财经英语单元一货币政策.docVIP

Unit One Money, MonetaryPolicy and theFunction of Money Upon completion of this unit, the students will be able to: Be familiar with the basic professional words and expressions about money and monetary policy; Know the origins and kinds of money; Understand the function of money and money supply. Part A Text Most people don’t spend much time wondering what money is, their major concern is how much they have and how to get more. Usually, the question of what money is arises only when money ceases to function properly. In economics, the answer to the question?what is money? ?consists of the following points. I. The Meaning of Money What is money? It might seem like an odd question. In many context, the term money is used to mean wealth. In the economic context, however, this term is used in a more specific sense: Money is the set of assets in the economy that people regularly use to buy goods and services from each other. The cash in your wallet is money because you can use it to buy a wonderful meal at a restaurant or a shirt at a clothing store. By contrast, if you happened to own most of Microsoft Corporation stocks, as Bill Gates does, you would be wealthy, but this asset, the stocks of Microsoft Corporation, is not regarded as a form of money. Because you could not buy a meal or shirt with this wealth without first obtaining some cash. From the economist’s perspective, money includes only those few types of wealth that are regularly accepted by sellers in exchange for goods and services. In the business context, we must distinguish the term of money from the terms of income, savings and wealth. Income is what you earn from working plus what you receive in interests, savings and dividends. It is a flow variable ?that is , it is expressed per unit of time: weekly income, monthly income, or yearly income. Savings is that part of after-tax income that is not spent. It is also a flow. If you save 10% of income and your income is $3,000 per month, then you save $3