13. World Financial Centers. Financial decisions and fund managers.

14. A Nation’s Balance of Trade.

15. International Trade: Breaking into the new market.

16. Money: role, forms, functions.

Money is necessary in most economies. Currency is one of several forms of money. Currency consists of paper bills and metal coins. Savings accounts, stocks, and bonds are forms of near money. Money and near money are used to purchase goods and services. All forms of money and near money help the economy run smoothly.

Most people use money every day. Money is any item that is widely accepted as payment for products. In the past, many things served as money - beads, shells, dog's teeth, cattle, stones, tobacco, fishhooks, and even slaves, but gold and silver have been a favorite form of money.

Value of money comes from the product for which it can be exchanged. Money fulfills 3 functions: a store of value, a standard of value and a means of exchange.

As a means of exchange money is used trade for goods and services but less complex societies use barter.

As a store of value people use money to save their wealth for the future. Storing money is easier than storing goods.

As a standard of value money is used to compare the worth of one product with that of another. The value of all goods and services the economy produces can be determined by adding up their prices. In this way economists determine GNP.

Near money is things that used for some, but not all, for example, credit cards allow a purchaser to borrow money from the seller of the purchased goods.

Money is very important in our society.

Forms of money

There are a few forms of money.

A checking account is a bank account in which money has been invested and a withdrawal can be made at any time using a check. By the way, checking accounts are also known as demand deposits, because their owners have the right to demand them from the bank whenever they wish.

Time deposits are considered a form of money. A time deposit is a bank deposit that can be withdrawn at a certain time in the future, or on advance notice. Time deposits cannot be withdrawn using a check.

A check is a written order to a bank to pay a certain amount of money to the person or business. Checks provide a legal record of financial transactions, but checks are not legal tender.

Legal tender is money that, by law, must be accepted in payment of debt. Also there several other things are used like money. Credit cards are a common way to purchase goods and services; it can be exchanged for anything.

17. The value of college education

An understanding of opportunity costs and tradeoffs is important personally to high school students, as well as everyone else. Sooner or later, high school students must make choices about what to do after graduation. Every year millions of students graduate from high school. The decision they make will affect the rest of their lives. Some will choose to go to college; some will want to get full time job; others will decide to obtain technical job training. In every case, economic reasoning will help students make better choices.

They should consider the costs and tradeoffs connected with a decision to go to college and decide whether a college education is worth the expense in terms of immediate and future personal growth and economic well-being.

The opportunity costs of going to college involve a loss of practical job experience while attending college. The tradeoffs involved in going to college include using time and money now to gain greater advantages in the future.