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Money

‘Money makes the world go around’ according to one song, but what exactly do we mean by money? Money is something that we usually want more of. It is something that we work for, that we try to accumulate and something that we measure by. But what exactly does money do? The answer is that money performs a variety of functions, such as the following.

· It is a medium of exchange. This means that it is something that the various parties involved in a transaction are willing to accept as payment for this to happen. They must be confident that it will hold its value (they would obviously be reluctant to accept something that then became worthless). This in turn means that they are confident that others will accept this money in the future in return for products (otherwise it is not much use to them when they want to buy things later).

· It is unit of account. This means that money must be in a form whereby it can be used to measure the value of things; for example, the value of an item may be equal to ₤1, ₤2 or ₤10.

In reality there are different forms of money. For example, if you are asked how much money you have then you may think of it in terms of the cash you have in your pocket or the money in your bank account. What about any shares you have? What about other forms of saving? Which of these would you count? If you own property or other assets, such as a car, then are these forms of money?

The answer is that it depends how you want to define money. Some definitions of money are ‘narrow’; these concentrate on cash or other items that can be quickly turned into cash (this means that they are ‘liquid’). Other definitions of money are broader. This means that they include items that are less liquid (i.e., less easy to turn quickly into cash), such as deposit accounts. The various definitions of money are all equally valid, but simply include different items; they highlight that actually defining what money is not as simple as it may seem.

The narrowest definition of money is M0. This comprises notes and coins (in circulation and in bank’s tills) plus the balances that banks hold at the Bank of England.

However, notes and coins only represent a relatively small part of what most of us would include when we think about what ‘money’ we have. Money in a broader sense will include what is held bank and building society accounts. The measure of money that includes these is called M4.

Money can also serve as a standard of value. Society considers it convenient to use a monetary unit to determine relative costs of different goods and services. In this function money appears as the unit of account, is the unit in which prices are quoted and accounts are kept. In Russia prices are quoted in roubles; in Britain, in pounds; in the USA, in US dollars; in France, in French francs. It is usually convenient to use the units in which the medium of exchange is measured as the unit of account as well.

Money is a store of value because it can be used to make purchases in the future. Nobody would accept money as payment for goods supplied today if the money was going to be worthless when they tried to buy goods with it tomorrow. But money is neither the only nor necccessarily the best store of value. Houses, picture collections and interest-bearing bank accounts all serve as stores of value. Since money pays no interest and its real purchasing power is eroded by inflation, there are almost certainly better ways to store value.

I. Restore the word order in the questions and answer them:

1) money, functions, perform, does, what?

2) money, a medium of exchange, mean, as, does, what?

3) money, it, the value of things, is, isn’t, to measure, used?

4) society, different goods and services, of, can, relative costs, determine, how?

5) money, store, value, is, a, of, why?

II. Complete the following statements:

1) Money performs …

2) The defenitions of money …

3) Money as a medium of exchange means …

4) Money as a unit of account means …

5) Money as a store of value means …

2) Translate the text «Unemployment».

Unemployment is a measure of the number of jobless people who want to work, are avail­able to work, and are actively seeking employment. It can be measured in different ways, including the following.

The claimant count. This is the number of individuals who are actually claiming unemployment-related benefits at any moment. This is a relatively straightforward fig­ure to gather, but may be misleading because governments can change the conditions under which people can claim. It is therefore open to abuse by governments because to reduce unemployment they can simply make claiming more difficult!

The labour force survey. This measure of unemployment is based on interviews with people to determine those who want to work but who are not employed. This is now the official way of measuring unemployment in the UK.

Of the two measures, the claimant count is always the lower of the two because some unemployed people are not entitled to claim benefits, or choose not to do so. When employment is high the gap between the labour force survey and the claimant count will tend to widen. This is because some jobless people who were not previously looking for

There are several causes of unemployment. These include the following.

Cyclical (or demand-deficient) unemployment. This occurs when demand is low through out the economy. For example, there may be a recession with negative GDP growth Demand for labour is a derived demand, so if demand for goods and services is generally low then this will lead to less demand for employees and more unemployment.

Structural unemployment. This occurs when the structure of an economy changes. For example, an industry may lose its international competitiveness with the arrival of new global competitors. With the decline of a particular industry, some of those who are employed in it will lose their jobs. It may not be easy for these individuals to find alternative employment because they may have the wrong skills to work in other industries. They will need retraining.

Seasonal unemployment. This occurs in seasonal industries, such as skiing and fruit picking. When the relevant season is over people in that industry may be unemployed (unless they find work elsewhere). This does not usually involve large numbers of people. Seasonally unemployed workers are likely to find jobs again in the following season, so this type of unemployment is not usually a major concern.

Frictional (search) unemployment. This occurs when people have left one job and are looking for another. This may not be a concern if employees find another job easily. As long as people arc passing through this period of frictional unemployment this is not ' major cause for concern; the problems occur if they get stuck and do not find work. As time goes on it becomes increasingly difficult for employees to get re-employed.

Classical real wage unemployment. This occurs when the real wage remains too high for equilibrium. This will lead to an excess supply of labour (more people want to work than are demanded because of the relatively high real wages). Real wages may be too high because employees continue to demand high wages even when prices are falling. The downward stickiness of nominal wages in this situation (because employees resist nominal pay cuts) leads to higher real wages. Real wages may also be too high if trade unions push the wages above the equilibrium rate.

Another way of categorising unemployment is to distinguish between voluntary and involuntary unemployment. 'Voluntary unemployment' is made up of those people who are looking for work but are not yet willing to accept work at the given real wage rate. They are in the labour force but are not willing to accept a job. This is shown by the difference at any real wage between the job acceptance and the labour force curves. The job acceptance curve shows the number of people who are willing and able to accept a job at a given real wage rate. It increases as the real wage increases because people will be less willing to wait around in the labour force as the rewards of taking a job increase. The labour force curve shows the number of people in work or looking for work at each real wage; this will also be slightly upward sloping because as the real wage increases it is an incentive for more people to start looking for work. 'Involuntary unemployment' measures the number of people who are willing and able to work at the given real wage but who are not in employment. This is because there is a lack of jobs available. This is due to a lack of demand in the economy.

Дата добавления: 2015-09-05