Investment ... A thoroughly analyzed loan of money backed by collateral with greater immediate value than the loan amount may be considered an investment...
Business ... The etymology of "business" relates to the state of being busy either as an individual or society as a whole, doing commercially viable and profitable work. The term "business" has at least three usages, depending on the scope — the singular usage to mean a particular organization; the generalized usage to refer to a particular market sector, "the music business" and compound forms such as agribusiness; and the broadest meaning, which encompasses all activity by the community of suppliers of goods and services...
Vehicle Insurance ... Several jurisdictions have experimented with a "pay-as-you-drive" insurance plan which is paid through a gasoline tax (petrol tax). This would address issues of uninsured motorists and also charge based on the miles (kilometres) driven, which could theoretically increase the efficiency of the insurance, through streamlined collection...
Life Insurance ... The advantage for the policy owner is "peace of mind", in knowing that the death of the insured person will not result in financial hardship for loved ones. Life policies are legal contracts and the terms of the contract describe the limitations of the insured events...
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...
Tariff ... Tariffs and excise taxes were authorized by the United States Constitution and recommended by the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton in 1789 to tax foreign imports and set up low excise taxes on whiskey and a few other products to provide the Federal Government with enough money to pay its operating expenses and to redeem at full value U. S...
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...
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...
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...
Unit Of Account ... In modern economies, money in the form of currency usually serves the role of the standard unit of account...
Marketing Plan ... To be most effective, the plan has to be formalized, usually in written form, as a formal "marketing plan." The essence of the process is that it moves from the general to the specific, from the vision to the mission to the goals to the corporate objectives of the organization, then down to the individual action plans for each part of the marketing program. It is also an interactive process, so that the draft output of each stage is checked to see what impact it has on the earlier stages, and is amended...
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...
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...
Health Insurance ... 1) a contract between an insurance provider (e.g. an insurance company or a government) and an individual or his sponsor (e.g...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Demand Deposit ... Money Supply Demand deposits are usually considered part of the narrowly defined money supply, as they can be used, via checks and drafts, as a means of payment for goods and services and to settle debts... During times of financial crisis, bank customers will withdraw their funds in cash, leading to a drop in demand deposits and a shrinking of the money supply...
Marketing ... It can also be defined as "the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships, in order to capture value from customers in return". This replaces the previous definition, which still appears in the AMA's dictionary: "an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders." It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
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...
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...
Representative Money ... According to economist William Stanley Jevons (1875), representative money arose because metal coins often were "variously clipped or depreciated" during use, but using representations for the value stored in banks ensured its worth...
Tax Rate ... In a jurisdiction with a flat tax on earnings, every taxpayer pays the same percentage of income, regardless of income or consumption. Some proponents of this system propose to exempt a fixed amount of earnings (such as the first $10,000) from the flat tax...
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...