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International trade
Most economists believe in free trade - that people and companies should be able to buy goods from all countries, without any barriers when they cross frontiers.
The comparative cost principle is that countries should produce whatever they can make the most cheaply. Countries will raise their living standards and income if they specialize in the production of the goods and services in which they have the highest relative productivity: the amount of output produced per unit of an input (e.g. raw material, labour).
Countries can have an absolute advantage - so that they are the cheapest in the world, or a comparative advantage - so that they are only more efficient than some other countries in producing certain goods or services. This can be because they have raw materials, a particular climate, qualified labour (skilled workers), and economies of scale - reduced production costs because of large-scale production.
Balance of payments
Imports are goods or services bought from a foreign country. Exports are goods or services sold to a foreign country.
A country that exports more goods than it imports has a positive balance of trade or a trade surplus. The opposite is a negative balance of trade or a trade deficit. Trade in goods is sometimes called visible trade. Services such as banking, insurance and tourism are sometimes called invisible imports and exports. Adding invisibles to the balance of trade gives a country's balance of payments.
Protectionism
Governments, unlike most economists, often want to protect various areas of the economy. These include agriculture - so that the country is certain to have food - and other strategic industries that would be necessary if there was a war and international trade became impossible. Governments also want to protect other industries that provide a lot of jobs.
Many governments impose tariffs or import taxes on goods from abroad, to make them more expensive and to encourage people to buy localproducts instead. However, there are an increasing number of free trade areas, without any import tariffs, in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) tries to encourage free trade and reduce protectionism: restricting imports in order to help local products. According to the WTO agreement, countries have to offer the same conditions to all trading partners. The only way a country is allowed to try to restrict imports is by imposing tariffs. Countries should not use import quotas -limits to the number of products which can be imported - or other restrictive measures. Various international agreements also forbid dumping - selling goods abroad at below cost price in order to destroy or weaken competitors or to earn foreign currency to pay for necessary imports.
(From «Professional English in Use Finance» by Ian MacKenzie, 2006)
The telephones
The telephones are connected in series with the detector. A brief explanation of how the telephone works,is here necessary. The sensation of sound is excited in the ear by the motion imparted to the air by vibrating bodies. If a flat steel spring be fixed in a vertical position in a vice, and the free end of it be displaced, on releasing it vibratory motion will follow. The free end will pass backwards and forwards along a gradually decreasing arc. During its first movement to the right, it compresses the air on its right-hand, and causes a state of rarefaction on its left-hand side. A reverse movement has exactly the opposite effect. As long as the spring continues to vibrate, waves of rarefaction and compression are propagated, the frequency of these waves or the number of complete vibrations per second determining whether they are audible or not. If the frequency be anything between 30 and 20,000 per second, audible sounds are produced. The telephone is an instrument capable of producing waves in the air of such a frequency. A disc of thin soft iron, varnished to prevent rusting, takes the place of the spring just described, and it is set in vibration by fluctuations in the intensity of a magnetic field.
Fig 1. Shows an electro-magnet with its two poles in close proximity to a disc of soft iron D, which is firmly clamped in position by its edges. The core of the magnet is permanently magnetized and exercises a force of attraction on the disc. If a current be passed through the coils wound round its pole pieces, this force of attraction is increased or decreased according to the direction of the current. If the force be increased, the center of the disc is pulled towards the magnet; and if the force be decreased, ,it is released to some extent. If, then. Rapid alternations of current or intermittent unidirectional currents, be passed through the windings, the disc or “diaphragm” as it is called, is caused to vibrate; and if the frequency of the vibrations be within the limits stated above, they will produce the sensation of sound in ear.
On account of its shape the telephone receiver used in a wireless installation is called a “watch” receiver.
Two complete watch receivers are connected in series at the ends of a steel or aluminum strip spring, to form the telephone head-gear. As the space available is very small, the wire used in the coils of the electro-magnets must of necessity be very thin, in order to obtain the necessary ampere-turns required for the high degree of sensitiveness of the telephone. In low resistance telephones the wire is insulted with silk, but where a much greater number of turns is required, as in the case of telephones of from two to eight thousand ohms resistance used with a valve or crystal receiver, the wire insulation usually consists of a coating enamel, as space is thus economized. In the high resistance telephone a pair of protective spark points is often included, as a guard for the coil windings against excess voltage due either to direct application, inductive kick on suddenly breaking circuit, or high-frequency surge-all tending to damage the insulation. Again, where enameled wire is used, the interior of case is filled with paraffin wax, further to ensure good insulation and prevent moisture from reaching the windings.
7)Management Secrets: 5 Signs of Good Management
Getting other people to do what needs to be done is a simple, but pretty basic, definition of management. But management certainly isn't simple, at least not the way we Americans approach it.
If you consider the vast sums of money we spend on formal management education - not to mention what's spent on books, software and other tools - one would think that this management mystery should have been solved a long time ago. But we're still looking for those elusive management "secrets" that will transform us and our organizations.
The truth of the matter is - notwithstanding the millions paid to CEOs - there are no secrets to managing. Being a good manager requires reasonable intelligence, common sense, a desire to accomplish something and a bit of brass.
Whether or how good managers are born or made, who knows. But look for these signs that a company has them:
The company knows its business. The least convoluted the response to "Just what is it that XYZ Co. does?" the better. If management can't explain what the company does in simple English, it probably doesn't know.
The business makes money. Call me old-fashioned, but when a company earns a profit it means that management has at least figured out what people in the real world want and how to produce it for less than the price people are willing to pay.
People listen. Good management means that humility is encouraged, and arrogance is discouraged. Salespeople listen to customers, managers listen to salespeople and bosses listen to workers. This is the way a company learns, improves and grows. If management doesn't listen, it's not just deaf, it's dumb.
Reasonableness rules. It's important to aim for the stars, but if management demands excessive returns or non-stop extraordinary performance - without understanding how work gets done or without providing adequate resources - watch out for severe politicking, blaming and corporate upheaval.
A sense of mission. Does making a millionaire CEO richer or completing a meaningless project turn you on? I hope not. Good management gives people emotionally satisfying reasons to care about their work. Sure, pay is important, but good managers know the importance of caring about something bigger.
Banking
Current accounts
A current account is an account which allows customers to take out or withdraw money, with no restrictions. Money in the account does not usually earn a high rate of interest: the bank does not pay much for 'borrowing' your money. However, many people also have a savings account or deposit account which pays more interest but has restrictions on when you can withdraw your money. Banks usually send monthly statements listing recent sums of money going out, called debits, and sums of money coming in, called credits.
Nearly all customers have a debit card allowing them to make withdrawals and do other transactions at cash dispensers. Most customers have a credit card which can be used for buying goods and services as well as for borrowing money. In some countries, people pay bills with cheques. In other countries, banks don't issue cheque books and people pay bills by bank transfer. These include standing orders, which are used to pay regular fixed sums of money, and direct debits, which are used when the amount and payment date varies.