Random
Source Code
Random
(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)}
(ECONOMICS) the central bank of the United States; often called "the Fed" for short. Sole bank of issue for the US dollar since 1971*; issuer of nearly all US currency since 1914.
Created in December 1913 through the Federal Reserve Act; while signed into law by Pres. Wilson, the basic outline of the FRB was developed by the Aldrich-Vreeland Committee (see Aldrich-Vreeland Act) during the Taft Administration (1909-1913).
In addition to issuing currency, the Fed is responsible for some (but not all) oversight of banks; management of the nation's money supply (using purchases and sales of US Treasury securities; see monetary policy); and management of a national check clearing system.
The Fed includes two central managing committees, the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). It also has 12 district banks; each is known as a Federal Reserve Bank.
The Federal Reserve System is a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).
_______________________________________
*Until 1971, the US Treasury issued a small share of bank notes, or "national notes." They were almost identical in appearance to Federal Reserve notes.
Between 1863 and 1935, federally chartered banks national banks were allowed to issue currency equal to 90% of US treasury securities deposited with the US Treasury. After 1914, when the Fed commenced operations, it nearly stopped entirely.
The Federal Reserve System has twelve district banks, whose management is chose by bank holding companies. The president of each district bank is himself likely to have been an officer of a bank holding company. Hence, regulatory capture was built into the system from the beginning.
66π 326π
A sexual relationship involving three partners, all of whom have sexual contacts with each other. C.f. an open triangle, in which two of the members do NOT have sexual relations with each other.
An obvious attribute of a closed triangle is that at least two of the members must be bisexual or homosexual.
A common sexual fantasy for both men and women is the "closed triangle"; it's appeared as a theme in several novels, including Ernest Hemingway's _The Garden of Eden_. As a literary theme, however, it nearly always ends sadly, perhaps because even in their fantasies writers are bound by plausible expectations.
24π 10π
(FINANCE) a company that exists for the sole purpose of owning a controlling interest in the several branches of a bank.
Owing to the interplay of US federal and state banking laws, it is often necessary for a bank to incorporate itself as a separate and distinct company in different states, or for different business functions (e.g., capital management, underwriting/investment banking, savings banking, etc.).
One of the exasperating benefits that bank holding companies get is a further limitation of liability. Often, the structure of the bank holding company is such that one of the firms owned (like Washington Mutual Bank, Inc.) can be insolvent, without resulting in the liquidation of the holding company.
Practically every financial intermediary in the USA is now owned by a bank holding company. They're totally insidious!
16π 5π
exceptionally prone to seeing the scurrilous, sexy, or kinky aspect of everything; obsessed with sex; prone to seeing sexual overtones to nonsexual behavior.
A dirty minded person may be hypocritical and unctuous, but read filthy motives into the acts of other people. For example, in the movie "American Beauty," the military officer wrongly assumes that his son's interactions with his neighbor are homosexual, rather than commercial--projecting his own repressed sexuality onto others (with deadly results).
The dirty minded obscene person does not shamelessly exult in his bawdy language, nor does he use it without self-consciousness... The dirty minded person has only partially internalized the taboos that he violates...
Joel Feinberg, _Offense to Others_, p.267
84π 31π
(MATHEMATICS) a logarithm whose base is e (2.71828...)
The number e is a transcendental irrational, which means that it has infinitely many decimal places but cannot be expressed as a fraction.
A useful feature of the natural log function is that the derivative of (ln x) is 1/x.
The natural log of n is equal to the {log(base x)n} divided by the {log(base x)e}.
10π 3π
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.
24π 7π