The Business and economics Portal
In the social sciences, economics is the study of human choice behavior; in particular, though not limited to, how those choices determine production, distribution, and consumption of scarce resources. In other words, economics studies how individuals and societies seek to satisfy needs and wants through incentives, choices, and allocations. Alfred Marshall in the late 19th century informally described economics as "the study of man in the ordinary business of life."
The word "economics" is from the Greek words οἶκος oikos, meaning "family, household, estate," and νόμος nomos, or "custom, law," and hence literally means "household management" or "management of the state." An economist is a person using economic concepts and data in the course of employment, or someone who has earned a university degree in the subject.
The field may be divided in several different ways, most popularly microeconomics (at the level of individual choices) vs. macroeconomics (aggregate results), but also descriptive vs. normative, mainstream vs. heterodox, and by subfield. Economics has many direct applications in business, personal finance, and government. Theories and empirical techniques developed as a part of economics have, given that economics is fundamentally about human decision making, been applied to non-monetary choices in fields as diverse as criminal behavior, scientific research, death, politics, health, education, family, dating, etc.
In economics, business is the social science of managing people to organize and maintain collective productivity toward accomplishing particular creative and productive goals, usually to generate revenue.
Anonymous 17th-century watercolor of the Semper Augustus, famous for being the most expensive tulip sold during tulip mania.
Tulip mania or tulipomania (Dutch names include tulpenmanie, tulpomanie, tulpenwoede, tulpengekte, and bollengekte) was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the newly introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed. At the peak of tulip mania in February 1637 tulip contracts sold for more than 20 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble.[1] The term "tulip mania" is often used metaphorically to refer to any large economic bubble.[2]
The event was popularized by the book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, written by British journalist Charles Mackay in 1841, more than two centuries after the event. According to Mackay, at one point a speculator paid as much as 12 acres of land for a single bulb.[3] Mackay claims that many such investors were ruined by the fall in prices, and the Dutch economy fell into depression. Although Mackay's book is a classic of popular journalism that is widely reprinted today, his account is controversial. Some modern scholars believe that the bubble was not as extraordinary as Mackay described, or even that no economically meaningful bubble occurred.[4] There is also little evidence of significant economic distress after tulip mania.
Research on the tulip mania is difficult because of the very limited data from the 1630s—much of which comes from biased, anti-speculative sources.[5][6] Modern economists have proposed rational explanations for the high prices, though these are not universally accepted. Other flowers, such as the hyacinth, have also had high prices on the flower's introduction, that then fall dramatically. The high prices may also have been driven by expectations of a parliamentary decree that contracts could be voided for a small cost—thus lowering risk to buyers—rather than from an irrational speculative mania.
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Office supplies is the generic term that refers to all supplies regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, from private citizens to governments, who works with the collection, refinement, and output of information (colloquially referred to as "paper work").
The office supply industry was estimated to be worth US$ 225 billion in 1999 and is still growing. As of 2006, the largest office supply chains in the United States (in terms of revenue) are Staples (US$16B), Office Depot (US$15B), and OfficeMax (US$8.9B).
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The economy of Ghana, West Africa has a diverse and rich resource base, and as such, has one of the highest GDP per capita in Africa. Ghana remains somewhat dependent on international financial and technical assistance as well as the activities of the extensive Ghanaian diaspora. Gold, timber, cocoa, diamond, bauxite, and manganese exports are major sources of foreign exchange.[7] An oilfield which is reported to contain up to 3 billion barrels (480,000,000 m3) of light oil was discovered in 2007.[8] Oil exploration is ongoing and, the amount of oil continues to increase .[9]
The domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 50% of GDP and employs 85% of the work force,[7] mainly small landholders. On the negative side, public sector wage increases and regional peacekeeping commitments have led to continued inflationary deficit financing, depreciation of the Cedi, and rising public discontent with Ghana's austerity measures. Even so, Ghana remains one of the more economically sound countries in all of Africa.
The country has since July, 2007, embarked on a currency re-denomination exercise, from Cedi (¢) to the new currency, the Ghana Cedi (GH¢). The transfer rate is 1 Ghana Cedi for every 10,000 Cedis. The Bank of Ghana has embarked upon an aggressive media campaign to educate the public about what re-denomination entails. The new Ghana Cedi is now exchanging at a rate of $1 USD =Gh¢ 0.93
"Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac's talents didn't extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, 'I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.' If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases. "
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- —Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter, 2005
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WikiProject: Business
Here are some business and economics related tasks you can do:
- Assess: Economic globalization, Credit union, Israel Securities Authority, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, More...
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- Cleanup: Billpoint, Bank fraud, Economic nationalism, Financial adviser, Futures exchange, Gulf rupee, Pricing, Self insurance, Serfdom, Space elevator economics, Valuation, More...
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- Stubs: Bioeconomics, Debt compliance, Double auction, Kitchen sink regression, Single-entry accounting system, Workforce, War economy,
- Projects - Business, Companies, Deletion sorting, Game theory, Numismatics, Taxation, Portal, More...
- Requested pictures - of business & economic topics
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