Text 11. Read the text and write several questions about the relationship between the government and business development. Government and business

To what extent should a government interfere in the economic system? There are two extremes in the spectrum. On the one hand a government can interfere minimally, allowing the forces of demand and supply and the price mechanism to determine what goods and services are to be produced. This is called a laissez-faire (or leave it alone) policy. The argument runs that people will vote with their money for the sorts of things they want. If they want to read a particular newspaper, they will buy it, and the newspaper will stay in business. If they do not like the newspaper, they will not buy it, and the newspaper will go out of business. The same applies to television sets and motor cars, holidays in Spain and Chinese take-away food

At the other end of the spectrum is the centrally planned economy in which government makes all the major decisions such as what is going to be produced, who is going to produce it, where it is going to be produced, and who is going to benefit from it when it is produced..

Most governments operate somewhere between these two extremes. In capitalist countries governments let the business world get on with the job for the needs of the people. If they make profits, we will tax these profits and use proceeds to support the Welfare State (which offers free education, subsidized health and pensions) and defend us against external aggression. There is, however, general agreement that some economic activities should be controlled by the state, which explains our nationalized industries.

Notes

to what extent – до какой степени, насколько proceeds - доход

extreme - полюс subsidized - субсидированный

to get on - преуспевать

TERM II

Supplementary reading texts for reading and translating (Тексты для чтения и перевода)

Text 1.

Electronic money

Electronic money (also known as e-currency, e-money, electronic cash, electronic currency, digital money, digital cash, digital currency, cyber currency) is money exchanged electronically. Typically, this involves the use of computer networks, the internet and digital systems. Electronic funds transfer, digital gold currency and virtual currency are all examples of electronic money.

A number of electronic money systems use contactless payment transfer in order to facilitate easy payment and give the payee more confidence in not letting go of their electronic wallet during the transaction.

Text 2

Internet currency

Internet currency was a form of electronic money for the Internet. The idea of Internet currency could date back to 1995, when the first major website that used Internet trade was opened, eBay. The idea of trade over the Internet slowly got more popular, and more websites began opening stores over the Web.

Three of the corporations providing Internet currency, InternetCash.com, Flooz.com and beenz.com, were shut down in August 2001. Internet Cash used pre-paid cards, either in physical or electronic form to distribute money which could then be used anywhere on the Internet or on specific site. This proof of concept created a lot of customer demand. Flooz gave customers only four days to spend all of their money. If the money was not spent, the remaining money was rendered useless as the companies had shut down, thus transactions could not be processed. Many users of Internet currency lost money, and some complained to the site.

Text 3