Топик: Темы для экзамена в Финансовой академии, 1 курс
The opportunity costs of going to college involve a loss of income and a loss of practical job experience while attending college. Lets consider two mans: The Education Level of the first one is less than 12 years and his Projected Lifetime Earnings is $850.000; The Education Level of the second one is 5 years college and his Projected Lifetime Earnings is $1.500.000. We see a big difference between them.
The trade-offs involved in going to college include using time and money now to gain greater advantages in the future. But somebody think that if you could invest $ 30.000 now, for instance, forego a college education, and with your investment returns still have the same lifetime earning power as acollege. It’s of course can be true bat where do you get $30.000 if you don’t have education. Besides nobody give you a job if you haven’t got education and knowledge. And I am sure that my further education is worth the time and money involved.
№ 14 Annual report of a company .
Just as teachers send out report cards to the Dean’s office each term, corporations issue annual reports summarizing the progress made last year. Stockholders and potential investors use the annual report to evaluate the performance of corporation.
The annual report is a message to the stockholders-the owners-of a corporation from the corporate management. The report tells the stockholders the company’s financial status at the end of the fiscal year and what the management sees for the future. Also, the annual report fulfils a legal requirement. The Securities and Exchange Commission a federal agency in the USA requires corporations to publish financial information about their firm. With such information, investors can make educated decisions.
Annual reports of company generally are divided into two sections. The first section contains a letter to the stockholders from the chief executive officer of a company. Accompanying this letter summarising the company’s performance is a chart of financial highlights. Also frequently included in the first section is an overview of the company’s organization. The second section includes statistics on the company’s performance. Most of the information appears in charts and graphs.
For example, the balance sheet is a chart that includes the assets (items of value the company owns) and it’s liabilities (debts or claims against the assets of the company). The balance sheet represents the financial picture of the firm at the instant in time. The income statement shows the profit or loss of the company for the year. This chart reports the income the company received from sales, interest, and other sources. The operating costs – salaries, advertising, maintenance – deducted from income total the profit or loss. The statement of stockholders’ investment, or equity includes information on the company’s stock such as number of shares outstanding and issued.
Various parts of the annual report can be used to determine whether a company is profitable. In addition to reporting on this current year, most companies include in their annual reports comparisons of the current year and the prior year’s financial information. Also important to stockholders and investors is the company’s return on sales. For example, if a firm sold $1 mln. worth of its products and its profit was $100,000; return on sales would be 10%.
So we can say that annual reports help us to understand financial status of the firm in the end of the fiscal year and to make educated decisions- invest in company our capital or not.
№15. Money: history, functions and forms.
Today we buy bread, clothes with money in a shop. These are goods: we exchange our money for goods which others sell to us. Today we travel on a train or bus. or maintain a banking account, and we pay the charge or fee. These are services: we exchange our money for the services which others provide for us.
In a primitive community people obtain goods and services by barter. Trade by barter is the earliest form of trade, when people offer goods in exchange for what they want, that is they swap goods for other goods.
As primitive communities develop into more advanced societies people realize they need some commodity they can use in exchange for anything, some commodity that does not decay and remains valuable, some commodity with the help of which people can measure the value of one thing against the value of another thing. Such commodity is money. Thus money is a necessary part of any civilized society, ft serves as:(1) medium of exchange; (2) a store of wealth; (3) a measure of value.
Money means coins, banknotes and cash in the bank account. We use it to make payments. Nowadays we know that the units of money must have certain qualities to be successful. They must be:
1. Standard .They must all be of the same kind.
2. Durable . They must be strong and long-lasting, so that they are a store of value and do not wear out easily.
3. Scarce. They must be difficult to come by to keep their value.
4. Acceptable. They must be accepted as a medium of exchange in a.
5. Portable. They must be easy to carry.
6. Divisible. It must be possible to divide the units of money of large value into smaller values.
In the past many things were used as the medium of exchange — corn, furs, rice, tobacco, salt tea, rum — there is no end to them. In time people realized that metals were superior to the commodities previously mentioned.
The Ancient Britons and Greek used iron, the Romans used copper but gradually silver and gold replaced them.
The advent of coinage is a step forward because coins are free from most of the disadvantages of earlier forms of money. The first coins are credited to China around about 1.000. B.C.
After coins came notes. The hardest problem for anyone with money then was to find somewhere safe to keep it. Gold and silversmiths had safes, because their trade was traffic in coin and bullion, and they needed somewhere secure to keep their stocks.
So it came about in the seventeenth century that goldsmiths took theses deposits for safe keeping. They issued a receipt. More and more people come to hold these receipts and they began to circulate for value among merchants. They come to be trusted and become usual in payment, as easier, lighter and quicker to handle than a lot of coin.
In the beginning people had to pay a fee for having money kept safe. Then goldsmith understood that some of his receipts were always out, circulating in the hands of the merchants. So the goldsmith always had some cash in hand, and he started to lend this out. This was the beginning of banks.
№16. The Bank of England.
c) keeps accounts for overseas central banks
The first and most important function of a central bank is to advise the government on the making of the country's financial policy and then help to carry it out which means carefully monitoring the money supply. Its business at first was to receive money on deposit, discount approved bills of exchange and lend against satisfactory security. At first this lending was nearly all to the government, and gradually the Bank came to perform other services on behalf of the government, and so to become regarded as 'banker to the government'.