yugoslavia had observer status in the organisation starting with the establishment of the OECD until its dissolution as a country, the OECD created agencies such as the OECD Development Centre, International Energy Agency, and Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering. Unlike the organizations of the United Nations system, OECD uses the spelling organisation with an s in its name rather than organization, in 1989, after the Revolutions of 1989, the OECD started to assist countries in Central Europe to prepare market economy reforms. This programme also included an option for these countries. As a result of this, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, in the 1990s, a number of European countries, now members of the European Union, expressed their willingness to join the organisation. In 1995, Cyprus applied for membership, but, according to the Cypriot government, in 1996, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania signed a Joint Declaration expressing willingness to become full members of the OECD. Slovenia also applied for membership that same year, in 2005, Malta applied to join the organisation. The EU is lobbying for admission of all EU member states, Romania reaffirmed in 2012 its intention to become a member of the organisation through the letter addressed by the Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta to OECD Secretary-General José Ángel Gurría
33.
Consumption (economics)
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Consumption is major concept in economics and is also studied by many other social sciences. Economists are particularly interested in the relationship between consumption and income, as modeled with the consumption function, different schools of economists define production and consumption differently. Other economists define consumption much more broadly, as the aggregate of all activity that does not entail the design, production and marketing of goods. The consumption function is a function that expresses consumer spending in terms of its determinants, such as income. The Keynesian consumption function is known as the absolute income hypothesis, as it only bases consumption on current income. Criticism of this led to the development of Milton Friedmans permanent income hypothesis. Consumption is defined in part by comparison to production, in the tradition of the Columbia School of Household Economics, also known as the New Home Economics, commercial consumption has to be analyzed in the context of household production. The opportunity cost of time affects the cost of home-produced substitutes and therefore demand for commercial goods, the elasticity of demand for consumption goods is also a function of who performs chores in households and how their spouses compensate them for opportunity costs of home production. Different schools of economists define production and consumption differently, other economists define consumption much more broadly, as the aggregate of all economic activity that does not entail the design, production and marketing of goods and services. Consumption can also be measured by a variety of different ways such as energy in energy economics metrics, aggregate consumption is a component of aggregate demand. According to the UN, today’s consumption is undermining the environmental resource base, and the dynamics of the consumption-poverty-inequality-environment nexus are accelerating. Developing countries like India, as they move down the path of copying the consumption patterns of developed economies, some economists talk about putting a price on using earths resources which is in addition to the cost of just extracting them. Die Broke is a similar idea, distinction, A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. The World of Goods, Towards an Anthropology of Consumption, ivanova, Diana, Stadler, Konstantin, Steen-Olsen, Kjartan, Wood, Richard, Vita, Gibran, Tukker, Arnold, Hertwich, Edgar G. Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption. An essay examining the strengths and weaknesses of Keyness theory of consumption
34.
Interest rate
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An interest rate, is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited or borrowed. The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the sum, the interest rate, the compounding frequency. It is defined as the proportion of an amount loaned which a lender charges as interest to the borrower and it is the rate a bank or other lender charges to borrow its money, or the rate a bank pays its savers for keeping money in an account. Annual interest rate is the rate over a period of one year, other interest rates apply over different periods, such as a month or a day, but they are usually annualised. A company borrows capital from a bank to buy assets for its business, in return, the bank charges the company interest. Base rate usually refers to the rate offered on overnight deposits by the central bank or other monetary authority. Annual percentage rate and effective annual rate or annual equivalent rate are used to help consumers compare products with different payment structures on a common basis, a discount rate is applied to calculate present value. Interest rate targets are a tool of monetary policy and are taken into account when dealing with variables like investment, inflation. The central banks of countries tend to reduce interest rates when they wish to increase investment. In the past two centuries, interest rates have been variously set either by national governments or central banks, during an attempt to tackle spiraling hyperinflation in 2007, the Central Bank of Zimbabwe increased interest rates for borrowing to 800%. Possibly before modern capital markets, there have been some accounts that savings deposits could achieve a return of at least 25%. Political short-term gain, Lowering interest rates can give the economy a short-run boost, under normal conditions, most economists think a cut in interest rates will only give a short term gain in economic activity that will soon be offset by inflation. The quick boost can influence elections, Most economists advocate independent central banks to limit the influence of politics on interest rates. Deferred consumption, When money is loaned the lender delays spending the money on consumption goods, since according to time preference theory people prefer goods now to goods later, in a free market there will be a positive interest rate. Inflationary expectations, Most economies generally exhibit inflation, meaning a given amount of money buys fewer goods in the future than it will now, the borrower needs to compensate the lender for this. Alternative investments, The lender has a choice between using his money in different investments, if he chooses one, he forgoes the returns from all the others. Different investments effectively compete for funds, risks of investment, There is always a risk that the borrower will go bankrupt, abscond, die, or otherwise default on the loan. This means that a lender generally charges a premium to ensure that, across his investments
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