Posts

Showing posts with the label business language

What is a zero-sum game?

Image
A zero-sum game is  a competition/conflict in which 'the winner takes all'. Whatever is gained on one side is lost on the other.

What is a bailout? Where does the word come from?

Image
Bailout  has become closely associated with the idea of financial rescue -  to bail out the Greece etc.   But the word has many subtle usages - and two spellings! 1.  bail/bale  is to abandon abruptly as in making an emergency exit from an aeroplane in a parachute.  2.  to bail out  is to remove water from a leaky boat. 3. It is now more common to use  bail   in a figurative/metaphorical sense: The minister has bailed on the government's housing policy ( announced his opposition) . The pilot bailed out The actor bailed on the script  (stopped reading his lines with any show of conviction)  4. 'Bail out' is also used metaphorically but usually with a closer connection to the literal meaning:  The pilot bailed out of his plane. 5. The noun is sometimes spelled as one word:  bailout. 6.   Bail or   bale  - the spelling is disputed but  bail  is probably used more frequently. Both spellings are allowed by most dictionaries.  A version of this pos

What does stalwart mean? Where does the word come from?

Image
Atticus Finch:the stalwart hero of To Kill a Mockingbird  A stalwart person is reliable, dependable, resolute (or inflexible depending on your perspective.) The word is probably a  14th Century Scottish variant on a old English term: stælwierðe "good, serviceable," In the US the term acquired a political dimension with a section of the Republican Party  that refused to abandon its Civil War hostility to the south. They became known as the 'Stalwart Party', a label that stuck. A version of this post is included in the  English FAQ Teaching Pack   Download for only £1.99 with offer code CQDWKF0

What is the difference between inflation & deflation?

Put simply, inflation is when prices rise. The result is that money loses its value.  Deflation is when prices go down and money increases its relative value.    Financial historian Amity Shales summarises the issues Deflation ... hurts good people, strivers who over-borrow. {It} can cause depressions, as the U.S. saw in the early 1930s ... In the Great Depression, there wasn’t enough money around -- literally. Lacking cash, banks collapsed, and good people did lose homes or farms. More banks collapsed. { But }..... Deflation doesn’t always spell apocalypse. It can coexist with prosperity -- or even perpetuate it. There was deflation in the 1920s. Prices fell in 1923, and 1925 through 1928. The money shortage hit one sector, farming, hard.   Overall, the economy grew. Unemployment stayed low. Vigilance on inflation kept prices stable. Stable prices made life easier. For example Harvard’s tuition stood at the same level, $150, between 1870 and the beginning of World War II.

What is graphene?

Image
The new silicon? Graphene has been called a "miracle material" and it is thought that it could become as common as plastic in a few years. It is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb, but it is stronger than diamond, more conductive than copper and more flexible than rubber. Some scientists believe that graphene will be the key element in driving product innovation in the near future. Posted with Blogsy

What is an escrow account?

Image
An escrow account is an account managed by a bank and dedicated to a special purpose - for example, the 'bail-out fund' created by the European Union to refinance member states. If Portugal did not have the funds to repay it debts, it could (temporarily) avoid credit default by drawing funds from the escrow account. That might work for the smaller economies. But for Italy? Or France? Who will finance this safety net? And if they money was needed, would this mean a severe  haircut  for those funding the escrow account?

What is a T-Bill?

Image
Treasury Bills are what the US government uses to borrow money. A T-Bill has always been seen as one of the safest forms of investment because it offers a guaranteed return - barring the complete collapse of the world financial system! WiseGeek   explains how it works: The smallest face value for a T -Bill is $1,000 US Dollars (USD). The T -Bill is sold at a discount, which is determined by the Bureau of Public Debt, but the Treasury pays the full face value when it is redeemed. For example, an investor might purchase a 90-day T -Bill for $900 USD, and earn a $100 USD return on the investment when the T -Bill is redeemed. Unlike many other securities, a T -Bill does not bear interest, but the return on a T -Bill is highly predictable and very stable.  T-Bonds have come to the fore recently as the US Treasury struggles to manage the financial crisis - see here

What is a credit default swap?

Image
Warren Buffett famously described 'derivatives' like CDS as 'financial weapons of mass destruction'. Here is a description of how they work. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine Warren Buffett Invests Like a Girl: And Why You Should, Too (Motley Fool)

What is a basis point?

Image
The cost of insuring Treasuries rose five basis points to 54.5 basis points, according to CMA prices for credit-default swaps. Credit-default swaps' were the primary cause of the financial collapse in 2008. A basis point is 1/100th of one percent (0.001%). Not a commonplace calculation and most accountants would not need to trouble with it in most transactions. But basis points are part of everyday conversation in Ireland, Greece, Portugal and now Italy. This is because the cost of insuring government debt is calculated to basis points as this recent example from the financial press shows:  Italian five-year CDS was 69 basis points wider at 512 basis points, nearing its record of 521 basis points hit on Sept. 21, according to data-provider Markit. A CDS is a credit default swop - a form of insurance of mind-bending complexity. You can see a short video explanation here. Financial Accounting As a Second Language Wall Street Lingo: Thousands of Investment Terms Explain

Can good writing be taught?

Image
Not according to one of the best contemporary essayists, Jacob Eptsein: A fter thirty years of teaching a university course in something called advanced prose style, my accumulated wisdom on the subject, inspissated into a single thought, is that writing cannot be taught, though it can be learned—and that, friends, is the sound of one hand clapping. A. J. Liebling offers a complementary view, more concise and stripped of paradox, which runs: “The only way to write is well, and how you do it is your own damn business.” Learning to write sound, interesting, sometimes elegant prose is the work of a lifetime. The only way I know to do it is to read a vast deal of the best writing available, prose and poetry, with keen attention, and find a way to make use of this reading in one’s own writing. The first step is to become a slow reader.  Read the full article here

Is it bale? Or bail? And what about bailout?

Image
The word bailout has become closely associated with the idea of financial rescue -    to bail out the banks.  But it has many subtle usages - and two spellings! 1. The literal use of bail/bale is to abandon abruptly as in making an emergency exit from an aeroplane in a parachute.  2. The literal meaning of   to bail out  is to remove water from a leaky boat.  3. It is now more common to use bail   in a figurative/metaphorical sense: The minister has bailed on the government's housing policy ( announced his opposition) . The actor bailed on the script (stopped reading his lines with any show of conviction)  4. 'Bail out' is also used metaphorically but usually with a closer connection to the literal meaning: The pilot bailed out of his plane but not Bob has bailed out on us and gone home. 5. The noun is sometimes spelled as one word: bailout. 6. There is a dispute over the spelling of bail and bale - bail is probably used more frequently but both are allowed b

What is a Ponzi scheme?

Image
Texas Governor Rick Perry caused some controversy in recent Republican Presidential Debat by referring to the US social security system as a Ponzi scheme. Here's what he was alluding to: A Ponzi or pyramid scheme attracts investors by offering very high and consistent profits. In reality these 'profits' do not exist - early investors are paid with the money contributed by later ones. The original Charles Ponzi (1882 -1949) was not the first to run a pyramid scheme, but the collapse of his Boston-based financial fund in 1921 became an international scandal. All Ponzi schemes are eventually destroyed by the thing that sustains them: confidence. While the scheme is successful there does not appear to be a problem. The infamous Madoff fund prospered for decades until the financial crisis of 2008. It was when investors tried to withdraw their capital that the fraud was revealed. The use of the term Ponzi Scheme is no longer restricted to describing direct financial f

Does language shape the way we think?

Image
Do the languages we speak shape the way we think? Do they merely express thoughts? Or do the structures in languages (without our knowledge or consent) shape the very thoughts we wish to express? Provocative article is WSJ from Stanford psychology professor challenging - or at least refining - Chomsky's theory of a 'universal language'. How do we come to be the way we are? Why do we think the way we do? An important part of the answer, it turns out, is in the languages we speak.  Full text here On Nature and Languag by Noah Chomskye