Glossary Terms:

To receive and use something belonging to somebody else, with the intention of returning or repaying it--often with interest in the case of borrowed money.

A spending-and-savings plan, based on estimated income and expenses for an individual or an organization, covering a specific time period.

A conclusion reached after considering alternatives and their results.

The quantity of a good or service that buyers are willing and able to buy at all possible prices during a period of time.

The allocation or dividing up of the goods and services a society produces.

The freedoms of the marketplace--the freedom of consumers to decide how they wish to allocate their spending among various goods and services; the freedom of workers to choose to change jobs, join unions and go on strike; the freedom of individuals to establish businesses and to decide what to produce and when to change their pattern of production; and the freedom of savers to decide when and where to invest their savings.

The institutional framework of formal and informal rules that a society uses to determine what to produce, how to produce and how to distribute goods and services.

The study of how people, firms and societies choose to allocate scarce resources with alternative uses.

Changes in the expenditures or tax revenues of the federal government, undertaken to promote full employment, price stability and reasonable rates of economic growth.

The natural rate of employment; generally considered to be about 93-95 percent of the labor force, allowing for frictional unemployment of 5-7 percent.

Tangible objects that satisfy economic wants.

The study of economics concerned with the economy as a whole, involving aggregate demand, aggregate supply, and monetary and fiscal policy.

Places, institutions or technological arrangements where or by means of which goods or services are exchanged. Also, the set of all sale and purchase transactions that affect the price of some good or service.

Anything that is generally accepted as final payment for goods and services; serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value and a standard of value. Characteristics of money are portability, stability in value, uniformity, durability and acceptance.

The amount of money that people pay when they buy a good or service; the amount they receive when they sell a good or service.

A process of manufacturing, growing, designing, or otherwise using productive resources to create goods or services used to to satisfy a want.

The amount of goods and services that a monetary unit of income can buy.

The basic kinds of resources used to produce goods and services: land or natural resources, human resources (including labor and entrepreneurship), and capital.

Government activity in establishing a framework or rules of the game in economic life. In the United States, this activity involves preserving and fostering competition, regulating natural monopolies, providing information and services to enable the market to work better, regulating externalities, providing certain public goods, offering some economic security and income redistribution to individuals, assuring a sound monetary system and promoting overall economic stability and growth.

Activities performed by people, firms or government agencies to satisfy economic wants.

Use money now to buy goods and services.

Compulsory payments to governments by households and businesses.

Effort applied to achieve a purpose or result, often for pay; skills and knowledge put to use to get something done; employment at a job or in a position; occupation, profession, business, trade, craft, etc.