- •Белорусский государственный университет
- •Предисловие
- •1. Profession of an economist
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •1. K p. A. – one thousand per annum.
- •Ex. 3. Express in one word.
- •Comprehension
- •Degrees in Economics
- •Basic Courses
- •Supporting Courses
- •Required Courses Year 1
- •Questions
- •Outstanding Economists
- •The Founder of Economics
- •David Ricardo (1772–1823)
- •John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
- •Writing
- •Study the biographical data of Michael Del and Ingvar Kamprad, find the information about famous businessmen and write it down as in the examples that follows the tables.
- •Michael Dell
- •Timeline
- •Ingvar Kamprad Timeline
- •Example
- •Translation a. Translate into Russian. Woman’s Place in Management
- •B. Translate into English.
- •Listening
- •Speaking
- •Vocabulary academic adj – 1. Университетский; академический; учебный; 2. Чисто теоретический; 3. Фундаментальный (в противоположность прикладному)
- •Salary n – жалованье, оклад self-employed adj – обслуживающий свое собственное предприятие; работающий не по найму
- •2. Economics as a science
- •2.1. Economics and Economic Methods
- •Economics: the Study of Scarcity and Choice
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Opportunity Cost
- •Satisfying People’s Wants
- •Methodology
- •Economic Theory and Models
- •Speaking Discuss the following questions.
- •Vocabulary
- •Economic systems
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Translation a. Translate the text from English into Russian. Classification of Countries
- •Vocabulary
- •3. The macroeconomy
- •3.1. Gross domestic product
- •Gross Domestic Product
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Questions
- •Writing
- •Speaking
- •Vocabulary
- •3.2. InflAtion
- •Meaning and Measurement of Inflation
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Demand-Pull and Cost-Push Inflation
- •Does it Cost More to Laugh?
- •Writing
- •Consumer Price Index Criticism
- •Vocabulary
- •3.3. Economic business cycles and unemployment
- •Economic Business Cycles
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Comprehension
- •Unemployment
- •Types of Unemployment
- •W.H. Philips and the Philips Curve
- •Vocabulary
- •3.4. Banking discovering connections
- •Reading
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Comprehension
- •Commercial Banks of Britain
- •Banking in the usa
- •Banking and Monetary System of the Republic of Belarus
- •The Paris Club
- •Listening Student Banking
- •Student Banking
- •Application for Credit
- •Vocabulary
- •3.5. Money and monetary policy
- •Reading
- •Money and its Functions
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Comprehension
- •Classical Economics
- •Keynesian Economics
- •Monetarism
- •Instruments of Monetary Policy
- •Monetary Policy during the Great Depression
- •Listening Central Banking
- •Talking with Paul Volker
- •Vocabulary
- •Glossary
- •3.6. Fiscal policy
- •Fiscal Policy
- •Discretionary fiscal policy
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Other Issues in Fiscal Policy
- •The Role of Government
- •Writing
- •Transition and the Changing Role of Government
- •Budgets and Fiscal Policy
- •Briefing on Personal Taxation
- •Vocabulary
- •4. The microeconomy
- •4.1. Supply and demand
- •Supply and Demand
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Equilibrium: Mr.Demand, Meet Mr.Supply
- •Equilibrium
- •Elasticity
- •Ex. 2. Answer the questions on the text.
- •Negotiating on the Phone
- •North Holland Dairy Cooperative, Volendam, Postbus 4550nl-4452
- •Jan van Geelen
- •Vocabulary
- •4.2. Market structure
- •Monopoly
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Comprehension
- •Three Pricing Strategies
- •Market Leaders, Challengers and Followers
- •Vocabulary
- •5. The global economy
- •5.1. International trade
- •International Trade
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Comprehension
- •The Arguments for and against Free Trade
- •The Banana Wars
- •The Legacy of Adam Smith and David Ricardo
- •Listening
- •Vocabulary
- •5.2. Global market and developing nations discovering connections
- •The World’s Economies
- •Industrialized nations: Growing and Growing Old
- •Newly Industrialized Nations: Getting Going
- •Developing Nations
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •To develop, development, developed, developing
- •Comprehension
- •Economic Cooperation
- •Case study
- •B. Scanning for Information
- •Airbus Industrie
- •The Boeing Company
- •C. Interpreting Information
- •Multinational Corporations and Globalization: the Pros and Cons
- •Translation
- •Vocabulary
- •6. Business administration
- •6.1. Company structure discovering connections
- •Reading
- •Forms of Business Organization
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Comprehension
- •Flotation
- •Describing Company Structure
- •Is made up of is diveded into
- •Listening
- •Interview with Willhite
- •Vocabulary
- •6.2. Management
- •Nature of Management
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •A. Introduction to the problem
- •B. Scanning for Information
- •Beginning the Business
- •Text b Business Principle: Supermarket Shopping Should Be Fun To Stew Leonard, the distinction between a supermarket and an amusement park is slight, and not necessarily useful.
- •Business Principle: Listen to the Customer
- •Stew Leonard’s Fact Sheet
- •Look at the Stew Leonard's Approach to Supermarket Sales. What do you think about his ideas of running the business. Stew Leonard's Approach to Supermarket Sales
- •Principles of Management
- •What Makes a Good Manager?
- •Семь заповедей бизнесмена
- •Vocabulary
- •Glossary
- •6.3. Accounting
- •What is Accounting?
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Accounting and Financial Statements
- •The Accounting Profession
- •Business Documents
- •The Balance Sheet
- •Income Statement
- •Bookkeeping
- •Role Play
- •Project X
- •Vocabulary
- •6.4. Marketing
- •Concept of Marketing
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Building a Brand
- •The brand name
- •B. Scanning for Information
- •The Creation of Levi Jeans
- •Other Levi Strauss Products
- •Text c Why New Products Are Needed
- •Levi Strauss & Co. Product History
- •C. Discussion
- •Writing
- •Marketing Information System
- •You are discussing a new product with your marketing manager. You may use the dialogue below as a model.
- •Vocabulary
- •6.5. Advertising
- •Advertising
- •Vocabulary Focus
- •Comprehension
- •How Companies Advertise
- •Ad advertising campaign advertising standards advertisement advertising budget advertising agencies print
- •Designing an Advertising Campaign Putting the Problem in Perspective: Applying Business Concepts
- •E. Fieldwork
- •Every Day ups Are Trusted To Reliable Deliver 12 Million Shipments Worldwide
- •Vocabulary
- •Glossary
- •Список использованной литературы
- •Contents
Talking with Paul Volker
Paul Volcker served as chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1979 to 1987, a time when double-digit inflation was gripping the U.S. economy. Michael Parkin spoke with Mr. Volcker about his experience as chairman of the Fed and about his vision and concerns for the future of the economy.
I.: |
Mr Volcker, what originally attracted you to economics? |
P.V.: |
I was an undergraduate immediately after the Second World War. I think a lot of people at the time got interested in economics because they hoped of the idea that after the war things must be able to work better than they had during the Depression, and they were filled with a zeal for doing better. That was part of my thinking, but just as important, economics seemed to me, of all the social sciences, to have a little more precision. I thought I could combine this practical, logical structure with an instinct for public service. In retrospect, I'm sure I overestimated the logic and coherence! |
I.: |
What are the economic principles that you, learned in school that have proved useful in your professional life? |
P.V.: |
Some economic principles are eternally useful. Economics does teach you the discipline of understanding that the direct immediate effects of some action may not be the full story — that without close analysis and study you may have unintended and unanticipated effects later on. Those later "side effects" may be greater than the immediate effects. Finally, the concept of looking at the margin — at incremental effects — is very important in terms of actual policy. |
I.: |
Is a background in economics, familiarity with economic principles, mandatory for a chairman of the Federal Reserve? |
P.V.: |
I haven't been able to detect any correlation in performance between chairmen that were economists and those who were not. The chairman doesn't have to be a trained economist if he or she has a staff of very good economists. Without that, you'd really be in trouble. |
I.: |
There must be as many opinions about what the Fed should be doing as there are economists. How do these controversies among macroeconomists affect the Fed's job? Are they relevant for the conduct of monetary policy? |
P.V.: |
Oh, I think they're relevant. The internal technical debate doesn't make that much difference. But to the extent that economists' positions on public policy influence public opinion and differ widely, you lack a consensus against which to conduct policy, in a political context, some of these different points of view become politicized. That's part of the environment in which the Fed must operate. The one advantage when you're the chairman of the federal Reserve Board is that you can sometimes influence — or can lead yourself and everyone else into thinking that you can influence — the nature of the consensus about economic policy, as it is actually reflected in public opinion. |
I.: |
There has certainly not been consensus about the consequences of the Fed's policy in fighting inflation during the late 1970s and early 1980s, while you were chairman. When you embarked on your war against inflation, did you expect to be presiding over the longest peacetime recovery in U.S. history? |
P.V.: |
I thought then, and think now, that inflation is the enemy of sustained expansion. But dealing with these things always turns out to be more difficult, more complicated, and to take longer than you expect. I guess I did misjudge how long we could put up with internal government deficits and external trade imbalances. |
I.: |
What were you missing? |
P.V.: |
In part I think there is a much more fluid international capital market than we had recognized. I would not have guessed that the United States could borrow, or that the Japanese would be willing to lend, so much money year after year without more uncertainty about the dollar. I would not have guessed that the value of the dollar could come down from its high level as much as it has without more disturbance in interest rates and inflation. We've been very fortunate in being able to manage that big a decline in the value of the dollar with as little inflation as we've had. |
I.: |
Did your war on inflation cost more in human terms than you had thought? |
P.V.: |
Stopping inflation is never easy. What I object to is that people said that the Federal Reserve caused the recession in the early 1980s and all its pain and suffering. But, in my view, we were going to have the pain anyway. It was just a question of when and how. We thought it would be less if we dealt with the inflation earlier rather than later. One of my predecessors, Bill Martin, once described the Fed's job as taking away the punch bowl just when the party's getting good. You avoid the hangover that way, or reduce it anyway. |
I.: |
Do you bring the punch bowl back if the party starts to fade? |
P.V.: |
My critique of Federal Reserve history is not that it was always too harsh and brought all these expansions to an end when they could have gone on forever. But sometimes the Fed was overeager to get the party started. Once you get in a recession, the pressures on the Fed are very strong. Even after you come out of the recession, the temptation is to overstimulate. But policy only works with a lag and the lags catch up with you. You're off to another jolly party again. We tried to avoid this last time, I think with some success. |
I.: |
We've talked a bit about the government's budget deficit. Did the government's need to finance its budget deficit affect your job as chairman of the Fed? |
P.V.: |
I do not believe that the Federal Reserve was forced into inflationary financing. In retrospect, the government's budget deficit position did not in fact appear to impair our ability to achieve a record expansion. But if you look at whether the expansion can be carried on for another seven years, you have to get concerned about our relatively low level of investment, our low productivity, and our dependence on foreign lending and investment. None of these can be dealt with by monetary policy alone. Fiscal policy gives you an expansionary thrust, which then has to be countered by tighter monetary policy — by higher interest rates. This leaves you with a vulnerable economy, increasingly dependent on money borrowed from overseas. |
I.: |
Our economic relationship with other countries also includes the exchange of goods and services. In recent years we have been experiencing a substantial decline in net exports. What do you see as the principal cause of the external trade deficit? |
P.V.: |
It's an internal imbalance between our ability to produce and our propensity to spend. Our spending is mostly consumption, personal and public. Investment is, at best just so-so a period of expansion. So a major policy challenge is to find a way of cutting consumption. On the other hand, there are imbalances in the opposite direction in other economies. The Japanese are doing a good job in beginning to deal with this problem. But it is true that there is a bias in the trading world toward less openness. If you took a snapshot of the world trading scene, you'd have to agree that the United States is by far the most open market of all, and our trading partners are more closed. How do you deal with that complaint? You can't ignore how these imbalances are aggravated by our own internal economic policies, our own consumption. |
I.: |
What will improve the situation? |
P.V.: |
We've got to contain domestic spending and we've got to see foreign markets open up so that foreign expenditure for our goods increases. Of course, just opening foreign markets wouldn't induce any change in our own spending by itself. Moreover, changing our spending pattern can't be done just by monetary policy, by high interest rates. Monetary policy won't move spending from consumption into investment. That means you've got to bring fiscal policy to bear. More taxes or less spending or both. But now you've got a lot of political choices. You'll have to make some political bargains in order to get expenditure cuts. |
I.: |
When a college student seeks your advice on the choice of a career, what do you suggest? |
P.V.: |
I'd strongly encourage him or her to consider a career in public service. There are so many important jobs for people in the government. Who do we look to for the solution of problems like AIDS? The government. Who's going to solve the drag problem, if anyone can? The government. We need young people who recognize the challenge and excitement and satisfaction of service to the public. Without their contributions, we will have a serious problem in this country. |
Ex. 1. Match the words in A with their definitions in B.
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size, number, or importance |
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B.
Discuss the following issues.
What are the functions of money?
What is the difference between commodity and fiat money?
What are the basic motives for the transactions demand, precautionary demand, and speculative demand?
What does the money supply of the U.S. consist of? What happens when the money supply increases?
What are the basic instruments of monetary policy?
Do you think central banks should be controlled or independent from the state? How does it work in your country?
What is the present day base interest rate in your country?