Useful Economist Terms

I was reading an article today in the Newspaper by Dr Money. I found that the below terms are quite useful for those interested in the movement of the economy.

And here they are:

Recession - Refers to a period of at least six months of no growth in the economy.

Depression - Refers to a period worse that recession. There has not been a real term yet to define it.

Monetary Policy - Lowering or Increase of Interest Rates by government or central bank

Fiscal Policy - Government spending and tax cuts

Unemployment rate - Number of People (above 15 years old) who are not employed, but looking for employment divided by the number of unemployed plus employed people.

Foreign Currency Reserves - A central bank's holdings of Foreign currency such as USD, Euro, yen or gold. Usually this would guraantee the strenght and stability of a currency.

Interesting note that for the past two decades, Singapore had experienced a major recession in 1985 and 1997-1998 with exception of 2001 due to Sep 11 attacks. Would the year 2008 be the next major recession in a ten year cycle? The reason behind it was the booming property market and the bubble effect that had been going on from 2007. Let's stay tune and watch.

Personally, I still do not understand the working of the female mind. They can tell you one thing at this moment and then can switch to another the next. Is it true that they would want to do the opposite things from what they say? The reason is that once I give in to my gf, she turned around and said the opposite especially after an arguement or disagreement.

Have any of you faced the same problems?

Interestingly, my new job is into selling perfumes and cosmetics. Another female favorite. But I am taking my time to learn about this trade. It is proving to be a very interesting experiment for my job so far.

Enough of my mumblings, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all a happy and prosporus chinese new year.

It had been 1.5 months since my last post. Am I lazy or what?

Not really as I was in midst of changing jobs and my new job is on shift. That is the main problem; therefore I did not have time to post. Bear with me as I would sort something out and start posting again.