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Abu Yahya's definitions

closed triangle

A sexual relationship involving three partners, all of whom have sexual contacts with each other. C.f. an open triangle, in which two of the members do NOT have sexual relations with each other.

An obvious attribute of a closed triangle is that at least two of the members must be bisexual or homosexual.
A common sexual fantasy for both men and women is the "closed triangle"; it's appeared as a theme in several novels, including Ernest Hemingway's _The Garden of Eden_. As a literary theme, however, it nearly always ends sadly, perhaps because even in their fantasies writers are bound by plausible expectations.
by Abu Yahya March 21, 2010
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junk bond

(FINANCE) originally, a bond rated as not investment grade by a credit rating agency (e.g., Standard & Poor, Ernst & Young, or Moody's).

Later, a bond was a financial instrument deliberately created to have absurdly high levels of risk (of default), which was then priced in and "hedged" by a fund manager. Junk bonds are routinely used to finance leveraged buyouts.
Michael Milken was the junk bond innovator who figured out how to make them an effective investment vehicle. Yes, he later went to jail for securities law violations.
by Abu Yahya September 1, 2010
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dirty float

In economics, a monetary policy in which the value of the local currency is determined by the foreign exchange markets, with some intervention by the government (or its allies) in the event of excessive or dangerous movements.

Usually the term is applied when the country ignores long term shifts in value, but intervenes directly to avoid crises.
Most of the nations in the world have neither a hard peg nor floating currency, but something in between--a dirty float, in which trade is under some restrictions.
by abu yahya June 24, 2008
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New Deal

*noun*; series of programs enacted by the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) in response to the Great Depression. This definition refers to the New Deal in US history (as opposed to the current "New Deal" in Great Britain).

The main architects of the New Deal were Harry Hopkins, Henry A. Wallace, and Harold L. Ickes. The chief prigrams were:
--- The Works Progress Administration (WPA);
--- the Public Works Administration (PWA);
--- the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).
These were set up to address industrial and farming failures.

Other programs addressed a long-standing need:
--- the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC);
--- the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which introduced electrical power infrastructure to much of the impoverished rural South;
--- the Civil Works Administration (CWA), which supplied electrical power generation;
--- the Federal Depository Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which provides insurance for bank accounts;
--- the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC);
--- the Social Security Administration (SSA);

Legislation included:
--- the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), or Wagner Act, which gave most workers the right to organize;
--- the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which was struck down in 1935 by the US Supreme Court;
--- the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which set basic working standards.

The New Deal's main impact was to establish basic protections for workers, consumers, and farmers. While some of these protections could have been better designed, they perform an indispensable function. In terms of actual fiscal policy, the New Deal was far too small to hasten the end of the Great Depression itself.
A lot of the public buildings in this country were built by New Deal programs.
by Abu Yahya March 6, 2009
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secondary buyout

(FINANCE) when a private equity fund sells a company it has taken private to another fund. Usually financed with junk bonds.

The secondary buyout became a hot trend in the period 2005-2008, partly because other segments of the equities markets were doing so poorly. The hedge funds were willing to buy the junk bonds because they believed they had mastered the risk control; but the deals themselves were absurd.

The whole purpose of a leveraged buyout is to restructure the target company so profits from its resale can be used to pay for the deal. But if a capital management firm has already issued the junk bonds to finance a restructuring, there's little hope of another takeover artist squeezing any more profit out of restructuring. The whole point is to scam the markets.
The sudden popularity of the secondary buyout never made any sense, except as a scam. As a vehicle for peddling exotic financial derivatives, it was mildly interesting, but there was no common sense to the idea of two consecutive takeover artists doing LBO's of the same company. One of them had to be incompetent for there to be any reason for it.
by Abu Yahya September 1, 2010
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insolvency

(ECONOMICS) crisis created when a government or firm cannot pay its obligations in any reasonable time frame. Often confused with illiquidity, which is a when an entity suffers a temporary shortage of cash.

When a firm has assets that are greater than liabilities, it is solvent. In a lot of cases, the management of a firm runs out of ways to make money with the assets it has, so it "invests" in poor quality assets with high risk of default (for example, by lending money to borrowers using inflated housing prices as collateral).
Most of the time, insolvency is the result of corrupt or feckless management. In a few cases, however, it can be the result of a vicious cycle in which a well-managed company's customers all become insolvent first.
by Abu Yahya May 5, 2010
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Usonian

Of or related to the United States of America; term coined by Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to his new ideal for architecture. This word is preferable to "American" since there are dozens of countries in North and South America. In some Latin American countries, such as Brazil, the use of "American" to refer to US nationals is considered offensive and officially discouraged.
While Canadians and Usonians share a common heritage and close proximity, there are some subtle cultural differences.
by Abu Yahya October 16, 2008
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