It's a whole new ballgame.

Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002; since then, it’s been a whole new ballgame for corporate accountants and compliance officers.

To strike out.

We made a pitch for their business, but we struck out. Our competitors, however, hit a home run with their proposal.

This doesn’t add up! What do you mean? Well, you do the math and you'll see.

I made a killing on the Google stock I bought, but I lost my shirt with Enron.

Vocabulary exercise

Explain the meaning of the words and phrases in bold

1. It was the "guns and butter" program of the Vietnam War that ratcheted up inflation during the 1970’s.

2. The Regional Federal Reserve Banks are all equal, but the NY Fed is more equal than others.

3. In addition to heading the Columbia School of Business, Fred Mishkin was head of research at the NY Fed before becoming a Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank System.

4. Because of a decline in the volume of checks being processed, the Fed is closing some of its 25 regional branches.

5. When the Federal Reserve System was designed, regional banks in the American West were given larger territories than those in the East to pump up their clout.

6. When deciding monetary policy, the Fed likes to keep inflation at a rate below 2 %.

7. There are 2,700 banks and depository institutions in the United States. Why are there so many?

8. Every day economists at the NY Fed are making decisions about the money supply in order to keep liquidity in the system. The amount of money needed is a moving target. Give several reasons why.

9. Though the Discount Window at the Fed, banks can borrow money if they experience a shortage.

10. On 9/11 the Federal Reserve Bank flooded the country with cash; the Fed even had cash waiting in tractor trailers to be delivered to institutions.

11. The number of back-up sites for important Federal Reserve Functions has increased since 9/11.

12. Among the financial services that the Federal Reserve System offers to member banks: Electronic payments systems, Holding cash reserves, Cash processing, Check processing

13. When Fed Chairman Paul Volker moved the prime interest rate to 20% in 1979, irate constituents (especially builders) protested by sending two-by-fours to their Congressmen.

14. Tweaking monetary policy takes time and is a real guessing game.

15. The Federal Reserve has been accused of not acting quickly enough to stop the stock market bubble in 2000 (despite Chairman Greenspan’s famous "irrational exuberance" quote) and of not stopping the current housing bubble. A current problem in the mortgage business is sub-prime mortgages.

16. The U.S. wants to freeze the assets of a country, such as during the Iran Hostage Crisis in the 1970’s.

17. At each meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the members present research on the economies of their region and look at current economic conditions to reassess the monetary policy. This process is transparent and the policy is not fixed in cement

18. They play war games at the Fed; that is why Rae Rosen had a black eye.

Use the words given below to describe the activity in each of the graphs on the preceding page. You may change the part of speech if necessary.