Economic and Political Terms
Asymmetric Information is where one party in a transaction has less information than the other.
Balance of Payment is the summation of imports and exports made between one countries and the other countries that it trades with.
Balance of trade: The difference in value over a period of time between a country's imports and exports.
Barter system: System where there is an exchange of goods without involving money.
Base year: In the construction of an index, the year from which the weights assigned to the different components of the index is drawn. It is conventional to set the value of an index in its base year equal to 100.
Bear: An investor with a pessimistic market outlook; an investor who expects prices to fall and so sells now in order to buy later at a lower price. A Bear Market is one which is trending downwards or losing value.
Bid price: The highest price an investor is willing to pay for a stock.
Bill of exchange: A written, dated, and signed three-party instrument containing an unconditional order by a drawer that directs a drawee to pay a definite sum of money to a payee on demand or at a specified future date. Also known as a draft. It is the most commonly used financial instrument in international trade.
Birth rate: The number of births in a year per 1,000 population.
Bond: A certificate of debt (usually interest-bearing or discounted) that is issued by a government or corporation in order to raise money; the bondissuer is required to pay a fixed sum annually until maturity and then a fixed sum to repay the principal. Bonds guide.
Boom: A state of economic prosperity, as in boom times.
Break even: This is a term used to describe a point at which revenues equal costs (fixed and variable).
Bretton Woods: An international monetary system operating from 1946-1973. The value of the dollar was fixed in terms of gold, and every other country held its currency at a fixed exchange rate against the dollar; when trade
Balance of Payment is the summation of imports and exports made between one countries and the other countries that it trades with.
Balance of trade: The difference in value over a period of time between a country's imports and exports.
Barter system: System where there is an exchange of goods without involving money.
Base year: In the construction of an index, the year from which the weights assigned to the different components of the index is drawn. It is conventional to set the value of an index in its base year equal to 100.
Bear: An investor with a pessimistic market outlook; an investor who expects prices to fall and so sells now in order to buy later at a lower price. A Bear Market is one which is trending downwards or losing value.
Bid price: The highest price an investor is willing to pay for a stock.
Bill of exchange: A written, dated, and signed three-party instrument containing an unconditional order by a drawer that directs a drawee to pay a definite sum of money to a payee on demand or at a specified future date. Also known as a draft. It is the most commonly used financial instrument in international trade.
Birth rate: The number of births in a year per 1,000 population.
Bond: A certificate of debt (usually interest-bearing or discounted) that is issued by a government or corporation in order to raise money; the bondissuer is required to pay a fixed sum annually until maturity and then a fixed sum to repay the principal. Bonds guide.
Boom: A state of economic prosperity, as in boom times.
Break even: This is a term used to describe a point at which revenues equal costs (fixed and variable).
Bretton Woods: An international monetary system operating from 1946-1973. The value of the dollar was fixed in terms of gold, and every other country held its currency at a fixed exchange rate against the dollar; when trade