trimmer

A person who refines political views to accommodate the prevailing winds; particularly, one who contrives self-serving excuses for political views now generally recognized to have been stupid.

In journalism, the current handwringer-in-chief is the New Yorker writer George Packer, whose book *The Assassins' Gate* has met with high praise from ... a subset of pundits I call trimmers... trimmers criticize ... the foolish president, but avoid unequivocal denunciations of this foolish war.

--John R, MacArthur, "Pro-War Liberals Frozen in the Headlights"

41👍 30👎

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)}

17👍 29👎

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

(US ECONOMY) One of the 12 district Federal Reserve Banks. Based in New York (2nd FR district). Along with members of the Federal Reserve Board, enjoys a permanent seat on the FOMC (other district banks only get to rotate).

Main job is to regulate banks and administer monetary policy through open market operations. Former New York Fed president Tim Geithner is now Secretary of the US Treasury Department (as of early 2009).

Prior to 1928, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was the de facto leader of the entire system. This was because of the powerful personality and connections of Benjamin Strong, a former J.P. Morgan partner.

5👍 118👎

Initial Public Offering

(FINANCE) when a corporation "goes public"; the first sale of stock by a corporation. All sales of stock or bonds on the stock market require the services of an underwriter, or investment bank. Outside of the USA and China, it is common for regular banks to offer underwriting for corporations.

Incorporation is a legal status that allows (but by no means requires) a firm to issue stock. Moreover, once a corporation lists stock, it does not necessarily do so on a major exchange. Some corporations areclosely held, which means they have a small number of shareholders who are mostly affiliated with management; other corporations are "private," which means they have no stock issues at all, and control/shares of profits are determined contractually.

Some corporations have issues of stock, and that stock is traded, but it is not listed. Instead, it is traded on the "pink pages." Such companies are usually in a bad way, but not necessarily.

An IPO is the first issue of stock by a corporation THAT DOESN'T ALREADY have a listed stock. If a company is "taken private" (i.e., bought out by a PE fund and de-listed) then it can have another IPO (or "sponsored IPO"). Most likely, however, if a listed company will need to raise money on the stock market, it will have a "follow-on offering."

A fantasy of many entrepreneurs is "going public" with a big initial public offering, and retiring to a beachfront mansion.

18👍 4👎

fiscal deficit

the gap between revenues and expenditures for a government (over a given period of time); often referred to as an internal deficit or public deficit.
The public deficit accumulates over each time period (usually a year) into what is known as the public debt.

According to Keynesian and Neo-Keynesian economic theory, fiscal deficits are usually the most effective tool for stimulating economic activity; the actual choice of how the money is spent is less important.

In the USA, most states are not allowed to run fiscal deficits. In other federal republics, such as India and Argentina, they are allowed and frequently account for much of those countries' internal deficits.

25👍 5👎

expert's dilemma

A problem faced by a person with specialized expertise in any area, in which the implications of the opinion are unpopular and likely to be rejected by those who need that expertise. For example, economists may be likely to know that, in some cases, a "market solution" is inherently impossible, but proposing an alternative is an exercise not merely in futility, but career suicide among those who employ economists. It arises because the expert knows more about the field than her employers.

The statistician was asked by his boss to make a case for risk homeostasis, but knowing better, he faced an expert's dilemma: telling the truth would get him tarred as a 'socialist.'

49👍 6👎

diminishing marginal returns

phenomenon in which greater input of effort, money, etc. yields smaller results. Crucial part of the idea is that if you're using x to get y results (where y is the thing you want). then additional input a will yield additional results b, but not in the same proportion as before.

On average, before, you put in x to get y, so your yield was y/x. But if you increase x by amount a, then your results will be y + b, where

(y + b)/(x + a) < y/x

and this will only get worse.

Diminishing marginal returns (DMR) is used to explain why the supply curve in economics slopes upward, i.e., increasing the quantity supplied requires an increased price of most things.

Sometimes DMR is more than offset by "economies of scale," which allows more of a thing to be supplied more cheaply than a small amount.

At first his flowers and treats swept her off her feet, but then he had to do more and more lavish things to please her. It was a classic case of diminishing marginal returns.

29👍 7👎