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Digital assets and currencies

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Banking

Banking in ancient Rome

In ancient Rome there were a variety of officials tasked with banking. These were the argentarii, mensarii, coactores, and nummularii. The argentarii were money changers. The role of the mensarii was to help people through economic hardships, the coactores were hired to collect money and give it to their employer, and the nummularii minted and tested currency. They offered credit systems

Trading basics

Barclays Bank, Enfield

Barclays Bank, at 20 The Town, Enfield, formerly the London and Provincial Bank, is a Grade II listed building in the London Borough of Enfield. It was designed by William Gillbee Scott in a Flemish Renaissance style and completed in 1897. London and Provincial were taken over by Barclays Bank in 1918.

Fiat currencies

Barry Eichengreen

Barry Julian Eichengreen (born 1952) is an American economist and economic historian who is the George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1987. Eichengreen is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy R

Trading basics

Bath Clean Air Zone

Bath Clean Air Zone is an area of central Bath, England where traffic is restricted to reduce air pollution. It became the second Clean Air Zone in the UK (after London) when it was introduced in March 2021. It has been credited with helping to reduce nitrogen dioxide pollution in the city by around a quarter since 2019, and has raised over £7 million in fines. However, critics of the sc

Trading basics

Baumol effect

In economics, the Baumol effect, or Baumol's cost disease, first described by William J. Baumol and William G. Bowen in the 1960s, is the tendency for wages in jobs that have experienced little or no increase in labor productivity to rise in response to rising wages in other jobs that did experience high productivity growth. In turn, these sectors of the economy become more expensive ove

Finance

Bibby Financial Services

Bibby Financial Services (BFS) is a multinational corporation that provides financial services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Trading basics

Bradford Clean Air Zone

Bradford Clean Air Zone is a road traffic low-emission programme in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. Plans were advanced for many cities in England to have Clean Air Zones (CAZ), but of the ones put forward in West Yorkshire, only Bradford's CAZ has been taken to an operational stage. The scheme commenced on 26 September 2022, and all vehicles, barring private cars and mo

Trading basics

Brushing (e-commerce)

In e-commerce, brushing, also called "review brushing", is a deceitful technique sometimes used to boost a seller's ratings by creating fake orders, which are either shipped to an accomplice or to an unsuspecting member of the public.

Trading basics

Content marketing

Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It is often used to achieve the following business goals: attract attention and generate leads, expand their customer base, generate or increase online sales, increase brand awareness or credibility, and engage a community of online users. Content marketing a

Finance

Criticism of credit scoring systems in the United States

Credit scoring systems in the United States have garnered considerable criticism from various media outlets, consumer law organizations, government officials, debtors unions, and academics. Racial bias, discrimination against prospective employees, discrimination against medical and student debt holders, poor risk predictability, manipulation of credit scoring algorithms, inaccurate repo

Fiat currencies

Exorbitant privilege

The term exorbitant privilege refers to the benefits that the United States, as the world's supplier of safe assets, derives from its own currency (the US dollar) being the international reserve currency. These safe assets, primarily government debt, tend to be sold at higher prices than the debt of other governments. Exorbitant privilege enables the United States (and other states in a

Fiat currencies

Fiscal theory of the price level

The fiscal theory of the price level is the idea that government fiscal policy, including debt and taxes present and future, is the primary determinant of the price level or inflation as opposed to the quantity theory of money. The theory is one of the strongest advocates in the debate among mainstream economists for combatting inflation primarily through fiscal policy instead of monetar

Trading basics

Foreign direct investment in China

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been an important part of the economy of the People's Republic of China since the 1980s. During the Mao period, most foreign companies halted their operations in China, though China remained connected to the world economy through a limited scale of international trade. Since 1978, China was again open to foreign investment and within two decades it bec

Trading basics

Gordon White, Baron White of Hull

Vincent Gordon Lindsay White, Baron White of Hull, KBE (11 May 1923 – 23 August 1995), known as Gordon White, was co-founder with James Hanson of the British conglomerate Hanson plc and one of the most successful corporate raiders of the 1970s and 1980s known for his uncanny intuition and ruthless takeover tactics. He died in Los Angeles aged 72, leaving most of his £70 million fortune t

Trading basics

Hoarding

Hoarding is the act of engaging in excessive acquisition of items that are not needed or for which no space is available. Hoarding can also be defined as collecting and holding otherwise scarce items. Some items commonly hoarded include coins considered to have an intrinsic value, such as those minted in silver, or gold, as well as collectibles, jewelry, precious metals and other luxuri

Fiat currencies

Huw Dixon

Huw David Dixon (/hju: devəd dɪksən/; born 1958) is a British economist. He has been a professor at Cardiff Business School since 2006, having previously been Head of Economics at the University of York (2003–2006) after being a professor of economics there (1992–2003), and the University of Swansea (1991–1992), a Reader at Essex University (1987–1991) and a lecturer at Birkbeck College

Trading basics

Jeremy Coller

Jeremy Coller (born 17 May 1958) is a British businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of Coller Capital and, since its acquisition by EQT AB in August 2026, Head and Chief Investment Officer of Coller EQT.

Securities & exchanges

Jim Rogers

James Beeland Rogers Jr. (born October 19, 1942) is an American investor and financial commentator based in Singapore. He is the chairman of Beeland Interests, Inc. He was the co-founder of the Quantum Fund and Soros Fund Management. He was also the creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI).

Trading basics

Jobber (merchandising)

Jobber, in merchandising, can be synonymous with "wholesaler", "distributor", or "intermediary". A business which buys goods and bulk products from importers, other wholesalers, or manufacturers, and then sells to retailers, was historically called a jobbing house (or jobbing center). A jobber is a merchant—e.g., (i) a wholesaler or (ii) reseller or (iii) independent distributor operatin

Securities & exchanges

John D'Agostino (financial services)

John Joseph D'Agostino is an American business executive and entrepreneur. D'Agostino is a senior advisor to Coinbase and Chairman of US Asset Management Committee for the Department for International Trade. He previously was managing director at the world's largest fund governance firm DMS Offshore, where he was also on the board of hedge funds providing independent oversight. He was pr

Securities & exchanges

John Templeton

Sir John Marks Templeton (29 November 1912 – 8 July 2008) was an American-born British investor, banker, fund manager, and philanthropist. In 1954, he entered the mutual fund market and created the Templeton Growth Fund, which averaged growth over 15% per year for 38 years. A pioneer of emerging market investing in the 1960s, Money magazine named him "arguably the greatest global stock p

Trading basics

Lagos Preparatory School

Lagos Preparatory & Secondary School (LPSS) is a private co-educational day school in the affluent Ikoyi suburb of Lagos, Nigeria, and has adopted the UK National Curriculum; it was established in 2002. LPSS which was formerly known as LPS, provides Early Years, Primary and Secondary school education for children from 18 months up to age 16+.

Trading basics

Local government financing vehicle

In China, a local government financing vehicle (LGFV) (Chinese: 地方政府融资平台) is an investment company formed by local governments to raise funds, usually by borrowing money to finance real estate development and other local infrastructure projects. They allow local governments to finance infrastructure projects while complying with laws prohibiting them from issuing bonds or having deficits

Trading basics

Mark (sign)

A mark is a written or imprinted symbol used to indicate some trait of an item, for example, its ownership or maker. Mark usually consists of letters, numbers, words, and drawings. Inscribing marks on the manufactured items was likely a precursor of communicative writing.

Securities & exchanges

Market abuse

In economics and finance, market abuse may arise in circumstances in which investors in a financial market have been unreasonably disadvantaged, directly or indirectly, by others who:

Fiat currencies

Michael Artis

Michael John Artis FBA (29 June 1938 – 8 January 2016) was a British economist. A leading macroeconomist, his research encompassed monetary economics, fiscal policies, and European institutions and policies.

Banking

Murashu family

The house of Murashu were a family of businessmen and moneylenders based at Nippur in Babylonia in the fifth century BCE. They left an archive of hundreds of cuneiform texts called the Murashu Archive which is often used to understand business and society in the Achaemenid Empire.

Finance

Nathan Tankus

Nathan Cedric Tankus is an American expert on state and banking finances, with a focus on the Federal Reserve. He has been a visiting researcher at the Fields Institute and a research assistant at the University of Ottawa. He has written for the Financial Times, Business Insider, the Review of Keynesian Economics, Truthout, Jacobin, Naked Capitalism, and Rolling Stone.

Trading basics

Natural Capital Committee

The Natural Capital Committee (NCC) was an independent body set up in 2012, initially for a three-year period, to report to the UK Government and advise on how to value nature and to ensure England's 'natural wealth' is managed efficiently and sustainably. During its first term it produced three reports to government on the 'State of Natural Capital'. It has called on the Office for Nati

Fiat currencies

Nicola Acocella

Nicola Acocella (born 3 July 1939) is an Italian economist and academic, Emeritus Professor of Economic Policy since 2014.

Trading basics

NielsenIQ

NIQ (also known as NielsenIQ, formerly known as ACNielsen or AC Nielsen) is an American marketing research firm, with worldwide headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The company has approximately 30,000 employees and operates in more than 100 countries. NIQ acquired German market research firm GfK in 2023.

Fiat currencies

Optimum currency area

In economics, an optimum currency area (OCA) or optimal currency region (OCR) is a geographical region in which it would maximize economic efficiency to have the entire region share a single currency.

Trading basics

Panel discussion

A panel discussion, or simply a panel, involves a group of people gathered to discuss a topic in front of an audience, typically at scientific, business, or academic conferences, fan conventions, and on television shows.

Banking

Personal identification number

A personal identification number (PIN; sometimes redundantly a PIN code or PIN number) is a numeric (sometimes alpha-numeric) passcode used in the process of authenticating a user accessing a system.

Trading basics

Protection racket

A protection racket is a racketeering scheme, usually perpetrated by a criminal organization, that coerces payments on a regular basis from an individual, group, or business in exchange for agreeing to not harm them (or for purportedly "protecting" them). The threat of harm may be indirectly communicated or implied, and it may include violence, robbery, ransacking, arson, vandalism, etc

Trading basics

Rent party

A rent party (sometimes called a house party) is a social occasion where tenants hire a musician or band to play and pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent, originating in Harlem during the 1920s. These parties were a means for Black tenants to eat, dance, and get away from everyday hardship and discrimination. The rent party played a major role in the development of jazz and blu

Securities & exchanges

Richard Farleigh

Richard Bruce Farleigh (born Richard Buckland Smith, 9 November 1960) is an Australian private investor and reality television personality. Farleigh featured in series 3 and 4 of the BBC's Dragons' Den. He currently resides in London, England.

Fiat currencies

Robert W. Clower

Robert Wayne Clower (February 13, 1926 – May 2, 2011) was an American economist. He is credited with having largely created the field of stock-flow analysis in economics and with seminal works on the microfoundations of monetary theory and macroeconomics.

Trading basics

Ronald Mourad Cohen

Sir Ronald Mourad Cohen (born 1 August 1945) is an Egyptian-born British businessman and political figure. He is the chairman of The Portland Trust and Bridges Ventures. He has been described as "the father of British venture capital" and "the father of social investment".

Finance

S&P Global Energy

S&P Global Energy is a provider of energy and commodities information and benchmark price assessments. Its editors publish daily price assessments in physical commodity markets, and the U.S. Department of Justice has identified the company as one of four global price reporting agencies. Its assessments underpin the Brent crude oil benchmark; the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies estima

Trading basics

Sealed Air

Sealed Air Corporation is an American packaging company known for its Cryovac food packaging and Bubble Wrap cushioning packaging. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, and led by Dustin Semach, president and CEO. The company had $5.4 billion in revenues in 2024.

Trading basics

Season ticket

A season ticket or season pass is a ticket valid for multiple events, typically providing access to an entire season of games or performances at a specific venue or within a particular activity, such as sports matches or public transportation services. Season tickets are commonly issued by sports organizations, theaters, and transit authorities to ensure customers have secured access for

Banking

September 2019 events in the U.S. repo market

On September 17, 2019, interest rates on overnight repurchase agreements (or "repos"), which are short-term loans between financial institutions, experienced a sudden and unexpected spike. A measure of the interest rate on overnight repos in the United States, the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), increased from 2.43 percent on September 16 to 5.25 percent on September 17. During

Finance

Society for Financial Studies

The Society for Financial Studies (SFS) is a nonprofit, academic society in the field of finance. It owns and runs three academic journals: (1) the Review of Financial Studies, (2) the Review of Asset Pricing Studies, and (3) the Review of Corporate Finance Studies. It organizes the SFS Cavalcade North America and the SFS Cavalcade Asia-Pacific, which are annual academic conferences. It

Fiat currencies

Sterilization (economics)

In macroeconomics, sterilization is action taken by a country's central bank to counter the effects on the money supply caused by a balance of payments surplus or deficit.

Trading basics

TGJones

TG Jones High Street Limited is a British newsagent, stationer and book retailer, founded in June 2025 as a result of WHSmith selling its 480-store high street retail and online businesses to Modella Capital. Modella charges the retailer a royalty fee to use the TGJones name.

Trading basics

Ticketer

Ticketer is the brand name for a range of electronic ticket machines provided by British company Corvia Ltd, primarily for usage on buses. The cloud-based system, first marketed on a small scale in 2008, has since developed into a rival to the three major ticket issuing systems used by bus companies throughout Britain.

Trading basics

UKG

UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) is an American multinational technology company with dual headquarters in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Weston, Florida. UKG is the AI-first Workplace Operating Platform with unified HR, payroll, and workforce management services.

Finance

Variable interest entity

A variable interest entity (VIE) is a legal structure defined by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) for situations where control over a legal entity may be demonstrated through means other than voting rights. A public company with a financial interest in such entities may be subject to certain financial reporting requirements.

Trading basics

World Branding Forum

The World Branding Forum is a global nonprofit organisation based in London, England. The forum runs various programmes and organises conference, workshops and seminars. It operates a newsroom and publishes industry news on its website. It is also a media partner for various industry events. The forum's industry recognition programme is the World Branding Awards, which it organises annua