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 08, 2010
mugGet the SAARmug.

call option

(FINANCE) a financial derivative that entitles the owner to buy a fixed amount of X for a fixed price (the strike price) by a specific date in the future. If this is an equity derivative, X is referred to as the underlying stock.

A call option allows one to reap profits from an increase in price of a traded item without actually buying the asset itself. Since it is an option, one is not compelled to exercise it if it not advantageous to do so; however, the party that initially issued the option (i.e., the one who "wrote" the option) is legally obligated to honor the option.

When the strike price of a call option is more than the current market price of the asset (i.e., its "spot price"), then it has no intrinsic value and is "out of the money."
Buying a call option is one way to take a long position on the underlying asset.

Writing a call is a way to take a short position.
by Abu Yahya April 15, 2010
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LDC

Less developed country; refers to countries such as Mexico or Egypt, where there is a semi-functional state and plans to stimulate industry, but very limited industrial development (relative to the total labor force).
The World Bank and the IMF are both intensely controversial entities among LDCs.
by abu yahya June 24, 2008
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internal deficit

the gap between revenues and expenditures for a government (over a given period of time); often referred to as a public deficit or fiscal deficit. In many cases, a country has administrative subdivisions that also run significant fiscal deficits, e.g., India or Argentina. The sum of state, local, and federal deficits would constitute the internal deficit of those countries.

On very rare occasions the term is applied to the deficit run by private enterprise as well as by government; in such a case, the definition is understood to mean the total debt of a country that is held by its own citizens.
Some of the largest internal deficits in the world are experienced by countries with large external surpluses. Japan in the mid-'00's was a classic example.

(See external deficit)
by Abu Yahya February 14, 2009
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headline unemployment

(ECONOMICS) Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate). Does not include discouraged workers. Also referred to as "U-3" by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The BLS regularly publishes six estimates of unemployment. The others are U-1, U-3, U-4, U-5, and U-6. Eurostat publishes one monthly estimate of unemployment for the European Union, which is approximately midway between U-3 and U-4.

The unemployment statistics for the USA are collected through a monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) (also known as the household survey) and an establishment survey.
Given the way the government's headline unemployment rate is calculated, it can never reach 14%. This is because the civilian labor force includes only people who are working or have looked for a job in the previous four weeks. When the economy gets really bad (like now), unemployed workers get discouraged and give up looking for jobs. This causes the civilian labor force to decline as fast or faster than total employment.

{Louis Woodhill, "On Track for 14% Unemployment," RealClearMarkets (12 Jan 2010)}
by Abu Yahya July 19, 2010
mugGet the headline unemploymentmug.

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 balancemug.

disaster capitalism

(POLICY) an extreme form of capitalism created in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. In some cases, as in Chile (1973), the disaster is a coup d'etat with the express purpose of imposing disaster capitalism. In other cases, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, it is a genuine natural disaster that literally kills.

After some disasters, the authorities in some countries may well respond by imposing "reforms" that would have been impossible before. These include: (1) privatization of public property, making it unavailable to the indigenous people; (2) arbitrary elimination of laws ("deregulation"); and (3) slashing democratically chosen programs that help ordinary citizens ("austerity programs").

The concept was popularized in Naomi Klein's excellent 2007 book, *The Shock Doctrine*.
"Disaster capitalism" is neoliberalism imposed undemocratically. It exploits natural disasters, civil wars, foreign invasions, coups d'etat, terrorism, or explicit deception. It always seeks to make its changes irreversible.

Naomi Klein mostly blames the International Monetary Fund, but there are other culprits as well.
by Abu Yahya July 10, 2010
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