Central banks

A central bank is the entity responsible for overseeing the monetary system for a nation. They have a crucial role in the economy, and a wide range of responsabilities. These include issuing the nation's currency, functioning as a governemnt bank and regulating the credit system.
Most banks have the aims of achieving goals like currency stability, full employment and low inflation.

The most important Central Banks right now are:
The Fed (Federal Reserve System), led by Ben Bernanke
The ECB (European Central Bank), led by Jean-Claude Trichet
The Bank of England, led by Mervyin King
The People's Bank of China, led by Zhou Xiaochuan

Financing Business Activity

IGCSE BS: Financing Business Activity

The IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 187 countries, working mainly together to encourage global monetary cooperation.

Its main aim are:

• to assure financial stability
• to facilitate international trade
• to promote high employment and sustainable economic growth
• to reduce poverty around the world

The IMF has three major roles in the current monetary system:

• It monitors and surveys financial and economic developments
• It helps countries with difficulties of balancing payments by providind funds
• It provides techincal assistance and training to countries that request this.

The Dow Jones

The Dow Jones is a stock market index, and one of several indices created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow.

The average is price-weighted, and to compensate for the effects of stock splits and other adjustments, it is currently a scaled average.

The value of the Dow is not the actual average of the prices of its component stocks, but rather the sum of the component prices divided by a divisor, which changes whenever one of the component stocks has a stock split or stock dividend, so as to generate a consistent value for the index.

A lifetime fighting poverty with analysis rather than activism

Amartya Sen is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society’s poorest members.Sen was best known for his work on the causes of famine, which led to the development of practical solutions for preventing or limiting the effects of real or perceived shortages of food.

Bonds

A bond is a debt security, in which the issuer owes the bond holders a debt and, depending on the bond, is obliged to pay interest and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity. It is issued for a period of more than one year and usually by governments or big companies in order to raise capital.

The corporation receives the money from selling the bond to raise immediate money. It repays this money to the buyer or pays interest periodically. There are many types of bonds.

The bonds market is one of the biggest in economy and moves many trillions of money each year.

Ownership and Organisation

IGCSE BS: Ownership and Organisation