real exchange rate

(ECONOMICS) ratio between a country's foreign exchange rate and the real purchasing power of its local currency.

The actual exchange rate between (say) the yen and the US dollar tells you nothing about the relative strength of the two currencies. The US dollar buys 92.57 yen (17 May 2010) right now, which sounds like a lot. But $100, converted into ¥9,257, only buys $71 worth of actual goods & services. In order for the yen:dollar exchange rate to reflect real purchasing power of the two currencies, the US dollar should be able to buy ¥130.

The real exchange rate for the US dollar against the Japanese yen is 1.41 (meaning the yen is costlier than the dollar in real terms).
The recent (March-May) fall of the euro against the US dollar has brought the real exchange rate of the two currencies into approximate parity.
by Abu Yahya May 17, 2010
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consent decree

(US LAW) a legal ruling that consists of a decision in which the two parties (the plaintiff and the defendant) consent to some action by the defendant in exchange for a suspended sentence. For example, a husband who is a defendant in a domestic violence case may agree to psychiatric counseling in exchange for not going to prison for assaulting his wife.

The agreement has to be reached beforehand by the parties and then the court may (or may not) approve of the agreement. When it does, that's a consent decree.
WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Justice Department today announced a court-approved consent decree which resolves a lawsuit against the state of New York and its public university systems for their failure to provide voter registration services at offices serving students with disabilities at each public university and college campus in New York State.

{...}

Under the consent decree, by the start of the 2010-2011 school year, disability services offices at each public university and college campus in the state will provide voter registration services to students with disabilities.
by Abu Yahya July 15, 2010
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covering risk

(FINANCE) using financial derivatives to guarantee against losses. Typically used by non-traders, such as companies engaged in international commerce, to protect themselves against foreign exchange risk (i.e., the possibility that a customer's currency will decline in value).
BILL: You know, I think that financial derivatives are just a huge sinkhole. The people who trade them are just a bunch of wankers who move bits of paper around but add nothing of value.

ANNA: Well, they do provide some important benefits.

BILL: Name one.

ANNA: Covering risk, for one. If you're an airline, you need those aviation fuel options.
by Abu Yahya April 15, 2010
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in the money

(FINANCE) when a financial derivative has intrinsic value to the person who holds it. There are two examples:

* when the strike price of a call option is less than the spot price of the underlying stock, it is worthwhile to exercise it;

* when the strike price of a put option is more than the spot price of the underlying stock, it is worthwhile to exercise it.

Please remember that an option being "in the money" does not mean it was a good investment. You might have bought the option when the difference between the strike price and the spot price was MORE than it is now. If it's expiring, you might as well exercise it because to not do so is just throwing money away. But it still could have been a loss for the investor.
PHIL: Sweet! My call options are back in the money. Now I'd better exercise them.

MIGUEL: You must be rolling in the cash, Holmes!

PHIL: Not even close. The forex rate for the UK pound nosedived and I got hosed pretty bad. It's not where it was when I bought these rat droppings, but I need to get out before they expire.

MIGUEL: You know, when you first told me about options they sounded like a sweet deal, but...

PHIL: Yeah... the guy who wrote the option always seems to know what's going down better than us dilettantes.
by Abu Yahya April 15, 2010
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LLP

(US BUSINESS LAW) limited liability partnership; a type of business organization which is a cross between a partnership and a corporation. In a private partnership, all of the partners own all the assets in common and have unlimited liability; in a corporation, the firm assets are owned by a legal "person," and shareholders are liable only for the value of their stake (equity) in the firm.

Partnerships have higher risk for members, but their management can disclose a lot less and the taxes are lower. Limited/limited liability partnerships represent a compromise.

In a limited partnership, one or more of the partners has unlimited liability ("general partners") and the others have liability limited to their equity stake in the firm ("limited partners"). A limited partnership is indicated by the initials "LP" after the name, e.g. Apollo Management, LP.

In a limited liability partnership, all members have limited liability; specifically, the other partners of the LLP are shielded from torts for malpractice against the other partners, BUT they are legally responsible for financial claims against the whole organization. LLP liability varies somewhat by state law (several US states do not permit LLP's at all), and somewhat by the terms of the LLP agreement for that particular partnership.

Apologies to Urban Dictionary for an error in the definition of private equity fund and hedge fund: both types of fund are almost never LLP's; they are often limited partnerships (LP's).
At the first meeting of the law partners, it was decided to adopt an LLP form of business.
by Abu Yahya September 02, 2010
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AEI

(acronym) American Enterprise Institute; an extremely powerful thinktank associated with the Conservative Movement.
The AEI is extremely well-connected, and much favored by business interests.
by Abu Yahya May 29, 2009
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dividends

(FINANCE) a quarterly payment that companies make to owners of their stock. In theory, the source of the company's stock's intrinsic value.

A company's dividends are usually chosen to be as regular as possible; they can be considerably lower than the company's quarterly earnings, provided the company is growing in value. They are important, because they are the direct motivation to buy the stock.
The earnings from stock consist of capital gains and dividends.
by Abu Yahya April 15, 2010
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