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abu yahya's definitions

CGD crisis

Stands for "currency-growth-debt" crisis. Climax of a CGD trap; the most famous example was Argentina in 2002.
The Suez Canal fell under British and French control as a result of Ismail Pasha's CGD crisis.
by abu yahya June 23, 2008
mugGet the CGD crisismug.

bank of issue

(ECONOMICS) A bank that is empowered to issue currency. In the USA, between 1863 (National Bank Act) and 1935, any bank with a federally issued charter (i.e., a national bank) was allowed to issue currency. After 1914, few did.

The US Treasury issued a small number of banknotes until 1971.

In the UK, banknotes of the Bank of England are legal tender; but the Royal Bank of Scotland is also a bank of issue.

Today, in almost every country of the world, the sole bank of issue is the central bank of that country.
The People's Bank of China is the bank of issue for the People's Republic of China.
by Abu Yahya May 5, 2010
mugGet the bank of issuemug.

trade balance

the amount of goods and services that a country exports, minus the goods and services that it imports *in a calendar year*. In 1999 Japan exported much more than it imported, so it had a trade surplus. The same year, the United States imported more than it exported, and therefore had a large trade deficit.

The trade balance is negative if a country runs a trade deficit, and positive if it runs a trade surplus.
The trade balance is an extremely important indicator of economic health for most countries. Typically (not not always) the value of the currency is strongly influenced by the trade balance also.
by Abu Yahya February 14, 2009
mugGet the trade balancemug.

pressure group

potentially any association of people with a common set of goals, who are politically active as such. However, pressure groups are usually understood to be more grassroots and issue-oriented, rather than interest-oriented (so they are not quite the same as a lobby). Hence, pressure groups are likely to include groups opposed to human rights violations and neighborhood "renewal" projects.
The London-based pressure group, Survival International, called on oil companies to immediately withdraw from Peru, describing the incident as "the Amazon's Tiananmen" and accusing security forces, who have since imposed a curfew over the region, of burying and burning corpses to hide the scale of the killing.

"Peruvian Indians are being driven to desperate measures to try to save their lands which have been stolen from them for five centuries," said the director of Survival, Stephen Corry. "This is the Amazon's Tiananmen. If it finishes the same way, it will also end Peru's international reputation."

M@RCONECTADO, "The jungle massacre: Peru's tribal chief flees country" (11 June 2009)
by Abu Yahya June 12, 2009
mugGet the pressure groupmug.

Exxon Mobil

World's 3rd largest company (2009 sales: $310 billion); 2nd largest oil company (after Royal Dutch Shell).

Founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1862 in Titusville, PA as Rockefeller & Andrews Oil. Using combination of trust agreement and a holding company based in NJ, grew to totally dominate oil production, transport, and retailing. Standard Oil incorporated 1870.

Trust agreements revoked (court order) 1892; SO holding company broken up 1911 into 35 entities, including: Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, ARCO, Conoco, and Amoco. Amoco and ARCO were absorbed by British Petroleum, while Conoco merged with Phillips, Chevron merged with Texaco, and Exxon merged with Mobil.

Apologies to Urban Dictionary for misspelling the company's name "Exxon Mobile" in the definition for BP, p.l.c..
Exxon Mobil operates 37 oil refineries in 20 countries; in the USA, it owns and operates about 12,000 service stations.

Exxon Mobil mostly evaded any significant financial responsibility for the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker crash, the 2nd worst oil spill in US history (since eclipsed by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout. That disaster cost the company about $4.5 billion, paid out over 20 years (or roughly 2% of profits over that time period).
by Abu Yahya July 18, 2010
mugGet the Exxon Mobilmug.

Self-Correcting

*adj*; the tendency of some systems to return to normal conditions after a disruption. For example, a spinning gyroscope will return to its original inclination if you push it away. The term is usually applied to theories about how the economy works.
Economists traditionally describe market economies as self-correcting. However, when depressions or recessions strike, they are usually obligated to help the process along.
by Abu Yahya March 23, 2009
mugGet the Self-Correctingmug.

RMBS

(FINANCE) real estate mortgage backed securities; usually used to refer to the derivatives created by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that were used to create collateralized debt obligations CDO's.

Most economists seem to agree that the 2008 crisis was caused by the collapse of the real estate market, which was mainly caused by the toxic relationship between RMBS's and the CDO's created mostly with them.
For almost eighty years the RMBS business helped people buy homes, with few serious problems. Then Congress abolished Glass-Steagall, the banks merged and created CDO's, and total disaster followed.

And now our neighborhoods look awful as well.
by Abu Yahya April 5, 2010
mugGet the RMBSmug.

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