The Stock market and modern economy

Stock market It is very interesting when we look at stock market and modern economy, and how they operate despite a changing environment. To my understanding, stock and stock exchange is the very key and visible part of our modern economy or so called capitalist system. To trace and take a close look at the issue help substantially in understanding terms such as "production", "profitability", "price", "dividend", as well as "trade or exchange of shares on stock market". One: Initiation or evolution of stock market Well, we all know that stock market or stock exchange is a place where people trade shares of those listed companies. Initiation of stock exchange can be traced back a century ago, along with the rapid development of capital expansion and market economy. Assets of companies with limited liabilities are usually divided into a certain number of "shares". People who do not engaged in daily management of companies may also "own" a portion or part of a company in the form of holding its shares or stocks. Management of a company is then separated from ownership. Shareholders may exercise their ownership through board of directors and, professional managers are employed by board of directors to run business on behalf or representing the interest of shareholders. Return on shares fluctuates in line with performance or profitability of companies who issue these shares.

  • Word count: 1124
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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GCSE Applied Business Strand D Theory

IDENTIFY THE MAIN EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON THE TWO CHOSEN BUSINESSES, INCLUDING REFERENCE TO COMPETITORS, ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS ASDA STORES LTD COMPETITORS As a large national supermarket, Asda has many competitors including Safeway plc, Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC, J Sainsbury plc, Sommerfield plc and Tesco plc. These are all grocery retailers and Asda has many other competitors. http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/2003/481safeway.htm#summary tells us that Tescos is the largest grocery retailer in the UK with Sainsbury's 2nd, Asda 3rd, Safeway 4th, Sommerfield 5th and Morrison's 6th. Asda faces national and local competition. National Competition refers to any business competing for the same customers, within the same nation. In Asda's case any businesses competing for the same customers within the UK (England Scotland and Wales); national competitors are the main competitors for Asda. Tescos, Sainsbury's, Safeway, Sommerfield and Morrison are the five main national competitors for Asda. Any supermarket in the UK is a potential competitor of Asda; however the larger supermarkets pose a bigger threat and therefore are bigger competitors to Asda. Local Competition refers to any business competing for the same customers, locally (within a few kilometres). Co-op, Tesco, Sommerfield, Sainsbury's, Morrison's, Rajas, Spar,

  • Word count: 1316
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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Industrial revolution in Russia

Milena Petkova European Industrial Revolutions Essay # 2 The industrial revolution in Russia Russia, which began its industrial revolution at least a half century behind most of the West European countries, had to meet a number of special challenges. Russia moved to industrialisation in stages. An uncertain experimental phase - which Russia had already experienced to an extent before 1870 - included larger reforms that helped free up economic change. This preliminary period was followed by more rapid growth in a society still overwhelming agricultural. Russia had well-developed industrial sectors by the early 20th century, but paused well behind the West. Russia became the only society to experience full-fledged political and social revolution after the industrialisation process was well under way. The reform period in the 1860s that brought limited freedom for the serfs also produced a host of other political changes, some of which involved economic policy. The Abolition of Serfdom in 1861, had slowed down the creation of a large workforce, and, as such, the Russian economy had been almost completely agrarian. Also, Russia's previously untouched deposits of coal and other raw materials began to be exploited. Government budget procedures were regularized and state bank was created in 1866 to centralize credit and finance. Government policy also encouraged more foreign

  • Word count: 1119
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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Why do we have taxes?

Why do we have taxes? Taxes are important for a number of reasons. In the UK, the government provides health care, defence and education, as well as things like libraries. These services are paid for (taxes) and produced by the public sector. The government also pays the private sector for goods and services such as new roads and electricity for street lamps. Taxes can also be used to change demand in certain markets, in order to promote or discourage activity. For instance, by imposing taxes on goods with negative externalities, such as alcohol and pollution producing services, demand is decreased and so are the negative side effects of production. Similarly, by exempting books from VAT, demand increases, resulting in a more books being bought and read. Governments may alter the tax rate in order to manage the economy as a whole. The tax rate can influence unemployment, inflation and the balance of payments, and being able to alter it is useful for the government should they need to change these variables. For example reducing tax may result in consumers having more income, which may result in them buying more imports. Finally, taxes enable governments to redistribute income and wealth from rich groups in society to poorer groups, resulting in a more equitable system. Examples of this include Social Security benefits and pensions. "In recent years UK governments,

  • Word count: 846
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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From an economic perspective should my council do more to recycle a greater proportion of our waste

From an economic perspective should my council do more to encourage my household to recycle a greater proportion of our waste? For my economic coursework, I will attempt to answer to the question above. In order to do this, we need to explain various terminologies and need to carry out research by analysing collected data to be able to draw a conclusion. Prior to this, we need to answer the key question of: 'What is recycling?' Recycling is when a substance (usually waste) is passed through a process so the substance can be reused, for a different purpose or even the same. So now the question of: 'Where and what substances can be recycled locally?'Within the local council called Epsom and Ewell, there are facilities provided such as kerbside services, which are services available at the residents' doorsteps. These include recycling of: food waste, white paper, glass, cans, textiles, household batteries, plastic bottles, cardboard, and garden waste. There are other services such as recycling centres, home composting, washable nappies, recycling of furniture and bulky items. My family consists of six people who all live in this household. My parents are the people in the household who manage the waste. Fundamental economic terms that I will use will now be explained as follows. Market failure occurs when productive, allocative and therefore economic and Pareto efficiency are

  • Word count: 6075
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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The question is will the U.S. economy emerge from its recent funk- or spiral into a full-blown recession?

THE END IS CLOSER THAN WE CAN IMAGINE ! WRITTEN BY: JACOB STEVE ANTHONY ID: 00-01633-2 AMA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH The U.S. and Japan, countries of Strong economic background and measurable wealth are now at a stage of serious economic turmoil. Americans are living through a high level of anxiety. The question is will the U.S. economy emerge from its recent funk- or spiral into a full-blown recession? But there is light at the end of the tunnel; a lot of stocks are doing well. Despite awful headlines and a palpable fear, the average diversified stock fund has fallen a manageable 13% in the past year. Lots of people are doing well too. U.S. Job creation is growing at a faster pace this year than in the final months of 2000. Inflation is tame, and interest rates are falling fast, lowering the cost of mortgages and car loans. It looks like as if the economy in the U.S. is still in a very strong position, or is it? The signs of economic slowdown started to show up almost suddenly in the last quarter of the last year. In the third quarter of that year GDP registered a fall to 2.2 per cent and in the forth quarter it slumped to 1.1 per cent. During President Bill Clinton's era USA saw sustained economic growth almost on all fronts. Even in the first six months of last year (i.e. year 2000) growth rate was so high that the overall growth rate for the year worked

  • Word count: 1974
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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Economics Article Analysis: How far will the Fed go?

I.B. Economics S.L.II Jenna Carey Mr. Bleiler Block G November5th 2002 "How far will the Fed go?" Due to a weakening in the economy and in effect, an increase in the unemployment rate from 5.6% to 5.7%, the Federal Reserve Policy makers are faced with the decision of how much to cut interest rates in order to strengthen the economy and improve the current problem. Although the cut itself is almost ensured to be put into action, there is some debate and questioning over whether the cut will be one of a quarter-percentage or a half-percentage. It was shown in the monthly job reports that a further 5000 U.S. jobs were lost during October and the unemployment rate is rising. Challenger Gray & Christmas reported that job cut announcements were their highest this month since January of last year, and it is the job of the Fed to come up with a solution to this problem to ensure that the economy does not continue to fall in this direction. The Federal bank will have to act using their monetary policy to deliberately change the interest rates in order to affect the economy. Since interest rates affect spending on durable goods, investment spending and saving, changes that are made to interest rates will have a direct affect on the aggregate demand. The effect of a cut in interest rates will cause consumers to spend more of their income. Rather

  • Word count: 486
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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Explain the importance of the American stock market in 1929 in bringing about the depression.

Explain the importance of the American stock market in 1929 in bringing about the depression. The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 is the one trigger factor that many attribute to bringing about the Great Depression. However, despite the fact that around 61% of all stock transactions in America were handled by the New York Stock Exchange, historians and economists alike have argued that such a crash was unlikely to have single-handedly wrecked the world's economy. While it is true that the stock market crash had a profound impact on the depression - effectively deepening the already mounting problems - it must be assumed that other factors contributed to both the cause and the severity of it. There are many reasons why the stock exchange crashed in 1929. Perhaps to sum these reasons up, it is enough to say that economists of the time were utilising a 19th century understanding in the rapidly expanding and modernising 20th century economic structure. The structure and nature of the stock market is an important factor leading to its crash. The "bull market" was a term used to describe the trend of rapidly rising prices and massive volume of buying and selling. Many historians have stated that the main reason for the growth of the bull market, other than the desire of the people to "get rich quick", was the fact that borrowing money from the country was now much easier, due

  • Word count: 1382
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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Interest rates need to be increased or decreased in order to improve economics performance of this borough of Hackney. It would be grateful if you would be kind enough to complete the questionnaire below to assist with my research.

I am a student at generic technology college. For my economics coursework, I am doing the following research: "Interest rates need to be increased or decreased in order to improve economics performance of this borough of Hackney. It would be grateful if you would be kind enough to complete the questionnaire below to assist with my research. . Do you own your property with variable mortgage rates? Yes No If you ticked (no) please answer question 2 if yes pleas answer questions given A. Will an increase in interest rate make your mortgage payment go up? Yes No B. Will a decrease in interest rate make your interest payment go up? Yes No 2. Are a regular server? Yes No If you ticked (no) please answer question 3 if yes pleas answer questions given A. Will an increase in interest rate make you save more? Yes No B. Will a decrease in interest rate make you save more? Yes No 3. Do you have a credit card? Yes No If you ticked (no) please answer question 4 if yes pleas answer questions given A. Will an increase in interest rate make your interest payment go up? Yes No B. Will a decrease in interest rate make your interest payment go up? Yes No 4. Do you have your holiday in the U.K? If you ticked (no) please answer question 5 if yes pleas answer questions given A.

  • Word count: 637
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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To what extent was the Asian financial crisis predictable? Discuss the current situation in the region.

Harpal Chima 13A Economics & Business Studies To what extent was the Asian financial crisis predictable? Discuss the current situation in the region Market forces are natural effects within the economy, the trade cycle is a clear indication that shows that the economy is not always booming there are also periods where by recessions and slumps will cause crises to occur. Over the past century the world has been hit by these recession periods such as during the 1930's when the world was under by the Great Depression, this also occurred in the 1990's when Asia was hit by the 'Asian Financial Crisis'. The Asian financial crisis occurred in 1997, this was the aftermath of a boom period when confidence was high, a lot of countries were borrowing a lot of capital from foreign nations and also currencies were extremely overvalued. The occurrence of the crisis is based upon two underlying elements where by there was an excessive currency inflow in Asia as a whole and also the financial system of the region was severally underdeveloped. All this put together meant that eventually a turning point was going to occur where by the region would be hit hard by a recession period, but this was unforeseeable by most people because of the high confidence rate and growth rate within the continent. The

  • Word count: 1353
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Business Studies
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