A sector is a specific portion of the economy or society. It can be really general, as in the public or the private sectors; slightly more specific, like manufacturing or commercial sectors; or quite specific, for example referring only to textiles or grain.
Archive for the ‘Daily Definition’ Category
A Sector is…
Friday, August 21st, 2009Pay-to-Play is…
Friday, August 21st, 2009Pay-t0-play is essentially the practice of exchanging money for access to or the privilege of participating in certain activities. Sometimes it is in reference to the actions of government officials or politicians to award benefits to a business or individual. For example, the owner of a road construction company might give a politician some money – maybe through campaign contributions or maybe just cash in a suitcase – to make sure his company gets a big government contract to build a new highway. There are all sorts of campaign finance and other laws to try and prevent this practice.
The Great Depression is…
Friday, August 21st, 2009The Great Depression is the severe, global, long-term economic downturn that began with a stock market crash in October 1929. In the United States, the stock market lost half of its value within a month of the crash’s start and unemployment remained as high as 17% in 1939, 10 years after the crash. The depression followed a decade of spectacular economic growth – the “roaring twenties” – and the U.S. economy didn’t really recover until the build-up to WWII in the 1940s.
A Profit Margin is…
Friday, August 21st, 2009A profit margin is the amount by which the income of a business exceed its costs – or, in other words, the percentage of an item’s price that the seller gets to keep. So if your business sells jeans for $100 a pair, but each pair takes only $89 to make, you get to keep the remaining $11, and your profit margin is 11%.
A Defined Benefit Plan is…
Friday, August 21st, 2009A defined benefit plan is a type of pension plan under which the plan’s sponsor agrees to pay all employees who are covered by that plan a specified amount of benefits when they retire. For example, and in contrast to a Defined Contribution Plan, a retiree is guaranteed health care rather than a certain dollar amount to use towards health care.
A Trading Floor is…
Friday, August 21st, 2009A trading floor is the physical space where listed stocks and bonds are traded (at the New York Stock Exchange or a brokerage company, for example).
A Plan is…
Friday, August 21st, 2009A plan is an arrangement of making regular payments toward a pension, savings account, or insurance policy. For example, if you decide to put 2% of your monthly income into your savings account on a consistent basis, that’s your personal savings plan.
Quantitative Analysis is…
Friday, August 21st, 2009Quantitative analysis is an examination of those aspects of something that can be measured numerically, such as the value of a company’s assets. This form of analysis deals with quantity.
Qualitative Analysis is…
Friday, August 21st, 2009Qualitative analysis is the examination of those aspects of a thing that can’t be measured numerically, such as the skill or intelligence of a company’s owners. Basically, it looks into the quality of what is being analyzed.
Electronic Fund Transfers are…
Friday, August 21st, 2009Electronic fund transfers (EFTs) are the movement or deposition of money using purely electronic signals, like using an ATM machine to transfer money between accounts, rather than using checks or cash and bank tellers.