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Economics
23 guides in Finabase Learn
- Business cycle The recurring rise and fall of economic activity through expansion, peak, contraction and trough.
- Central bank A national institution that manages a country's currency, money supply and short-term interest rates, such as the Federal Reserve.
- Consumer Confidence Survey measures of how households feel about the economy and their finances, such as the Conference Board and Michigan indexes.
- Consumer Price Index (CPI) A monthly BLS measure of the average change in prices urban consumers pay for a basket of goods and services; the main US inflation gauge.
- Deflation A sustained fall in the general price level, the opposite of inflation, which can raise real debt burdens and delay spending.
- Exchange rate The price of one currency in terms of another, set in the forex market or managed by a central bank.
- Federal Reserve The central bank of the United States, which sets monetary policy, supervises banks and aims for maximum employment and stable prices.
- Fiscal policy Government decisions on taxes and spending used to influence the economy, as distinct from the central bank's monetary policy.
- Gross domestic product (GDP) The total market value of goods and services produced in a country over a period; the broadest measure of economic output.
- Inflation A sustained rise in the general price level, which reduces the purchasing power of money over time.
- Interest rate The price of borrowing money, stated as a yearly percentage of the amount borrowed, and the return paid to savers and lenders.
- Inverted yield curve A yield curve on which short-term yields exceed long-term yields, which has preceded most US recessions since the 1960s.
- JOLTS The BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, reporting monthly US job openings, hires, quits and layoffs.
- Monetary policy A central bank's management of interest rates and the money supply to control inflation and support employment.
- NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee The group of economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research that officially dates US recession peaks and troughs.
- Nonfarm payrolls The monthly BLS count of US jobs added or lost outside farming, a headline figure in the first-Friday jobs report.
- PCE price index The Commerce Department’s measure of prices for personal consumption spending, and the inflation gauge behind the Fed’s 2% target.
- Producer Price Index (PPI) The BLS monthly measure of selling prices received by US producers, watched as an early signal of inflation pressure in the supply chain.
- Purchasing managers' index (PMI) A monthly survey-based gauge of business conditions in which a reading above 50 means activity is expanding and below 50 means it is contracting.
- Real GDP growth The inflation-adjusted percentage change in GDP, reported quarterly in the US at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.
- Recession A significant, widespread decline in economic activity lasting more than a few months; in the US the dates are set by the NBER.
- Stagflation An economy suffering high inflation, weak or negative growth and rising unemployment at the same time, as the US did in the 1970s.
- Unemployment rate The share of the labor force that is jobless, available and actively looking for work, published monthly for the US by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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