Insurance ... Insurance is a commercial enterprise and a major part of the financial services industry, but individual entities can also self-insure through saving money for possible future losses...
Investment ... A thoroughly analyzed loan of money backed by collateral with greater immediate value than the loan amount may be considered an investment...
Value Added Tax ... The "value added" to a product by a business is the sale price charged to its customer, minus the cost of materials and other taxable inputs. A VAT is like a sales tax in that ultimately only the end consumer is taxed...
Inheritance Tax ... In some jurisdictions the term used is death duty. For historical reasons that term is used colloquially (though not legally) in the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth nations...
Wealth Tax ... In France, the net worth tax on "natural persons" is called the "solidarity tax on wealth". In other places, the tax may be called, or be known as, a "Capital Tax", an "Equity Tax", a "Net Worth Tax", a "Net Wealth Tax", or just a "Wealth Tax"...
Commodity Money ... Aspects Commodity money is to be distinguished from representative money which is a certificate or token which can be exchanged for the underlying commodity, but only as the trade is good for that source and the product... A key feature of commodity money is that the value is directly perceived by the users of this money, who recognize the utility or beauty of the tokens as they would recognize the goods themselves... Since payment by commodity generally provides a useful good, commodity money is similar to barter, but is distinguishable from it in having a single recognized unit of exchange...
Currency ... However, nearly all contemporary money systems are based on fiat money – modern currency has value only by government order (fiat)... Originally money was a form of receipt, representing grain stored in temple granaries in Sumer in ancient Mesopotamia, then Ancient Egypt...
Standard Of Deferred Payment ... Functions of money Money is held to serve multiple distinguished but related functions, of which a "standard of deferred payment" is one... The most commonly distinguished functions of money are as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value, and, sometimes, a standard of deferred payment, summarized in a mnemonic rhyme of older economics texts: "Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a store." However, many newer texts do not distinguish the function of a standard of deferred payment, subsuming it in other functions... Since the value of money – be it dollars, gold, or others – may fluctuate over time via inflation and deflation, the value of deferred payments (the real level of debt) likewise fluctuates...
Unit Of Account ... In modern economies, money in the form of currency usually serves the role of the standard unit of account...
Tax Noncompliance ... Groups that do not comply with taxes include tax protesters and tax resisters. Tax protesters attempt not to pay tax believing that they have discovered interpretations of the law that show that they are not subject to being taxed, whilst tax resisters refuse to pay a tax for conscientious reasons (because the resister does not want to support the government or some of its activities)...
Consumption Tax ... In Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore this form of national tax is called a Goods and Services Tax (GST). In Canada it is also called Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) when combined with a provincial sales tax...
Payment Protection Insurance ... Credit insurance can be purchased to insure all kinds of consumer loans including car loans, loans from finance companies, and home mortgage borrowing. Credit card agreements may include a form of PPI cover as standard...
Fiat Money ... Fiat money originated in 11th century China, and its use became widespread during the Yuan and Ming dynasties... Characteristics The term fiat money has been defined variously as: any money declared by a government to be legal tender... state-issued money which is neither convertible by law to any other thing, nor fixed in value in terms of any objective standard...
Interest Rate ... Interest rates targets are also a vital tool of monetary policy and are taken into account when dealing with variables like investment, inflation, and unemployment. Historical interest rates In the past two centuries, interest rates have been variously set either by national governments or central banks...
Store Of Value ... With money being a storage of value was the start of monetary inflation cycles where the under and over abundance of market goods can lead to price instability...
Real Estate ... It is a legal term in jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, United States of America, Dubai, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and The Bahamas. Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction and concerns such things as commercial and residential property ownership, development, and transactions...
Monetary Policy ... Overview Monetary policy rests on the relationship between the rates of interest in an economy, that is, the price at which money can be borrowed, and the total supply of money... Where currency is under a monopoly of issuance, or where there is a regulated system of issuing currency through banks which are tied to a central bank, the monetary authority has the ability to alter the money supply and thus influence the interest rate (to achieve policy goals)... A policy is referred to as contractionary if it reduces the size of the money supply or increases it only slowly, or if it raises the interest rate...
Inflation Targeting ... Because interest rates and the inflation rate tend to be inversely related, the likely moves of the central bank to raise or lower interest rates become more transparent under the policy of inflation targeting. Examples: if inflation appears to be above the target, the bank is likely to raise interest rates...
Medium Of Exchange ... A medium of exchange permits the value of goods to be assessed and rendered in terms of the intermediary, most often, a form of money widely accepted to buy any other good... Definition Money is the common Medium of Exchange and its most important and essential function is that it is 'measure of value'... Critics of the prevailing system of fiat money argue that fiat money is the root cause of the continuum of economic crises, since it leads to the dominance of fraud, corruption, and manipulation precisely because it does not satisfy the criteria for a medium of exchange cited above...
Local Currency ... A few such currencies, however, developed into monetary systems in their own right. The idea of using free banking to produce an alternative, community-level currency dates back at least as far as the German Credit Unions in the 1800s...
Money ... Money originated as commodity money, but nearly all contemporary money systems are based on fiat money... Fiat money is without intrinsic use value as a physical commodity, and derives its value by being declared by a government to be legal tender; that is, it must be accepted as a form of payment within the boundaries of the country, for "all debts, public and private"... The money supply of a country consists of currency (banknotes and coins) and bank money (the balance held in checking accounts and savings accounts)...
Banknote ... Banknotes offer an alternative bearer form of money, but the advantages and disadvantages between the two forms of bearer money are complex and so in different circumstances the overall advantage can lie with either form... Numerous banks and nations have incorporated many types of countermeasures in order to keep the money secure... Paper money originated in two forms: drafts, which are receipts for value held on account, and "bills", which were issued with a promise to convert at a later date...