Skip to main content

abu yahya's definitions

closing bell

Te bell that rings to signal that trading has ended. An actual, literal moment of reckoning, when margin calls must be paid.
When the closing bell rang, he was ruined. All of his reserves were wiped out and he owed $6 million on margin.
by Abu Yahya May 5, 2010
mugGet the closing bell mug.

Conservative Movement

Political movement in the USA that combines numerous conservative or rightwing movements into a surprisingly cohesive whole. The Conservative Movement (CM) successfully established a dominant role in the Republican Party, and nearly all GOP officials are affiliated with it.

Members of the Conservative Movement are known as "movement conservatives."

In the USA, political parties themselves are very weak and nebulous; historically, they are not bound to any particular ideology or constituency. Instead, parties take their ideological guidance from movements, which endorse candidates based on their commitment to the goals of that particular movement. Movements also marshall fundraising and organizing networks, binding candidates to elected officials and to affiliated thinktanks. The CM is distinguished because it captured an entire party, and tied it to an emphatically rightwing ideology.

The three components of the CM are the neoconservatives (neocons), religious right (theocons, "Moral Majority"), and the AEI-affiliated business conservatives (money cons).
More important, conservatives who embraced conspiratorial thinking shared a sufficient set of complaints, assumptions, and common enemies that united them with their more "respectable" cohorts in one movement. They swam in the same ideological waters as the broader conservative movement... and. above all, participated in building one mobilization out of their common grievances against American liberalism.

Lisa McGirr, *Suburban Warriors* (2002)
by Abu Yahya May 29, 2009
mugGet the Conservative Movement mug.

investment bank

(FINANCE) a type of bank that raises money for clients by issuing stock (see initial public offering and follow-on offering) or by issuing bonds.

Prior to the repeal (1999) of the Glass-Steagall Act, commercial banks and investment banks were required to be separate entities. Subsequently, the law was changed so that a bank holding company could own a commercial bank and an investment bank. Outside of the USA, commercial banks have always been allowed to engage in underwriting securities.

Investment banks usually sell shares of stock on a major exchange, such as the NYSE or NASDAQ. They give a fixed amount of money to the borrower, but also an agreed-upon number of shares, so if the shares soar in price after the public offering, then the investment bank makes an immense amount of money.

Investment banks also underwrite other kinds of securities, such as bonds.
Goldman Sachs is the largest and most successful investment bank in the USA. Prior to 1999 it was a limited partnership; now it is a publicly traded corporation and also a bank holding company.
by Abu Yahya September 25, 2010
mugGet the investment bank mug.

circulating capital

(ECONOMICS) the capital that a business sells in order to make money. The obvious example is the inventory of a convenience store; in this case, the circulating capital is the merchandise, and the fixed capital includes the cash register, the display racks, and so on.

In other cases, the circulating capital consists of raw materials or supplies; for example, a mechanic has transmission fluid or air filters, while a dress maker has muslin and thread.
An entrepreneur makes money by hanging onto fixed capital as long as possible, and getting rid of circulating capital as fast as possible.
by Abu Yahya May 4, 2010
mugGet the circulating capital mug.

external balance

the current account balance; the net flow of liquid assets to the citizens of a particular country. The external balance includes the trade balance, net foreign factor income, and net foreign aid *received*. Usually the main cause of an external deficit is a trade deficit.
External balances are critical to good economic policies.
by Abu Yahya February 14, 2009
mugGet the external balance mug.

tu quoque fallacy

(LOGIC) a logical fallacy in which a person defends against an allegation by accusing an adversary of doing the same thing. It's a classic douchebag move because it implies that the speaker has a RIGHT to be a douchebag, by virtue of the fact that someone ELSE is being a douchebag.

From Latin, for "you, too."

WHY IT'S BAD
Suppose A is accused of terrorism. He reacts by accusing B, his enemy, of terrorism. Now, it's possible (but unlikely) that A actually chose this argument knowing he was totally innocent. More likely he wants to claim that his terrorism is PROVOKED. In effect, he's saying, "I have to do this, or I'm entitled to do this, because B did it first."

First, as logic it's a red herring. But what makes it douchebaggery rather than just another wartime propaganda tactic, is that it's MORALLY irrelevant as well as LOGICALLY irrelevant. The victims of terrorism almost never have any material control over either perpetrator ever.
ANNA: Abu Yahya, I don't know if your definition of "tu quoque fallacy" belongs in the Urban Dictionary. This isn't Wikipedia, you know.

ABU YAHYA: The reason I did is that I see all the time people using the rationale that, because somebody else did something bad to me, therefore I get to do something similar to anybody. It's sort of like sloppy revenge.

ANNA: Like men punishing random women because their girlfriends allegedly did something shitty to them?

ABU YAHYA: Actually, that's a perfect example of a tu quoque!
by Abu Yahya June 3, 2010
mugGet the tu quoque fallacy mug.

SAAR

(ECONOMICS) seasonally adjusted annualized rate.

Economic statistics are often reported as rates of change from month to month, or quarter to quarter. However, some months, such as November and December, have very high retail sales, while May through September have very high home sales. For this reason, data is sometimes "seasonally adjusted" to offset ordinary seasonal variations.

The US Federal Reserve System reports changes in GDP from quarter to quarter in annualized form; so, for example, during the last quarter of 2004, US GDP was (about) $3,044.6 billion. But it was reported as an annualized (and seasonally adjusted) $11734.9. If you divide that by 4 you get 2957.8, which reflects the fact that the Fed shaved 86.8 billion off its estimate of economic activity for 2004Q4 and reallocated it to Q1 & Q2.

The reason the Fed (and everyone else) does this is to measure economic change separately from the usual seasonal change in business activity.
In Brazil, household spending continued to ease to 0.8% quarter-to-quarter (3.1% SAAR) from 1.4% q/q (5.6% SAAR) in Q1 2010, and investment lost momentum, increasing 2.4% q/q (9.8% SAAR) compared with 7.3% q/q (32.4% SAAR) in Q1.

{Nouriel Robuini, "RGE's Wednesday Note - Brazil's Economy Exhales" (10 Sep 2010)}
by Abu Yahya September 8, 2010
mugGet the SAAR mug.

Share this definition

Sign in to vote

We'll email you a link to sign in instantly.

Or

Check your email

We sent a link to

Open your email