Saturday-night special (US): A popular reference to 6 October 1979, on the evening of which the Federal Reserve announced its decision to abandon its policy of influencing the Federal funds rate, in favour of one of influencing the level of bank reserves.
Seed corn capital: Some time referred to as seed capital, it is a minimal amount of money necessary to set up a new business venture
Special drawing right (SDR): A form of international reserve created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1970. The purpose was to assist international liquidity by providing a complement to existing reserve vehicles (e.g. gold, the US dollar and UK sterling), supply of the first of which was determined by production factors and of the others by balance of payments out-turns. SDRs are allocated by the IMF to its member countries in proportion to each country’s quota and are used, as is the rest of the quota, to acquire other national currencies when needed for balance of payments reasons.
Tariff: Tax imposed on imports. It may be levied on an ad valorem basis or as a specific amount per unit of imports.
Uncommitted: Of an international short-term issue (e.g. Euro-commercial paper, not backed by an underwriting bank syndicate) i.e. with no commitment by banks to underwrite the issue.
Value added: The amount a firm produces, after subtracting the cost of the things it buys-in from other firms. If a supermarket sells 10 billion pounds of food a year and spends 9 billion pounds on buying that food from other suppliers, it has a value-added of 1 billion pounds.
Window dressing: Financial adjustments made solely for the purpose of accounting presentation, normally at the time of auditing company accounts. For example, a bank may wish to show large holdings of cash at the balance sheet date and may in advance of that date sell securities, only to repurchase them immediately afterward.
Yield management: The process of controlling customer demand using variable pricing and capacity management to improve profits.
Zero sum game: A game in which one player’s gain is equal to other players’ losses, whatever strategy is chosen.
Source: Penguin Int’l Dictionary of Business & Finance
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