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J.Dean,
University of Versailles,
@: "jdeureka@yahoo.com".
March 2014.
Going Green: Glossary
(RE: environmentalism [US & global], American history & civilization, plus US & global business, govt., politics,
mass media & economics' terms pertaining to green issues, mainly concepts, ideas, laws & policies rather than
people -- circa March 1, 2014. See also: Dean, Timeline. Plus, for a glossary of people & concepts in environmentalism, see Appendix 1 in Merchant's American Environmental History [2007] as cited below)
altruism: It is often alleged that altruism is inconsistent with economic rationality, which
assumes that people behave selfishly. Certainly, much economic analysis is
concerned with how individuals behave, and homo economicus (economic man) is
usually assumed to act in his or her self-interest. However, self-interest does not
necessarily mean selfish.
Some economic models in the field of behavioral economics assume that selfinterested individuals behave altruistically because they get some benefit, or utility,
from doing so. For instance, it may make them feel better about themselves, or be a
useful insurance policy against social unrest, say. Some economic models go further
and relax the traditional assumption of fully rational behavior by simply assuming
that people sometimes behave altruistically, even if this may be against their selfinterest. Either way, there is much economic literature about charity, international aid,
public spending and redistributive taxation. (q.: source: "Economics A-Z", by The
Economist, 2014 edn., see bibiography)
Amendment 1 - US Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” See also:
"Citizens United v. Federal..."
American Dream: see @: » http://mankel.free.fr/AmericanDream/literary_overview. html «;
which site notes: « While the dream itself dates back much further than the
discovery of America, the expression "the American dream" was created as
recently as 1931 to give a name to "the greatest contribution we have as yet made to
the thought and welfare of the world" (Adams, p. VIII, ed. 1931). Since then it has
been used with regard to almost any aspect of life in America, both negatively and
positively. » NB: ultimately is this phrase a useless -- but unavoidable -- analytic
tool? If you must use it, please kindly note at least the contrast between M. L. King's
"I have a dream..." and Scarface's dream of wealth ("The World Is Yours"); spirituality
versus materialism; the City on a Hill versus Baghdad-on-Hudson (the 19th c. name
for sinful, splendiferous, sexy, expensive NYCity ).
anthropogenic: caused by humans; as in "anthropogenic pollution".
axe: Wall-Street speak for the stock or other product a firlm tries to get rid of by oersuading
clients to invest in it -- because it is not sen as having a lot of potential profit for the
firm. (q.: G. Smith, Why I Left Goldman Sachs, see bibliography)
baby boomer generation: in the USA that generation born between 1945 to 1965. There is
no hard and fast rule about this demographic label, though it generally refers to the
children born to the USA's World War 2 couples. See also: "demographics".
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bailout (finance): a rescue from financial difficulties; often specifically refers to corporate or
financial sector bailouts.
ballot issue: a question that has been approved to be placed before the voters or is
otherwise required by law to be placed before the voters. “Ballot issue” does not
include the nomination or election of a candidate.
big data: "our ability to collect and analyze the vast amounts of data we are now
generating in the world" (as def. by B. Marr on "SmartData Collective").
big pharma: vernacular for the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies; for which,
see @: "http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/big+pharma".
biocentrism: the idea that all plants and animals are centers of life, and as such have
inherent worth and deserve the moral consideration of human beings (def. via C.
Merchant).
biodiversity: the rich variety of animal and plant species in a given habitat.
biomass: the total weight of all living matter in a particular area.
biosphere: has the double meaning of both the part of the earth and its atmosphere in which
living organisms exist or that is capable of supporting life and the living organisms
and their environment which together compose this living area.
boom and bust: See "business cycle" and "Hayek, Friedrich".
BRICS Nations: Brazil, Russian, India, China and South Africa; refers to world's currently
major expanding, exploding economies (often strong on State Capitalism).
bubble (financial, business): a situation in which prices for securities, specially stocks, rise
far above their actual value.
bucket list: people dying or on their way out, from a 2007 comedy-drama film The
Bucket List directed by Rob Reiner, starring Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman -main plot of which follows two terminally-ill men on a road trip with a wish list of things
to do before they "kick the bucket" -- i.e. die.
burn rate: speed at which a new firm or project consumes capital and credit, before
breaking-even and generating some income.
business: in the English language a far more diverse and meaningful word than in most
other European tongues. Hence the Collins English Dictionary – Complete and
Unabridged (2003) lists twenty separate meanings for "business", while The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2009) condenses the
meanings of "business" to a mere eleven.
business cycle (aka: boom and bust): a long-running pattern of economic growth and
recession. According to the Centre for International Business Cycle Research at
Columbia University, between 1854 and 1945 the average expansion lasted 29
months and the average contraction 21 months. Since the Second World War,
however, expansions have lasted almost twice as long, an average of 50 months, and
contractions have shortened to an average of only 11 months. Over the years,
economists have produced numerous theories of why economic activity fluctuates so
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much, none of them particularly convincing...by the late 1990s, some economists
claimed that technological innovation and globalization meant that the business cycle
was a thing of the past. Alas, they were soon proved wrong. (source: The Economist,
see glossary Bibliography)
campaign: the organized effort to expressly advocate the nomination, election, or
defeat of a candidate for state or local office in Iowa. “Campaign” also means the
organized effort to expressly advocate the passage or defeat of a ballot issue.
candidate: any individual who has taken affirmative action to seek nomination or
election to a state or local office.
capitalism: The winner, at least for now, of the battle of economic 'isms'. Capitalism is a
free-market system built on private ownership, in particular, the idea that owners of
capital have property rights that entitle them to earn a profit as a reward for putting
their capital at risk in some form of economic activity.
Opinion (and practice) differs considerably among capitalist countries about
what role the state should play in the economy. But everyone agrees that, at the very
least, for capitalism to work the state must be strong enough to guarantee property
rights. According to Karl Marx, capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction,
but so far this has proved a more accurate description of Marx's progeny,
Communism. (Source, "Economics A-Z terms", by The Economist, See: glossary
bibliography).
carrying capacity: the ability of a given environment to support use of its resources without
permanent degradation.
cash crop: a crop produced for export profit rather than local consumption or subsistence.
chaos theory: field of study in mathematics with applications in meteorology, physics,
engineering, economics, biology and elsewhere. With regard to environmentalism
some use chaos theory to question the systems thinking of an ecosystem. Thus
chaos theory holds that natural systems are always exposed to stress, shock and
change -- long before humans had any impact -- and so ecosystems may have
multiple equilibria which evolve over time. Traditional ecosystem thinking holds with
only one stable equilibrium.
Chapter 11: Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits
reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11
bankruptcy
is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole
proprietorship and to individuals, although it is most prominently used by corporate
entities. In contrast, Chapter 7 governs the process of a liquidation bankruptcy, while
Chapter 13 provides a reorganization process for the majority of private individuals.
Chapter 13: Chapter 13, Title 11, United States Code, more commonly known as "Chapter
13", is a chapter of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code governing a form of bankruptcy in the
United States. Chapter 13 allows individuals to undergo a financial reorganization
supervised by a federal bankruptcy court.
charter school: an experimental public school for kindergarten through grade 12;
created and organized by teachers and parents and community leaders; operates
independently of other schools; these primary or secondary schools receive
public money (and like other schools, may also receive private donations) but are
not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public
schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain
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results, which are set forth in each school's charter; in USA the idea began in late
1980s.
Christopher, Christopher: while Deputy Secretary of State in the Carter Administration (19771981), Warren Christopher (1925-2011) was the first person in this office who
pledged to make environmental issues "part of the mainstream of American foreign
policy" -- the two key reasons Christopher gave were first that environmental issues
transcend borders & oceans "to threaten directly the health, prosperity and jobs of
American citizens." Secondly he stated frankly that "addressing natural resource
issues is frequently critical to achieving political and economic stability and to
pursuing our strategic goals around the world." (See bibliography: "Christopher,
Warren" & U.S. Department of State citations).
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), is a US constitutional
law case, in which the United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment
prohibits the government from restricting political independent expenditures by
corporations, associations, or labor unions. For full legal text see @:
"http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2008/2008_08_205#opinion"
class, USA, see special NYTimes supplement "Class Matters" @:
"http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index
_01.html"; &, in this glossary, the "poverty in the USA" entry (below).
"Community Right to Know" law, US: of 1986 asserted that any community could obtain
access to the types of chemicals used in local industries and the quantities of
pollutants the industries released. The law gave community groups a basis for local
action.
conflict of interest (US law, government, politics): A term used to describe the situation in
which a public official or fiduciary who, contrary to the obligation and absolute duty to
act for the benefit of the public or a designated individual, exploits the relationship for
personal benefit, typically pecuniary.
Congress: the legislative branch of the US government -- made up of the Senate
and the House of Representative.
conservation: the wise and frugal use of natural resources for the benefit of present and
future generations. (def.: C. Merchant)
conservation easement: a voluntary restriction on land preventing development on the
property in order to retain its natural condition. The restriction will remain on the
property for all subsequent property owners unless it can be successfully removed by
court order or by agreement of all affected parties. Donors of a ce receive tax
benefits, while the public benefits from open space, access, and recreation.
Constitution, US: the authoritative online site is that of the National Archives; see @:
"http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html". The US Constitution
itself was drawn up in 1787; since then twenty-seven amendments have been
added. The first ten, called The Bill of Rights, were adopted in 1791. Since its
inception, the United States has had only one Constitution.
Constitutional amendment process, US: is long and slow; many attempts have been
made, very few have succeeded. Amendment 27, for example, was originally
proposed Sept. 25, 1789, but not ratified until May 7, 1992. For reasons why it's
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such a complicated, lengthy business, see @: "http://www.archives.gov/federalregister/constitution/".
Corporate scandals: allegations of unethical behavior by people acting within or on behalf of
a corporation & often include accounting fraud. A partial list of major Euro-Amertican
examples since the 1970s includes;
2006 HP Spying scandal; delphia scandal; BAE Systems bribery scandal in Saudi Arabia (Al
Yamamah contract) ; Bre-X scandal; Clearstream, which has been qualified as "the greatest
financial scandal in Luxembourg" (Clearstream is a clearing house, i.e. sort of a "bank of
banks", used to centralize credit & debit between banks and other financial organizations; as
of 2006, still unresolved; Compass Group, bribed the United Nations in order to win
business; Enron accounting fraud, involving Arthur Andersen; Exxon overreporting of oil
reserves; Fannie Mae underreporting of profit; · Firestone Tire and Rubber Company for use
of child labor; Ford Pinto scandal; Guinness affair; Hafskip's collapse; Haliburton
overcharging government contracts; Harken Energy Scandal; · Lernout & Hauspie
accounting fraud; Lockheed bribery scandal in Germany, Japan, & Netherlands; MG Rover
Group accounts & pensions scandal; Morrison-Knudsen scandal Led to William Agee's
ouster; Norttel executives overstate post-dot-com recovery earnings in order to earn
bonuses; One.Tel collapse; Options backdating involving over 100 companies; Parmalat
accounting scandal & mutual fund fraud; Phar-Mor company lied to shareholders. CEO
eventually sentenced to prison for fraud and company eventually became bankrupt;
RadioShack CEO David Edmondson lied about attaining a B.A. degree from Pacific Coast
Baptist College in California; Refco, Inc. commodities & futures scandal involving hidden
debts involving underwritting firms Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Bank of
America Corp; Rite Aid accounting fraud; Royal Dutch Shell overstated its oil reserves twice,
it downgraded 3.9 billion barrels, or about 20 percent of its total holdings; Salad oil scandal,
where millions in loans were obtained on largely nonexistent inventories of salad oil; Tyco
International; Worldcom; Xerox alleged accounting irregularities involving auditor KPMG,
causing restatement of financial results for the years 1997 through 2000 and fines for both
companies; David Wittig scandal; Northern Rock, UK.; Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010
(aka: BP oil spill, BP oil disaster, Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Macondo oil spill).
See: useful search engine online track down for these events & issues, @:
"http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Corporate+abuse".
corporation (in US business terms generally falls into 3 common-use categories):
1. Firm that meets certain legal requirements to be recognized as having a legal
existence, as an entity separate and distinct from its owners. Corporations are owned
by their stockholders (shareholders) who share in profits and losses generated
through the firm's operations, and have three distinct characteristics; (i) Legal
existence: a firm can (like a person) buy, sell, own, enter into a contract, and sue
other persons and firms, and be sued by them. It can do good and be rewarded, and
can commit offence and be punished. (ii) Limited liability: a firm and its owners are
limited in their liability to the creditors and other obligors only up to the resources of
the firm, unless the owners give personal-guaranties. (iii) Continuity of existence: a
firm can live beyond the life spans and capacity of its owners, because its ownership
can be transferred through a sale or gift of shares. 2. Municipal authority of a town or
city. 3. A very large, usually diversified, firm.
corporations and the thinker: The thinker’s « chronic militancy and carping have been a
vital factor in the Occident’s social progress. The blast of the intellectual’s trumpets
has not brought down or damaged our political and economic institutions. Napoleon
predicted that ink would do to our modern social organization what cannon had done
to the feudal system. Actually, in the Occident, ink has acted more as a detergent
than an explosive. » - Eric Hoffer, The Temper of Our Time (1967)
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cover your bets (aka: hedge your bets): Fig. to reduce one's loss on a bet or on an
investment by counterbalancing the loss in some way; e. g., "Corporation X
covered its bets by donating $50,000 to both candidates -- that way, whoever won,
Coporation X won too."
creative destruction: See "business cycle" and " Schumpeter, Joseph:"
credit default swap (finance, business): a swap in which the buyer makes a series of
payments and, in exchange, receives a guarantee against default from the seller
on a designated debt security. That is, the buyer transfers the risk that a debt
security, such as a bond, will default to the seller, and the seller receives a series of
fees for assuming this risk.
Crédit Mobilier Scandal : in U.S. history, illegal manipulation of contracts by a construction
and finance company -- Crédit Moblie of America -- which helped finance and bilk the
building of the Union Pacific Railroad (1865–1869); although exposed by US
investigative journalists & clearly involving the corrupt practices of the day's major US
politicians and businessmen -- the affair was settled out of court & no one went to jail.
crisis: "An unstable situation ripe for decisive change. As the then-Senator John F.
Kennedy said in a spech on April 12, 1959: 'When written in Chinese, the word
'crisis' is composed of two characters -- one represents danger and the other
represents opportunity.' " [from: Shafritz, American Government; see credits
below]
culture: growth and development; everything that humans do and monkeys don't.
data analysis: the process of evaluating data using analytical and logical reasoning to
examine each component of the data provided. This form of analysis is just one of the
many steps that must be completed when conducting a research experiment or doing
social surveillance work. Data from various sources is gathered, reviewed, and then
analyzed to form some sort of finding or conclusion. There are a variety of specific
data analysis method, some of which include data mining, text analytics,
business
intelligence, and data visualizations.
deep ecology movement: began 1973 with article by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess
"The Shallow and the Deep Long-Range Ecology Movements" & subsequently
promoted in USA by philosopher George Sessions, sociologist Bill Devall. Deep
ecology called for a new ecological worldview -- Naese called it a relational total-field
image -- that pursues a philosophy of person-in-nature rather than a separation of
people from nature.
definition: ”Reason is nothing but reckoning of the Consequences of generall
names agreed upon.” - Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651); “A description that
inadequately represents a much more complicated situation.” - Leonard Louis
Stevenson, Webster's Unafraid Dictionary (1967).
democracy (from the US viewpoint): . “All the ills of democracy can be cured by more
democracy.” - Alfred E. Smith (NYCity mayor, Democratic candidate for
President,1928).; democracy is “a political system which gives every man the right to
be his own oppressor.” - James Russell Lowell; democracy is “ the worst form of
government -- except for all the other systems that have ever been tried.” - Sir
Winston Churchill (whose mother was American).
demographics: people, and the statistical study of them.
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In the 200 years since Thomas Malthus forecast that population growth would
result in mass starvation, dire predictions based on demographic trends have come to
be taken with a pinch of salt. Even so, demography does matter. In developed
countries, economists have studied the impact of the post-war 'baby-boomer'
population bulge as it has grown older. In the 1980s, as the bulge dominated the
workforce, it may have contributed to a sharp, if temporary, rise in unemployment in
many countries. Boomers starting to save for retirement may have increased demand
for shares, so fuelling the bull stock market of the 1990s; as they retire and sell their
shares for spending money, they may cause a long bear market.
Furthermore, as they become elderly and retire, health-care spending and
retirement pensions are likely to eat up a growing share of GDP. To the extent that
these are provided by the state, this will mean increasing public spending and higher
taxes. But whether they are provided by the state or by the private sector, the ageing
of baby-boomers will impose a growing financial burden on the younger workers that
have to support them (see replacement rate). Economists have tried to measure the
extent of this burden using generational accounting, which looks at the amount of
wealth transferred from one generation to another over the lifetimes of the members
of each generation.
Economists have also developed many different theories to explain why
populations grow and why the fertility rate slowed sharply, to below the replacement
rate, in many developed countries during the 1990s. One explanation is based on the
notion that people have children so that there is somebody to look after them in old
age. Fertility rates fell because the state increasingly looked after retired people, and
infant mortality rates were lower so fewer births were required to ensure that there
were some children around in the parental dotage. Also, with a lower probability of a
child dying, it paid the parents to have fewer children and to channel their energy and
resources into maximizing the human capital of the few. Alternatively, it may have had
something to do with an important innovation: the cheap and easy availability of
reliable contraception. (Source: "Economics A-Z", by The Economist, See glossary
bibliogaphy)
deregulation (finance, business): the removal of government restrictions on an industry.
Those opposed to deregulation argue that without regulations the likelihood of fraud
and unfair practices such as insider trading increases. Many analysts also argue that
deregulation helps firms on solid financial footing and hurts those that are not.
derivative (finance, business): a financial contract whose value is based on, or "derived"
from, a traditional security -- such as a stock or bond --, an asset -- such as a
commodity --, or a market index. The value of nearly all derivatives are based on an
underlying asset, whether that is a stock, bond, currency, index, or something else
entirely. Derivative securities may be traded on an exchange or counter. Derivatives
are often traded as speculative investments or to reduce the risk of one's other
positions.
developing countries: A euphemism for the world's poor countries, also known, often
optimistically, as emerging economies [and once known as "Third World Countries"]
Some four-fifths of the world's 6 billion people already live in developing countries,
many of them in abject POVERTY. Developing countries account for less than onefifth of total world GDP.
Economists disagree about how likely--and how fast--developing
countries are to become developed. NEO-CLASSICAL ECONOMICS predicts that
poor countries will grow faster than richer ones. The reason is DIMINISHING
RETURNS on CAPITAL. Since poor countries start with less capital, they should reap
higher RETURNS than a richer country with more capital from each slice of new
INVESTMENT. But this CATCH-UP EFFECT (or convergence) is not supported by
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the data. For one thing, there is, in fact, no such thing as a typical developing country.
The official developing world includes the (sometimes) fast-growing Asian tigers and
the poorest nations in Africa. Studies of the relationship between GROWTH and GDP
per head in rich and poor countries found no evidence that poorer countries grew
faster. Indeed, if anything, poorer countries have grown more slowly.
DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS has argued that this is because poor
countries have unique problems that require different policy solutions from those
offered by conventional developed-world economics. But new ENDOGENOUS growth
theory instead argues that there is conditional convergence. Hold constant such
factors as a country's fertility rate, its HUMAN CAPITAL and its GOVERNMENT
policies (proxied by the share of current government spending in GDP), and poorer
countries generally grow faster than richer ones. Since, in reality, other factors are not
constant (not all countries have the same level of human capital or the same
government policies), absolute convergence does not happen.
Government policies seem to be crucial. Countries with broadly freemarket policies - in particular, FREE TRADE and the maintenance of secure
PROPERTY RIGHTS--have raised their growth rates. (Although some economists
argue that the Asian tigers are an exception to this free-market rule.) Open
economies have grown much faster on average than closed economies. Higher
PUBLIC SPENDING relative to GDP is usually associated with slower growth.
Furthermore, high INFLATION is bad for growth and so is political instability. The
poorest countries can indeed catch up. Their chances of doing so are maximized by
policies that give a greater role to COMPETITION and incentives, at home and
abroad.
Despite starting with a big disadvantage, there is evidence that some
developing countries do not help themselves because they squander the resources
they have. Institutions that produce effective governance of an economy are crucial.
Those countries that use their resources well can grow quickly. Indeed, the world's
fastest-growing economies are a small subgroup of exceptional performers among t
he poor countries.
(source: The Economist, See glossary bibliography)
dissent: political disagreement; CF journalist Edward R. Murrow: "We must not confuse
dissent with disloyalty." -- said March 7, 1954 TV news program See It Now, with
reference to Morrow's critical interview of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Dodd-Frank Act of 2012 (full, formal name is "The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act, though better known & most often referred to as "DoddFrank"): Born out of the Great Recession of 2008, initially proposed by the Obama
Administration in June 2009, signed into federal law by President Barack Obama on
July 21, 2010 -- Dodd-Frank brought the most significant changes to financial
regulation in the United States since the regulatory reform that followed the US Great
Depression (1929-1941). It made changes in the American financial regulatory
environment that affect all federal financial regulatory agencies and almost every part
of the nation's financial services industry. As with other major financial reforms, a
variety of critics have attacked the law, some argued it was not enough to prevent
another financial crisis or more "bail outs", and others argued it went too far and
unduly restricted financial institutions
For a brief yet detailed summary of Dod-Frank, see @:
"http://www.banking.senate.gov/public/_files/070110_Dodd_Frank_Wall_Street_Refor
m_comprehensive_summary_Final.pdf"
easement: a nonpossessory right to use another's property.Easements may be created by
express words of grant in a written document, by prescription (unrestricted usage
over time resulting in property rights),or by necessity,as when the law will force the grant of
ingress and egress rights for landlocked property.
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ecofeminism: examines women's historical and cultural connections to nature and draws on
women's activism to resolve environmental problems; originated in Europe, where
French feminist Françoise d'Eaubonne founded the Ecology-Feminism center in
1972, published Feminism or Death in 1974.
ecological economics: both a transdisciplinary & interdisciplinary field of academic research
that aims to address the interdependence and coevolution of human economies and
natural ecosystems over time and space. (def.:: freedictionary.com/wiki)
ecology: a branch of science, named by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, that explores the
relationships between and among organisms and their abiotic suroundings, or
environment.
ecosystem: a self-regulating and self-sustaining community of organisms that relate to each
other and to the larger environment. (def.: C. Merchant)
ecotage: the idea and practice promoted by the militant environmental group Earth First! in
the 1980s that nature can be saved by sabotaging the machines and equipment -- but
not the people -- that destroy it. Initially celebrated in Edward Abbey's Monkey
Wrench Gang of 1975.
efficiency (business): the comparison of what is actually produced or performed with
what
can be achieved with the same consumption of resources (money, time, labor, & so
forth). It is an important factor in determination of productivity.
elephant trade (Wall Street): a trade that brings in more than $1million to the firm in one hit.
( q.: G. Smith, Why I Left Goldman Sachs; see bibliography).
elites (social, cultural, national): .“There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds
of this are virtue and talent.” - Thomas Jefferson, letter of Oct. 28, 1813, to John
Adams. . "What defines & differentiates all societies is how they accomplish their
circulation of elites - the cyclical process of elite replacement over a period of time."
- Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923, Italian economist & sociologist) .
environment: the surroundings or aggregates of external conditions that influence the lives
of
individuals, populations, communities, and societies. [def.: C. Merchant]
environmental economics: the mainstream economic analysis of the environment by its
treatment of the economy as a subsystem of the ecosystem and its emphasis upon
preserving natural capital. (def.:: freedictionary.com/wiki)
Some people think capitalism is wholly bad for the environment as it is
based on consuming scarce resources. They want less consumption and greater
reliance on renewable resources. They oppose free trade because they favor selfsufficiency (autarky), or at least so-called fair trade, and because they believe it
encourages poorer countries to destroy their natural resources in order to get rich
quick. Although few professional economists would share these views, in
recent years many attempts have been made to incorporate environmental concerns
within mainstream economics.
The traditional measure of GDP incorporates only those things that
are paid for; this may include things that reduce the overall quality of life, including
harming the environment. For instance, cleaning up an oil spill will increase GDP if
people are paid for the clean-up. Attempts have been made to devise an alternative
environmentally friendly measure of national income, but so far progress has been
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limited. At the very least, traditional economists increasingly agree that maximizing
GDP growth does not necessarily equal maximizing social welfare.
Much of the damage done to the environment may be a result of
externalities. An externality can arise when people engaged in economic activity
do not have to take into account the full costs of what they are doing. For instance,
car drivers do not have to bear the full cost of making their contribution to global
warming, even though their actions may one day impose a huge financial burden on
society. One way to reduce externalities is to tax them, say, through a fuel tax.
Another is prohibition, say, limiting car drivers to one gallon of fuel per week. This
could result in black markets, however. Allowing trade in pollution rights may
encourage 'efficient pollution', with the pollution permits ending up in the hands of
those for which pollution has the greatest economic upside. As this would still allow
some environmental destruction, it might be unpopular with extreme greens.
There may be a case for international eco markets. For instance,
people in rich countries might pay people in poor countries to stop doing activities that
do environmental damage outside the poor countries, or that rich people disapprove
of, such as chopping down the rain forests. Choices on environmental policy, notably
on measures to reduce the threat of global warming, involve costs today with benefits
delayed until the distant future. How are these choices to be made?
Traditional cost-benefit analysis does not help much. In measuring costs and
benefits in the far distant future, two main things seem to intervene and spoil the
conventional calculations. One is uncertainty. We know nothing about what the state
of the world will be in 2200. The other is how much people today are willing to pay in
order to raise he welfare of others who are so remote that they can barely be
imagined, yet who seem likely to be much better off materially than people today.
Some economists take the view that the welfare of each future generation should be
given the same weight in the analysis as the welfare of today's. This implies that a
much lower discount rate should be used than the one appropriate for short-term
projects. Another option is to use a high discount rate for costs and benefits arising
during the first 30 or so years, then a lower rate or rates for more distant periods.
Many studies by economists and psychologists have found that people do in fact
discount the distant future at lower rates than they apply to the near future. (Source:
"Economics A-Z", by The Economist, See glossary bibliogaphy)
environmentalism: beliefs and actions taken to preserve the environment, encompassing a
range of impulses from preservation, or the intention to save undisturbed nature for
its own sake, to conservation, or the maintenance of nature for human use by present
and future generations. (def.: C. Merchant)
environmental justice: emerged as concept in USA early 1980s; term now has two uses.
First, a social movement in the USA whose focus is on the fair distribution of
environmental benefits and burdens. Second, an interdisciplinary body of social
science literature that includes, but is not limited to, theories of the environment,
theories of justice, environmental law and governance, environmental policy and
planning, development, sustainability, and political ecology. (Wiki def., based on
Schlosberg and Miller, see: bibliography)
exceptionalism, American -- a crucial term bandied about in US politics for the last three
generations with at least two meanings: (1) "I believe in American exceptionalism, just
as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in
Greek exceptionalism" -- B. Obama, April 4, 2009. (And, remember, his mother was
an anthropology professor!). (2) CF: " We're at the crossroads. Down one road is a
European centralized bureaucratic socialist welfare system in which politicians and
bureaucrats define the future. Down the other road is a proud, solid, reaffirmation of
American exceptionalism." -- Newt Ginrich, c. 2010. I..e.: (1) difference, identity,
11
distinction, its own qualities & values; (2) the best of the best, a nation like no other &
better than any other, with strong echoes of "Manifest Destiny" & the "American
Mission".
exotic: type of derivative that is far more complex than a plain-vanilla derivative & requires
sophisticated models to value it accurately. A very profitable, high-margin product for
Wall Street. ( q.: G. Smith, Why I Left Goldman Sachs; see bibliography).
expressly advocate: means “express advocacy”; as defined, e.g., in Iowa Code
section
68A.102(14) and 351—subrule 4.53(1) -- “express advocacy” includes
a
communication that uses any word, term, phrase, or symbol that exhorts an
individual to vote for or against a clearly identified candidate or for the passage or
defeat of a clearly identified ballot issue.
externality: an economic side-effect. Externalities are costs or benefits arising from an
economic activity that affect somebody other than the people engaged in the
economic activity and are not reflected fully in prices.
For instance, smoke pumped out by a factory may impose clean-up costs on
nearby residents; bees kept to produce honey may pollinate plants belonging to a
nearby farmer, thus boosting his crop. Because these costs and benefits do not form
part of the calculations of the people deciding whether to go ahead with the economic
activity they are a form of market failure, since the amount of the activity carried out if
left to the free market will be an inefficient use of resources. If the externality is
beneficial, the market will provide too little; if it is a cost, the market will supply too
much.
One potential solution is regulation: a ban, say. Another, when the externality
is negative, is a tax on the activity or, if the externality is positive, a subsidy. But the
most efficient solution to externalities is to require them to be included in the costings
of those engaged in the economic activity, so there is self-regulation.
For instance, the externality of pollution can be solved by creating property
rights over clean air, entitling their owner to a fee if they are infringed by a factory
pumping out smoke. According to the Coase theorem (named after a Nobel prizewinning economist, Ronald Coase), it does not matter who has ownership, so long as
property rights are fully allocated and completely free trade of all property rights is
possible. (Source: "Economics A-Z", by The Economist, See glossary bibliography)
family business (aka: family company, closed corporation, private corporation, privately held
corporation ): strictly speaking, a corporation that is entirely owned by the members
of a single family. And with a corporation owned by a few people then its shares have
no public market.
However, a business is also said to be family-owned if one person is the controlling
shareholder. That is, a person -- rather than a state, corporation, management trust,
or mutual fund -- can acquire enough shares to assure at least 20% of the voting
rights and the highest percentage of voting rights in comparison to other
shareholders. Today (as of 2013) one of the world's largest family-run-businesses
are Walmart (United States), Samsung Group (Korea), Tata Group (India) and
Foxconn (Taiwan). While family owned businesses account for over 30% of
companies with sales over $1 billion.
federalism (US): a system of dual government sovereignty, where authority is divided
between a central, federal government, and various local, state governments.
flash crash: see "high-frequency trading"
12
food web: interlocking systems of organisms and food chains in which energy, in the form of
food, is transferred from one nutritional level to another.
Fourth Estate: journalism, the press, mass media considered as a group; originally from GB
1830s-40; the "fourth" estate -- as distinguished from the estate of the Church, the
Aristocracy, and the Common People, and hence a new power to be reckoned with in
the social fabric of a nation.
Friedman, Milton: Loved and loathed; perhaps the most influential economist of his
generation. He won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1976, one of many Chicago
school economists to receive that honor. He has been recognized for his
achievements in the study of consumption, monetary history and theory, and for
demonstrating how complex policies aimed at economic stabilization can be.
A fierce advocate of free markets, Mr. Friedman argued for monetarism at a
time when Keynesian policies were dominant. Unusually, his work is readily
accessible to the layman. He argues that the problems of inflation and short-run
unemployment would be solved if the Federal Reserve had to increase the money
supply at a constant rate.
Like Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek, who inspired him, Mr. Friedman
praises the free market not just for its economic efficiency but also for its moral
strength. For him, freedom--economic, political and civil--is an end in itself, not a
means to an end. It is what makes life worthwhile. He has said he would prefer to live
in a free country, even if it did not provide a higher standard of living, than a country
run by an alternative regime. However, the likelihood of a free country being poorer
than an unfree one strikes him as implausible; the economic as well as the moral
superiority of free markets is, he has declared, "now proven".
An adviser to Richard Nixon, he was disappointed when the president went
against the spirit of monetarism in 1971 by asking him to urge the chairman of the
Fed to increase the money supply more rapidly. The 1980s economic policies of
Margaret Thatcher and General Pinochet were inspired--and defended--by Mr.
Friedman. However, in 2003, he admitted that one of those policies, the targeting of
the money supply, had "not been a success" and that he doubted he would "as of
today push it as hard as I once did". (Source: "Economics A-Z", by The Economist,
See glossary bibliogaphy).
G: Wall Street slang for $1,000.
gag order: A court order prohibiting discussion of information related to a case.
GC (gross revenue): Wall Street term for how much revenue each salesperson brings into
the firm from each client. (q.: G. Smith, Why I Left Goldman Sachs, see bibliography)
global public goods: are public goods that cannot be provided by one country acting alone
but only by the joint efforts of many (strictly, all) countries. Some economists, along
with global institutions such as the UN, reckon that such goods include international
law and law enforcement, a stable global financial system, an open trading system,
health, peace and enviromental sustainability. (Source: "Economics A-Z", by The
Economist, See glossary bibliogaphy)
global warming: the idea that the earth's surface temperature is gradually rising, owing to
industrial processes that raise atmospheric gas levels, trapping heat below.
government, US & great wealth, see: "Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)".
13
Gramm-Bliley-Leach Act: US legislation passed in 1999 that deregulated the banking
industry. It specifically repealed the portion of the Glass-Steagal Act that
prohibited
commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies from
working in
each other's sectors. Critics claim that this deregulation led directly to the late
2000s recession by allowing banks to take excessive risks, essentially putting their
customers' deposits at risk. Many others claim that this assessment is inaccurate, and
contend that the Act prevented the crisis from being even worse than it was.
gun control: US Constitution, Amendment II: " A well regulated militia, being
necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear
arms, shall not be infringed". This is the perennial, key legal issue of US gun
control.
hard money (US politics): refers to funding donated directly to a campaign or political party.
Hayek, Friedrich: An influential economist of the Austrian school, who won the Nobel Prize
for economics in 1974 for his theory of the business cycle many years after this body
of work seemed to have been disproved by Keynes. Born in 1899, Hayek attended
his home-town University of Vienna after the First World War. He was attracted to
socialism until he read a pioneering Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, on the
subject, after which, he said, 'the world was never the same again'.
Hayek argued that the business cycle originated from expanded credit
creation by banks, which was followed by firms and people making mistaken
capital investments in producing things for which the market turns out to be smaller
(or larger) than expected. But after an initially enthusiastic reception, the Austrian
business-cycle theory lost out in policy debates to Keynes's General Theory. After the
Second World War, Hayek was a leading member of the Chicago School along with
Milton Friedman, among others.
Hayek was a noted proponent of the free-market system and a critic of state
planning. His 1944 book, The Road to Serfdom, anticipated the demise of command
economies that sought to suppress PRICE signals. This prediction came from his
belief in the limits of human reason and has faith in the superior ability of
capitalism to make efficient use of limited information and to learn by trial and error.
His views, which echo Adam Smith's invisible, are said to have inspired the freemarket economic reforms undertaken in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald
Reagan. He died in 1992. (Source "Economics A-Z, by The Economist, See glossary
biblipography)
hedge fund: an investment fund that can undertake a wide range of strategies, including
using leverage and derivatives, both going long (buying) & getting short ( selling,
without actually owning the asset). Because hedge funds are not highly regulated,
they are only open to very large investors, such as pension funds, university
endowments, and high-net-worth individuals. (q.: G. Smith, Why I Left Goldman
Sachs, see bibliography)
heroes & villains in US culture: The roots of modern heroism studies is Thomas Carlyle's On
Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History (1840), to which all subsequent
studies are indebted. All nations have their pantheon of heroes. These differ over
time but change -- like all culture -- wth glacial slowness. An outstanding, but not
unique, characteristic of the American pantheon is the 20th-21st century manner in
which it has been smirched by the celebrity figure. Like all hero systems, the US
pantheon has its dark side, its counter weight of villains. The US financial sector
scandals of the 21st century supplied a fresh bundle of bad guys, such as Richard
Fuld (Lehman Brothers' CEO at time of its September 2008 collapse, subsequently
responsible for the largest bankruptcy filing in US history, figure Jeremy Irons
reflects in Margin Call [2011]); Raj Rajaratham (11 years prison sentence for
14
insider trading); and, of course, Wall Street villains' prefiguration in the character of
Gordon Geeko, protagonist of the movie Wall Street (1987). See also: J. Dean,
“Heroes in a World of Global Connection: U.S. and European Heroism Compared” in:
Heroes in a Global World, (2008).
high-frequency trading (HFT): A program trading platform that uses powerful computers to
transact a large number of orders at very fast speeds. High-frequency trading uses
complex algorithms to analyze multiple markets and execute orders based on market
conditions. Typically, the traders with the fastest execution speeds will be more
profitable than traders with slower execution speeds. As of 2009, it is estimated more
than 50% of exchange volume comes from high-frequency trading orders. (q.
"investopedia"). The docudrama novel by Robert Harris The Fear Index (2011) is
based on this issue when a computer program invented by a US hedge fund operator
goes Frankenstein -- based on the the May 6, 2010 Flash Crash (aka: The Crash of
2:45, the 2010 Flash Crash, or the Flash Crash), a US stock market crash on
Thursday May 6, 2010 in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged about
1000 points (about 9%) only to recover those losses within minutes.
homocentrism: the idea that humans are the center of all existence and deserve moral
consideration above all other arts of the natural world.
house (US politics, government): The US House of Representatives (Congresswomen,
Congressmen) as distinct from the Senate (Senators).
human genes, patented -- or not (see "intellectual property"): The news broke on June 13,
2013 -- the US Supreme Court decided that human genes could not be patented; see
online
CBS Evening News, 6/13, story 5, 2.20, Pelley, 5.58PM. NB: the
extent to
which the documentary The Corporation militates against human genes as
potential
corporate property.
humanities, humanism: A humanist, the humanities: are those people who try to use or learn
a coherent set of disciplines which together try to examine and comprehend the
historical, social and cultural actions of the human species; to understand both by
means of people’s accomplishments & their key forms of communication.
Italian humanism gave birth to the European Renaissance in the 1300s & to
what is known as humanism or secular humanism. Italian humanism carried on
classical Mediterranean traditions which it was believed should shape the
education and culture of those who rule society – for the benefit of the whole
civilization.
There are traditionally five "humanistic" subjects: grammar (originally Latin,
eventually linguistics); rhetoric (now known as the range of skills from personal &
mass mediated communications to public relations, then the art of persuasive
speaking & writing); moral philosophy (now known as ethics or moral philosophy;
developing a guide to making responsible choices in personal & political life; aka:
law); history; and poetry (the aesthetics of speech & communication, of brilliant
linkage between people by word or image). In it modern usagee "humanism" has also
been labeled History of Ideas, The Liberal Arts, and The Great Books.
For example, in the USA since 1937, St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) has
followed a distinctive curriculum, the "Great Books Program", based on small seminar
discussions of works from the Western canon of philosophical, religious, historical,
mathematical, scientific, and literary works -- i.e. Humanism -- for which program the
school is best known. St. John's has significantly influenced other centers of US and
Canadian higher education, helped define "liberal arts" as Humanism, and, last but
not least, has no religious affiliation.
15
implementation deficit: happens when legislation has been put into place and first practical
steps have been taken to solve socio-economic problems -- but turning the laws into
full practice hasn't happened yet and, in the meantime, public interest has possibly
weakened or changed.
insular area: a United States territory, that is neither a part of one of the fifty states nor the
District of Columbia, the USA's federal district. They are called "insular" from the Latin
word insula ("island") because they were once administered by the War Department's
Bureau of Insular Affairs. The term "insular possession" is also sometimes used, but
has fallen out of favor. Insular areas size and importance extend from territory of
Puerto Rico (population about 3,75 million, circa 2010) to the Johnston Atoll in the
North Pacific Ocean (theoretically uninhabited except for its temporary military
personnel).
intellectual property: Intangible rights protecting the products of human intelligence and
creation, such as copyrightable works, patented inventions, Trademarks, and trade
secrets. Although largely governed by federal law, state law also governs some
aspects of intellectual property. Intellectual property describes a wide variety of
property created by musicians, authors, artists, and inventors. The law of intellectual
property typically encompasses the areas of Copyright, Patents, and trademark law. It
is intended largely to encourage the development of art, science, and information by
granting certain property rights to all artists, which include inventors in the arts and
the sciences.
internet: "The greatest marketing device ever invented" -- Al Gore (attributed)
Investigative reporting (aka: investigative journalism): a form of journalism in which
reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, n,
political corruption or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may
spend months or years researching and preparing a report; it is usually very
expensive for the publisher and occasionally highly dangerous for the reporter -though the results can be spectacular -- e.g., Watergate (early 1970s) or Love
Canal Disaster (late 1970s) or the New York City The Sun's investigative reporting
exposure of the Crédit Mobilier scandal of 1872-1873, under the editorship of
Charles Dana, Sun editor and part-owner between 1868 and 1897. See online:
Center for Investigative Reporting, The. @: "http://cironline.org".
IPO (Initial Public Offering): the first price for which a company offers to sell stock
in itself when it moves from private ownership to public trade
joint stock company charter: a charter granted by the British Crown to a group of
investors who pooled their resources to fund the establishment of a North
American colony and shared in the profits.
judicial review: the power of the Supreme Court to review government actions and
legislation to determine whether or not they are permitted under the Constitution.
Keynes, John Maynard: A much quoted, great British economist, not famous for holding the
same opinion for long. Born in 1883, he studied at Cambridge but came to reject
much of the CLASSICAL ECONOMICS and NEO-CLASSICAL ECONOMICS
associated with that university. Keynes helped set up the BRETTON WOODS
framework, but he is best known for his General Theory of Employment, Interest and
Money, published in 1936 in the depths of the Great Depression. This invented
modern MACROECONOMICS. It argued that economies could sometimes be stable
(in EQUILIBRIUM) even when they did not have FULL EMPLOYMENT, but that a
16
GOVERNMENT could remedy this under-employment problem by increasing PUBLIC
SPENDING and/or reducing TAXATION, thereby increasing the level of aggregate
DEMAND in the economy. Many politicians picked up on these ideas. As President
Richard Nixon observed in 1971, 'We are all Keynesians now.' However, it is much
debated whether Keynes would have supported the way many of them put his
thoughts into practice.
Keynes identified the economic importance of ANIMAL SPIRITS.
Making and losing fortunes in the -FINANCIAL MARKETS led him to refer to the
'casino CAPITALISM' of the stockmarket. He also noted that 'there is nothing so
dangerous as the pursuit of a rational INVESTMENT policy in an irrational world'. He
had an amusingly accurate view of the impact and transmission of economic ideas:
'Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual
influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.' As for the frequency
with which his opinions would evolve: 'When the facts change, I change my mind what do you do, sir?' 'In the long run we are all dead,' he said. For him, the long run
was 1946. (Source: "Economics A-Z", by The Economist, see glossary bibliography)
Keynesian: A branch of economics, based, often loosely, on the ideas of John Maynard
Keynes (1883-1946), characterized by a belief in active government and suspicion of
market outcomes.
Keynsian economics were dominant in the 30 years following the Second
World War, and especially during the 1960s, when fiscal policy became biggerspending and looser in most developed countries as policymakers tried to kill off the
business cycle. During the 1970s, widely blamed for the rise in inflation, Keynesian
policies gradually gave way to monetarism and microeconomic policies that owed
much to the neo-classical economics that Keynes had at times opposed. `
Even so, the idea that public spending and taxation have a crucial role to play
in managing demand, in order to move towards full employment, remained at the
heart of macroeconomic policy in most countries, even after the monetarist and
supply-side revolution of the 1980s and 1990s. Recently, a school of new, more
pro-market Keynesian economists has emerged, believing that most markets work,
but sometimes only slowly. (def.: via "Economics A-Z", by The Economist, see
glossary bibliography)
keynote address: given to one of the political parties most gifted orators, this is the major
political speech (other than the candidate's acceptance speech) at a national
nominating convention; the keynote address is supposed to set the tone for the
coming campaign.
land ethic: extension of the ethics of the human community to include the soils, waters,
plants and animals which collectively comprise the land; terms invented and
spread by US scientist & environmentalist Aldo Leopold (1887-1948).NB:
“Civilization has so cluttered this elemental man-earth relationship with gadgets and
middlemen that awareness of it is growing dim. We fancy that industry supports us,
forgetting what supports industry.” - Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949).
language, of business: Well, folks, there are many ways to approach this issue. King
Charlemagne said: " To possess another language is to possess another soul.” But
what goes on with the soul of business? Its language has extremes that stretch from
the clarity of a sales price: "This costs one dollar." to the exuberant super-promises &
stereotyping of advertising: "If There's an Address We'll Find It - DHL!".
. If one listens to the language of the financial and investment sector as shown in
Margin Call or as documented within Inside Job, well, at some point, doesn't the
language get fuzzy-wuzzy, unclear unless you're a specialist, no? That is, you know
what they are saying -- but, gosh, what does it mean?
17
. At issue here in a professional language can be jargon, obscurantism; language
which serves the purpose of power. Jargon keeps the information in; inclosed,
hidden, contained. When people speak jargon it is generally for those who know,
belong, control, need to know or need to belong and speak the insider lingo.
. Thus might one assume -- if issues are not clear -- that this can be so for a selfserving reason? Complexity may be a deliberate wall; neither a window nor a
bridge. As Einstein said: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not
simpler.” In order to be clear -- if one wishes it to be so.
. Or, alternately and to be fair, there is also the genuine language and special
vocabulary of a particular domain (think of boats & sailing or of medicine). Plus some
people just cannot express themselves or can be dumb, cannot write well or
communicate. Even in the dollars and common sense world of business. So never
underestimate the obvious. And never underestimate the possibility and power of
obfuscation.
larceny: is the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods of another from his
or
her possession with intent to convert them to the taker's own use.
leader, leadership: ”A leader knows what’s best to do; a manager knows merely how best to
do it.” - Ken Adelman (1946-, US diplomat & writer); “Nearly all men can stand
adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.” -- Abraham
Lincoln. CF: "hero".
leverage (finance, business): use of fixed costs in order to increase the rate of return from
an investment. One example of leverage is buying securities on margin. While
leverage can operate to increase rates of return, it also increases the amount of
risk inherent in an investment.
lobbies, lobby, lobbying in the USA -- see: National Institute on Money in State [&
National] Politics, nonpartisan, @: "http://www.followthemoney.org/index.phtml";
see E.g., $detailed$ list of "top 10,000 Contributors to state and federal campaigns,
political parties, and ballot measure committees in 2007 and 2008" @:
"http://www.followthemoney.org/database/top10000.phtml" [Campaign donations;
lobby, lobbying]; NB: unions & education spend more on lobbying in Washington
than defense contractors do. See also (above): Washburn, Jennifer, University Inc.;
& @: "« http://www.opensecrets.org/ ».
military-industrial complex: The aggregate of a nation's armed forces and the industries that
supply their equipment, materials, and armaments. A phrase first coined by
President Dwight David Eisenhower in 1961: " "we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the
military-industrial complex".
money: “Money has three special qualities: scarcity, difficulty of acquisition, and
transience.” - US economist Theodore Levitt on PBS' “All Things Considered”
(c. 1996).
To put this somewhat differently, money works three ways:
- as a medium of exchange, buyers can give it to sellers to pay for goods and
services;
- as a unit of account, it can be used to add up apples and oranges in some
common value;
- as a store of value, it can be used to transfer purchasing power into the
future.
Along with these qualities, money is better than berter in enabling an economy's
scarce resources to be allocated efficiently.
18
be
For example, a farmer who exchanges fruit for money can spend that money in
the future; if he holds on to his fruit it might rot and no longer be useful for paying for
something.
Yet inflation undermines the usefulness of money as a store of value, in
particular, and also as a unit of account for comparing values at different points in
time. Hyper-inflation may destroy confidence in a particular form of money even
as a medium of exchange. Measures of liquidity describe how easily an asset can
exchanged for money -- the easier this is, the more liquid is the asset. (Second def.
rephrased via "Economics A-Z", by The Economist, See glossary bibliogaphy)
money market fund (finance, business): a mutual fund that invests exclusively in short-term,
low-securities. Examples of investments in money market funds are deposit and
U.S. Treasury securities.
monoculture: See "polyculture".
monopoly rents: profits that don’t represent returns on investment, but instead reflect the
value of market dominance; e.g. Apple's gadgets re now sold at the highest price the
market will bear, Apple employs less than 0.05% of US workers and is today's iconic
US company. (See: Paul Krugman, "Profits Without Production" NYTimes, June 20,
2013, @: "http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/opinion/ krugman-profits-withoutproduction.html?ref=paulkrugman")
MOOC: Massive Open Online Course; aka: online education, distance learning; CF tradition
of the BBC's earlier "Open University", "Continuing" or "Adult" Education in the
USA.
natural resources: objects of use or sources of wealth found in or arising from nature, as
opposed to being produced by human labor. Renewable resources consist of living
entities that can reproduce themselves after use, such as trees, grass, or fish. Nonrenewable resources are entities that cannot replace themselves once used or
extracted, such as minerals and fossil fuels. (def.: C. Merchant)
negative ads (aka: negative advertising, attack ads): paid commercials or
advertisements attacking an opponent during a political campaign; an old
American tradition.
oligopoly: is when a few FIRMS dominate a market. Often they can together behave as if
they were a single MONOPOLY, perhaps by forming a CARTEL. Or they may collude
informally, by preferring gentle NON-PRICE COMPETITION to a bloody PRICE war.
Because what one firm can do depends on what the other firms do, the behavior of
oligopolists is hard to predict. When they do compete on price, they may produce as
much and charge as little as if they were in a market with PERFECT COMPETITION.
(Source: "Economics A-Z," by The Economist, see glossary bibliography)
opinion, public:. What is public opinion? Can you take it seriously? "Public opinion is
wrong to hold and insane to herald because it is made of a choir of crickets. The
sameness of the sound tells you the amount of thought. Nobody stops to realize that
something can happen five minutes from now and everybody instantly will think
differently. For everybody who writes, the popular fancy is nothing more than a cheap
disease." -- Jimmy Breslin, I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me: A
Memoir (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1996). "The hypothetical result of an
imaginary plebiscite" -- R.C. Brinkley, Social Forces (c. 1959).
organicism: a philosophy that the world is like a living organism, such as the human body.
19
each part of nature, including animals, plans, and minerals, is part of a larger whole
and participates in it. (def.: C. Merchant)
outsourcing: means shifting activities that used to be done inside a firm to an outside
company, which can do them more cost-effectively. Big firms have outsourced a
growing amount of their business since the early 1990s, including increasingly
offshoring work to cheaper employees at firms in countries such as India.
This has become politically controversial in countries that lose jobs as a result of
offshoring. However, a firm that outsources can improve its efficiency by focusing on
those activities in which it can create the most value; the firm to which it outsources
can also increase efficiency by specializing in that activity. That, at least, is the theory.
In practice, managing the outsourcing process can be tricky, particularly for more
complex activities. (Source: "Economics A-Z," by The Economist, see glossary
bibliography)
PACs (& super PACs): a super PAC is a political-action committee that is allowed to raise
and spend unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions, individuals and
associations. Some nonprofit groups are allowed to contribute to super PACs without
disclosing where their money came from; most PACs are actually financially modest.
partisan polarization: a stark reality and a hot-button debate subject in the USA. Historically
partisanship in US government and public life dates back at least to Thomas
Jefferson (by today's standards, rather "Democrat") versus Alexander Hamilton (by
today's standards, rather "Republican"). And also, of course, to the North-South
division of the American Civil War (1861-1865), in which, by the way, the city of New
York originally affiliated itself with the plantation economy of the South.
As noted by the solid, independent Pew Research Center in 2012, partisan
polarization surged in the Bush (father & son) and Obama years. It was also very
active under the Republican leadership of Newt Ginrich's 1994 Republican takeover
of the House & the subsequent, Ginrich-led "Lewinskygate" impeachment debacle.
As for the Bush-Obama years: as of November 2012 American values and
basic beliefs were "more polarized along partisan lines than at any point in the past
25 years. Unlike in 1987, when the Pew Research Center began its series of surveys
on American values, the gap between Republicans and Democrats is now greater
than gender, age, race or class divides. During this time, the average partisan gap
has nearly doubled — from 10 percentage points in 1987 to 18 percentage points in
the new study." See @:
"http://www.pewresearch.org/daily-number/partisan-polarization-surges-in-bushobama-years/".
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), The ~ commonly called "Obamacare"
, signed into law March 23, 2010 ~ see US government explanation & full text of at:
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - U.S. Government ...
"www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr3590enr/.../BILLS-111hr3590enr.pd".
partner: in a Wall street firm the most senior rank & one who usually rakes in millions of
dollars net per year.
People, The: a term for US citizens as an idealized whole; used in the opening sentence of
the US Constitution ("We the People...") and seriously reborn during the New Deal
1930s and again in the idealistic 1960s. The US Constitution's "We" deliberately
elbowed aside the royal "We" and thus established the principle of popular
sovereignty.
20
Physiocracy (Physiocrats): stems from the Greek for "Government of Nature" and is an
economic theory developed by the Physiocrats, a group of economists who believed
that the wealth of nations was derived solely from the value of "land agriculture" or
"land development." Their theories originated in France, were most popular during the
second half of the 18th century. Physiocracy is often considered to be the first welldeveloped theory of economics. (def.: freedictionary.com/wiki).
play both ends against the middle: to gain an advantage by setting opposing parties or interests
against one another; aka: play one off against the other. See: "proprietary trading".
play one's trump card: 1.Lit. [in certain card games] to play a card that, according to the
rules of the game, outranks certain other cards and is thus able to take any card
of another suit. Bob played his trump card and ended the game as the winner.; 2.
Fig. to use a special trick; to use one's most powerful or effective strategy or device.
"I won't play my trump card until I have tried everything else." or "I thought that the
whole situation was hopeless until Mary played her trump card and solved the whole
problem."
political purpose: to expressly advocate the nomination, election, or defeat of a candidate
or to expressly advocate the passage or defeat of a ballot issue.
poll tax: a flat tax paid by each individual. In some states, citizens were required to pay a
poll tax to be eligible to vote. Because it discriminated against poor citizens, this
practice was declared unconstitutional in 1966.
polyculture: the raising of several crops together in one field or piece of land. As opposed to
monoculture which is the raising of only one crop in one place.
Ponzi scheme: a fraudulent investment scheme. Investors are promised very high returns
by the promoter. The original investors often realize these high returns because their
payouts are funded by cash from new investors. New investors' cash is used to pay
out the original investors. The investors' funds are usually not applied to the stated
purpose. However, the reported high returns attract additional inflows of capital used
to pay out subsequent investors. The scheme fails when the payouts to existing
investors and/or redemption requests exceed new investor inflows.
population: at the beginning of the 20th century the population of the world was 1.7 billion. At
the end of that century, it had soared to 6 billion. Recent estimates suggest that it
will be nearly 8 billion by 2025 and 9.3 billion by 2050. Almost all of this increase
is forecast to occur in the developing regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
(Source: "Economics A-Z", by The Economist, See glossary bibliogaphy)
poverty in the USA; NB: rates differ enormously depending on city, county, state & region;
to get a quick fix on current social science estimates of national averages (roughly
between 12 & 20% of total US population), see "Social
class in the US at a glance"
@: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower _middle_class" ); for cities (roughly between
27.2 & 40.6% for the worst) -- see @: "http://homes.yahoo.com/news/the-mostdangerous-cities-in-america--2013-201732579.html".
power (human): See "leader" and "hero".
PRISM is a clandestine national security electronic surveillance program operated by the
United States National Security Agency (NSA) since 2007. And the historical record
shows that some form of digital-electronic surveillance has regularly been conducted
by the US government domestically & internationally, since at least the Reagan
21
administration. With the gold mine of exposed digital telecommunications, the US
govt. has been doing what many other political units also practice world wide.
protest (rebellion) in US democracy: "“A little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and
as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical....It is a medicine
necessary for the sound health of government.”
-Thomas Jefferson (letter to Madison, 1787.
private company (Business & Commerce): a limited company that does not issue shares for
public subscription and whose owners do not enjoy an unrestricted right to
transfer their shareholdings; thus traded freely on the open market and whose share
capital is not less than a statutory minimum; aka: public limited company. Compare
"public company".
property rights: essential to any market economy. To trade, it is essential to know that the
person selling a good or service owns it and that ownership will pass to the buyer.
The stronger and clearer property rights are, the more likely it is that trade will take
place and that prices will be efficient. If there are no property rights over something
there can be severe consequences. A solution to the costly externality of clean air
being polluted may be to establish property rights over the air, so that the owner can
charge the polluter to pump smoke into the atmosphere.
Nowhere are property rights absolute. For instance, taxation is a clear
example of the state infringing taxpayers' ownership of their money. The
economic cost of infringing property rights underlines how important it is that
governments think carefully about the consequences for economic growth of their tax
policies. (Source: "Economics A-Z", by The Economist, See glossary bibliogaphy)
proprietary trading: engaging, as an investment bank, in trading securities for one's own
account with one's own money to make a profit much like a hedge fund. This is
opposed to facilitating trading for one's customers. The difference between the two
is much at the heart of the moral collapse of Wall Street as recounted in Greg
Smith's Why I Left Goldman Sachs (2012) who argued an investment bank's first
responsibity was to its customers -- not to its own profits -- and because of the
inherent conflict between proprietary trading and client trading when it's the
investment bank itself who can see both hands being played in the big card game
and thus can play both ends against the middle.
public diplomacy: "Those overt international public information activities of the United States
Government designed to promote United States foreign policy objectives by seeking
to understand, inform, and influence foreign audiences and opinion makers, and by
broadening the dialogue between American citizens and institutions and their
counterparts abroad." [ def. from: Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. US
Department of Defense 2005 ]
public goods: are things that can be consumed by everybody in a society, or nobody at all.
They have three characteristics. They are:
- non-rival - one person consuming them does not stop another person
consuming them;
- non-excludable - if one person can consume them, it is impossible to stop
another person consuming them;
- non-rejectable - people cannot choose not to consume them even if they
want to.
Examples include clean air, a national defense system and the judiciary. The
combination of non-rivalry and non-excludability means that it can be hard to get
people to pay to consume them, so they might not be provided at all if left to
22
market forces. Thus public goods are regarded as an example of market failure, and
in most countries they are provided at least in part by government and paid for
through compulsory taxation. See also: "global public goods". (Source: "Economics AZ", by The Economist, See glossary bibliogaphy)
public resources: the moneys, time, property, facilities, equipment, and supplies of
the
executive branch of state government, a county, city, public school, or other
political subdivision.
public school: a tuition free school in the United States supported by taxes and controlled by
a school board; although NB: in some states -- such as Iowa -- a legal distinction
between a public and a charter school is not held. Thus "public school" may include
a school designated as a “charter school".
quaint (Wall Street): within the sales and trading business, the person who does a lot of the
mathematical heavy lifting: pricing derivatives, analyzing risk for the traders, building
complex structured products for the sales force to pitch to clients. Many quaints have
Ph.Ds in areas such as physics, mathematics, electrical engineering or rocket
science. In the 2011 docudrama movie Margin Call about the 2008 fall of Lehmann
Brothers, the character of Peter Sullivan (played by Zachary Quinto) is the quaint.
quasi-legislative: descriptive of the rule-making authority of administrative agencies.
quotas (government, social policy): often used in the context of protectionist trade
policies and affirmative action.
recycle: to put or pass through a cycle again, as for further treatment; hence reusing
materials again in new products as opposed to throwing away materials as waste
after use.
regulation: Rules governing the activities of private-sector enterprises. Regulation is often
imposed by government, either directly or through an appointed regulator.
However, some industries and professions impose rules on their members through
self-regulation.
Regulation is often introduced to tackle market failures. Externalities such as
pollution have inspired rules limiting factory emissions. Regulations on the
selling of financial products to individuals have been introduced as protection against
unscrupulous financial firms with better information than their customers. Rate of
return regulation and price regulation have been used to combat natural monopoly,
sometimes instead of nationalization.
Some regulation has been motivated by politics rather than economics, for
instance, restrictions on the number of hours people can work or the circumstances in
which an employer can dismiss employees.
Even when introduced for sound economic reasons, regulation can generate
more costs than benefits. Regulated firms or individuals may face substantial compliance
costs. Firms may devote substantial resources to regulatory arbitrage, which
would leave consumers no better off. Regulation may lead to moral hazard if
people believe that the government is keeping an eye on the behavior of the
regulated business and so do less monitoring of their own. Regulation may be badly
designed and thus lock an industry into an inefficient equilibrium. Rigid regulation
may hold back Innovation. There is also the danger of regulatory capture. In short,
then, regulatory failure may be even worse for an economy than market failure.
(Source: The Economist, See Bibliography).
resources: "renewable" and "nonrenewable" -- See: "natural resources".
23
revolving door (US-D.C. govt. term -- & elsewhere as applicable -- meaning): the custom of
hiring former government employees by private companies with which they had
dealings when they worked for the government; i.e. & e.g., so one day you're a
congressman or woman and the next day you're working for a company selling
something to congress -- & so on ever onward.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection
Act, Pub.L. 107-204, July 30, 2002, 116 Stat. 745, July 30, 2002): was enacted by
Congress in the wake of corporate and accounting scandals that led to bankruptcies,
severe stock losses, and a loss of confidence in the Stock Market. The act imposes
new responsibilities on corporate management and criminal sanctions on those
managers who flout the law. It makes Securities fraud a serious federal crime and
also increases the penalties for WHITE-COLLAR CRIMES. In addition, It created a new,
quasi-public agency, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB,
charged with overseeing, regulating, inspecting and disciplining accounting firms in
their roles as auditors of public companies. As of June, 2010, the United States
Supreme Court unanimously turned away a broad challenge to the law, but ruled 5–
4 that a section related to appointments violates the Constitution's separation of
powers mandate. The act remains "fully operative as a law" pending a process
correction. [ from: West's Encyclopedia of American Law, 2nd edn.. © 2008 Gale Group; see
law's original text @: "http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act_of_2002"; &:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sarbanes%E2%80%93Oxley_Act. ; & see good overview: Jesse
Eisinger, "A much-ridiculed overhaul that worked," IHT/NYTimes, Feb. 10, 2012.]
Schumpeter, Joseph: After growing up in the Austro-Hungarian empire, in which he worked as an
itinerant lawyer, Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) became an academic in 1909. He was
appointed Austrian minister of finance in 1919, presiding over a period of hyper-inflation.
He then became president of a small Viennese BANK, which collapsed. He returned to
academia in Bonn in 1925 and in the 1930s joined the faculty of Harvard.
In 1911, while teaching at Czernowitz (now in Ukraine), he wrote the Theory of Economic
Development. In this he set out his theory of entrepreneurship, in which growth occurred,
usually in spurts, because competition and declining profit inspired entrepreneurs to innovate.
This developed into a theory of the trade cycle (see business cycle), and into a notion of
dynamic competition characterized by his phrase 'creative destruction'.
In capitalism, Schumpeter argued, there is a tendency for firms to acquire a degree of
monopoly power. At this point, competition no longer takes place through the price mechanism
but instead through innovation. Perhaps because monopolies often become lazy, successful
innovation may come from new entrants to a market, who take it away from the incumbent,
thus blowing 'gales of -creative destruction' through the economy. Eventually, the new
entrants
grow fat on their monopoly profits, until the next gale of creative destruction blows
them away.
Ever controversial, and often wrong, in his 1942 book, Capitalism, Socialism, and
Democracy, he predicted the downfall of capitalism at the hands of an intellectual elite. He
is associated with both Austrian economics and, arguably as founding father, evolutionary
economics. (source: The Economist A-Z guide)
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): U.S. government agency, established in 1934,
charged with protecting investors and maintaining the integrity of the securities
markets. The SEC requires public companies to disclose meaningful financial
information to the public, and it oversees participants in the securities business
including stock exchanges, broker-dealers, investment advisors, mutual funds, and
public utility holding companies. The commission is composed of 5 presidentially
appointed commissioners, 4 divisions, and 18 offices. Established because -- as F.
D. Roosevelt (who had worked on Wall Street & gave the SEC claws) said:
“Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government
by organized mob.”
24
Securitization. Securitization (finance, business): is the process of pooling various types of
debt -- mortgages, car loans, or credit card debt, for example -- and packaging that
debt as bonds, pass-through securities, or collateralized mortgage obligations
(CMOs), which are sold to investors. The principal and interest on the debt
underlying the security is paid to the investors on a regular basis, though the method
varies based on the type of security. Debts backed by mortgages are known as
mortgage-backed securities, while those backed by other types of loans are known as
asset-backed securities.
shareholder: one that owns or holds a share or shares of stock; a stockholder. Also called
shareowner.
shareholder democracy: the idea that US economic democracy is run by those who hold
stocks in the nation's major companies; a hotly debated topic. See, e.g.,
"When Shareholder Democracy Is Sham Democracy" by James B. Stewart
published: April 2013, NYTimes (on line citation above).
social ecology: based on the idea that the evolution of dominance hierarchies in human
societies led to the human domination of society. First developed during the 1970s
and 1980s by Philosopher Murray Bookchin who founded the Institute for Social
Ecology in Vermont.
socialism: The exact meaning of socialism is much debated, but in theory it includes some
collective ownership of the means of production and a strong emphasis on equality, of
some sort. (Source: "Economics A-Z", by The Economist, see glossary bibliography)
social media: " forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and
microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information,
ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)" (Merriam Webster); "
Social media includes the various online technology tools that enable people to
communicate easily via the internet to share information and resources. Social media
can include text, audio, video, images, podcasts, and other multimedia
communications" (from: about.com @: "
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/networking/g/socialmedia.htm"); & see above:
Ray, Augie. "Ethics in Social Media Marketing".
soft money: term used in US politics & government which refers to money that can be spent
by a political party on grass-roots organization, recruitment, advertising, etc.; it must
be deposited in a party's non-federal (state-level) bank accounts, and must not be
used in connection with presidential or congressional elections Compare "hard
money".
state capitalism: a term of government, politics & diplomacy which refers to a form of
capitalism in which the state owns or controls most of the means of production and
other capital: often very similar to state socialism.
subprime loan (finance, business, real estate): A loan at higher interest rates because the
borrower does not qualify, for credit or income reasons, for the best rates.
sunset provision: a clause stating that legislation will expire on a particular date.
supply-side economics: economic theories relating to the reduction of taxes as a
means of expanding production and overall income.
25
sustainable development: the idea that each generation can satisfy current needs for
natural resources while respecting those of future generations [def. C. Merchant]
surveillance: ongoing close observation and collection of data or evidence, for a
specified purpose or confined to a narrow sector. (See also: "Big Data Today: Living as
Far from 1984 as Orwell" @: "http://smartdatacollective.com/mike
20/126346/big-data-privacy-living-far-1984-orwell" )
swing state: a state in which the race between presidential candidates is close. Because the
electoral college system awards all of a state's electors to a single candidate, voters
in these states are aggressively courted.
Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (US federal govt.): a rule adopted by the FDIC
guaranteeing certain transaction accounts and unsecured loans that banks make to
one another. The rule was implemented in 2008 to promote liquidity in interbank
lending in the wake of the global financial crisis that started that year. It began to
expire in 2010, though the Dodd-Frank Act made certain portions permanent.
tragedy of the commons: a 19th-century amateur mathematician, William Forster Lloyd,
modelled the fate of a common pasture shared among rational, utility-maximising
herdsmen. He showed that as the population increased the pasture would inevitably
be destroyed. This tragedy may be the fate of all sorts of common resources,
because no individual, firm or group has meaningful property rights that would make
them think twice about using so much of it that it is destroyed.
Once a resource is being used at a rate near its sustainable capacity, any
additional use will reduce its value to its current users. Thus they will increase their
usage to maintain the value of the resource to them, resulting in a further
deterioration in its value, and so on, until no value remains. Contemporary examples
include
overfishing and the polluting of the atmosphere.
(Source: "Economics A-Z", by The Economist, See glossary bibliography)
transnational: 1. Reaching beyond or transcending national boundaries: "the transnational
ramifications of terror networks" (Emanuel Litvinoff); 2. Relating to or involving
several nations or nationalities: transnational organizations; 3. in government,
politics & diplomacy in particular: extending beyond the boundaries, interests, etc.,
of a single nation. A useful term that's given much emphasis in the current,
contemporary debate -- since, on the one hand, its helps to articulate both the
international freedom of big business and, potentially, the rule of international law -and, on the other, can stress the impunity of transnational corporations and how one
nation's law can be the other nation's crime.
transparency, as used in the humanities, implies openness, communication, and
accountability; as used in government, politics, ethics, business, management, law,
economics, sociology, and the like, transparency is the opposite of privacy; an
activity is transparent if all information about it is open and freely available. Though
the virtue of transparency is -- as Shakespeare's Hamlet said -- often "More honour'd
in the breach than the observance."
trophic: food and nutritional processes entailing the transfer of energy from one organism to
another; specifically used in ecology involving the feeding habits or food relationship
of different organisms in a food chain.
trover: One of the old common-law Forms of Action; a legal remedy for conversion, or the
wrongful appropriation of the plaintiff's Personal Property in Anglo-American legal
26
system; important for the "Trustees of Darmouth College" 1819 case which upheld
the sanctity of a corporation.
trump, to trump someone or something: see "to play one's trump card".
trust (US business): A combination of firms or corporations for the purpose of reducing
competition and controlling prices throughout a business or an industry. See above:
Geisst, Charles R. Monopolies in America.
Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 U.S. 518 (1819): a landmark United States
Supreme Court decision regarding contract law which dealt with the application of the
Contract Clause of the United States Constitution to private corporation. The decision
settled the nature of public versus private charters and resulted in the rise of the
American business corporation and the free American enterprise system. In US law
the Corporation as a whole was hereby labeled an "artificial person", possessing both
individuality and immortality.
Turing Test: the computer test that distinguishes between human and automated visitors; i.e.
when your screen throws up a bunch of squiggly-wiggly "Q"s and "K"s and "8" and
"i"s
and demands you copy them -- or: No Entrance For You, Buster. Named after Alan
Turing (1912-1954), one of the fathers of the modern computer -- English mathematician whose works explored the possibility of computers as now used & who raised
fundamental questions about artificial intelligence. During World War II Turing
contributed to the allied victory by helping to decipher the Nazi Enigma codes.
US civil rights: a civil right is an enforceable right or privilege, which if interfered with by
another gives rise to an action for injury. Examples of civil rights are freedom of
speech, press, and assembly; the right to vote; freedom from involuntary servitude;
and the right to equality in public places. Discrimination occurs when the civil rights of
an individual are denied or interfered with because of their membership in a particular
group or class. In the USA civil rights also apply to corporations.
US congressional committee: as 'little legislatures' committees monitor on-going
governmental operations, identify issues suitable for legislative review, gather and
evaluate information, and recommend courses of action to their parent. In most
cases these hearings are open to the public and, in modern times, televised live;
they have been helpful and hurtful, both salutary and witch hunts. Like all tools, it
depends how they are used and who uses them.
US corporations, their peculiar nature: In the American "Revolution -- independence,
equality, democracy, and individualism -- were inextricably connected to business
activity." Prior to and continuing on after "1776, seeking profit in the marketplace,
acquiring the possession and use of land and other property brought individual
independence, social equality and mobility, and proved the right of the individual to
participate in government and exercise political power."
Over time "the corporation became popular because it provided a solution to
conflicts peculiar to America -- between community control and individual
freedom, between government regulation and business independence, and
between the business use of public powers and the ideal of private property."
In sum, the US corporation -- a distinct "product of the Revolution and the
growth of American business between 1776 and 1850...has become so
characteristic of American business that it is difficult to conceive of business
without it....only in America -- not in Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, or any
other major industrial nation before the middle of the twentieth century -has
the
corporate form been the important form of business organization."
27
~ James Oliver Robertson, American Business (1985; full ref. below).
vested: referring to having an absolute right or title, when previously the holder of the right or
title only had an expectation. Examples: After 20 years of employment Larry Loyal's
pension rights are now vested -- or -- In American law corporations may have vested
property rights.
Vietnam Syndrome: the perceived reluctance of the American people to see their military
forces involved in a long, drawn-out war for no purpose that they could
overwhelmingly understand or support; term coined in the aftermath of the US
Vietnam War (apx 1956-1976; although 1960-1973 are also standard dates).
white-collar crime (US FBI definition): "Lying, cheating, and stealing. That’s white-collar crime
in a nutshell. The term—reportedly coined in 1939—is now synonymous with the full
range of frauds committed by business and government professionals. It’s not a
victimless crime. A single scam can destroy a company, devastate families by wiping
out their life savings, or cost investors billions of dollars (or even all three, as in the
Enron case). Today’s fraud schemes are more sophisticated than ever, and we are
dedicated to using our skills to track down the culprits and stop scams before they
start."
X generation: the children of the Baby Boomers, born from mid-1960s through mid 1980s;
the Boomers born from 1946-1966; though these date are fuzzy wuzzy. CF: .
“Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the
moment his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward
when you say to this person ‘the world today’ or ‘life’ or ‘reality’ -- he will assume that you
mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past.” -- John Knowles, A Separate Peace
(1960). See: "demographics".
yard: Wall Street slang for $1 billion.
yield (finance): profits as measured by percentage of money invested.
zero-sum game: this happens when the gains made by winners in an economic transaction
equal the losses suffered by the losers. It is identified as a special case in game
theory. Most economic transactions are in some sense positive-sum games. But in
popular discussion of economic issues, there are often examples of a mistaken zerosum mentality, such as “profit comes at the expense of wages”, “higher productivity
means fewer jobs”, and “imports mean fewer jobs here”. (Source: "Economics A-Z,"
by The Economist, see glossary bibliography)
zoning: the process by which local government can designate the types of structure and
activities for a particular area.
[ Glossary Bibliography. Unless otherwise noted dictionaries used & © therefrom (on & off line, old & new
technology, as fresh and up to date or old, deep down & dirty and historical as deemed necessary): The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edn. © 2000 Houghton Mifflin Co.; updated 2009.
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publs., revised: 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000,
2003. Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. © 2005, 1997, 1991
by Random House, Inc.: Modern US political definitions as set forth by State of Iowa congress, on line @: "RTF
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/DOCS/ACO/.../05-15-2013.Chapter.351.5.rtf."; Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. History:
Government and Politics. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 June 2013;
Business Dictionary.com @: http://www.businessdictionary.com/
definition/data-analysis.html#ixzz2WvhBHf5z ; Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, Ed. A. M. Macdonald
(1972 edn.); SmartData Collective @: "http://smartdatacollective.com/node/128486"; E. C. Smith and A. J.
28
Zurcher, New Dictionary of American Politics (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1949); Christine Ammer, The
American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (1997; 2003); Campbell R. Harvey Dictionary of Money Investment
(2013); Farlex Financial Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc.; Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment
Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott. © 2003 Houghton Mifflin Co.; West's Encyclopedia of American
Law, 2 edn.,© 2008 The Gale Group, Inc.; Cornell University Law School web site
@: " http://www.law.
cornell .edu/wex/civil_rights"; "Economics A-Z terms", from The
Economist, subscription service @&: "http://www.economist.com/economics-a-to-z
/a#node-21529324"; ""http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lerceny"/;
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013 edn.; Jay M. Shafritz, The HarperCollins Dictionary of American Government &
Politics, concise edn. (HarperPerennial, 1993); Robert Schlesinger, "Obama Has Mentioned 'American
Exceptionalism' More Than Bush' ", January 31, 2011; @http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robertschlesinger/ 2011/01/31/obama-has-mentioned-american-exceptionalism-more-than-bush"; for "US Corporations":
James Oliver Robertson, American Business (New York: Hill & Wang, 1985) 4-5, 70; Merriam-Webster
Dictionary @: "http://www.merriam-webster.com/"; The Complete Real Estate Encyclopedia by Denise L. Evans,
JD & O. William Evans, JD. © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Comps, Inc.; Carolyn Merchant, American
Environmental History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007); David Schlosberg, Defining
Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007); Miller,
Jr., G. Tyler Environmental Science: Working With the Earth, 9th ed. (Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/Cole,
2003); Christopher, Warren. “American Diplomacy and the Global Environmental Challenges of the 21st
Century,” address at Stanford University, 9 April 1996, reprinted in Environ. Change Security Proj. Rep. 2, 81
(1996); U.S. Department of State, “Environmental Diplomacy: The Environment and U.S. Foreign Policy”
(Department of State Pub. 10470, Washington, DC, 1997); Greg Smith, Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall
Street Story (New York: Grand Central Publ.-Hachette Book Group, 2012); italics & paragraphing mine; Yes,
& have even used Wikipedia at times -- which is specially valuable as a search engine. All materials © when
quoted word-for-word; when not, not.]
. Last but not least: please excuse occasional printing glitches, as info. herein was
transported through various ever-shifting cyberspaces. - JD.