In simple terms, imports are goods that are utilized in one country that were produced in another country. The term import refers to the idea of bringing goods and services into a nation. It originally came from the concept of bringing these things into a port via ships. A person who is engaged in the practice of bringing these goods [...]

Import quotas are numerical restrictions which a government of one country imposes on the imports of another competing nation. The main purpose of such quotas lies in decreasing imports while simultaneously boosting a country’s own inherent domestic production. With the numbers of such imports restricted, the price of these imports will increase. This then fosters the production, purchase, and consumption [...]

Income distribution proves to be the way that a country’s entire gross domestic product is actually shared out among all members of the population. This has long been a main concern of the study of economics and related governmental economic policies. The classical economists of the discipline such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Thomas Malthus were principally concerned about [...]

An Income Statement refers to a corporate financial statement that relays the performance of the company for a specific accounting time frame. Analysts measure such performance through reading the summary of the business revenues and expenditures in its non-operating and operating endeavors together. This statement reveals the net loss or net profit which the business experienced in the particular accounting [...]

Income tax refers to the tax on income which governments mandate for all personal and business entities and organizations which reside or are based in their jurisdiction. The law states that both individuals and businesses have to file their income tax returns once each year. Such filing demonstrates if they owe the government taxes or are instead able to claim [...]

Indemnity refers to financial compensation for loss or damages incurred by an individual or business. It comes from the original Latin word indemnis which translates to “without loss” and “undamaged” or “unhurt.” The idea behind it springs from the premise of a contract between two groups, businesses, or individuals. One party will invariably promise to cover any possible damages or [...]

Index funds are typically exchange traded funds or mutual funds. Their goal is to reproduce the actual movements of an underlying index for a particular financial market. They do this no matter what is happening in the overall stock markets. There are several means of tracking such an index. One way of doing this is by purchasing and holding all [...]

An IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account. IRA’s offer two types of savings for retirement. They can either be tax free or tax deferred retirement plans. In the universe of IRA’s, numerous different types of accounts exist. These are principally either traditional and standard IRA’s or Roth IRA’s as the most popular types. The various IRA’s are helpful to different [...]

Inequality refers to a form of social ill that happens across countries as the national resources become unfairly and unevenly distributed. This happens as the normal allocation of resources occurs and creates classes of haves and have not’s. Patterns of resource distribution typically occur according to social categories. Distribution of socially demanded goods occurs because of societal forces including religion, [...]

Inflation proves to be prices rising over time. It is specifically measured as the increase in a given basket of goods and services’ prices. These goods and services are taken to represent the entire economy. Inflation is also the going up in cost of the average prices of goods and services as measured by the CPI, or consumer price index. [...]

Inflationary Bias refers to the opposite of deflationary bias. Both of these are government monetary and/or fiscal policy prejudices. Governments are forced to take one of two positions with reference to their monetary policy and interventions in an economy. Inflationary bias turns out to be the one which the vast majority of central banks and sovereign nation policy makers pursue [...]

The ING Group is the largest Dutch and Benelux based bank in the world. The acronym ING translates into International Netherlands Group in English. This global bank and financial institution draws on its important European base to provide services on a global scale. Their customers include governments, institutions, major corporations, smaller businesses, families, and individuals. ING is famous for its [...]

An Initial Coin Offering refers to a non-regulated process in which the funds for new crypto-currency projects become raised. This is also popularly known by its acronym of ICO. These ICOs allow for entrepreneurs to sidestep the heavily regulated process of raising capital through more traditional means involving banks, venture capital, angel investors, or IPOs initial public offerings on stock [...]

An IPO is the acronym for an Initial Public Offering. Such IPO’s represent the first opportunity for most investors to start buying shares of stock in the firm in question. Initial Public Offerings commonly generate a great deal of excitement, not only for the company involved but also for the members of the investing community. Private companies decide to issue [...]

The Initiative for Policy Dialogue, also known as IPD, is a Columbia University based American non-profit organization of global economic reach and importance. Joseph E. Stieglitz the famous Nobel winning laureate in economics founded the group back in July of 2000. In this endeavor he had the financial support of such important heavyweight groups as foundations and governments. These included [...]

Insider trading is a generally negative phrase, though it can also refer to a legal activity. The illegal and better known version if it involves a person purchasing or selling a security when they have information that is not publicly available on the stock. The timing involved in such a trade often determines if it is legal or illegal. If [...]

Insolvency refers to the point where an individual, business, or even governmental organization is not able to cover its various financial obligations any longer. This means that it is unable to settle debts with its creditors and lenders as they are due. Many times, before such an indebted individual, company, or government becomes embroiled in any type of insolvency or [...]

Institutional investors turn out to be organizations or occasionally individuals which buy and sell securities in huge enough quantities and currency totals. They benefit from lower fees and commissions as well as special treatment from the market makers. These large and powerful deep pocketed investors experience fewer regulations from the regulatory agencies as well since they naturally assume that they [...]

Insurable value represents the level of coverage which an insurance policy provides. This is the amount which they company will give to the insured when there is a damage causing event. They typically assign these values to policies such as home insurance. There is an important difference between the true market value and the insured value that is crucial because [...]

Insurance brokers are intermediary parties who stand between the insurance companies and insurance buyers. They should not be confused with insurance agents. Insurance agents represent the insurance company. Insurance brokers represent consumers or businesses as insurance buyers. Insurance brokers have a variety of responsibilities and roles. They are legally bound to help individuals and businesses to find and purchase the [...]

Intangible assets refer to the possessions of a company that are not physical. They are difficult to quantify for several reasons. These types of assets can not be physically measured. They also represent an unknown or undetermined cash value to a company. Several criteria for intangible assets are that they are invisible and can not be touched. Despite this interesting [...]

Intellectual property, also known by its acronym of IP, is the concept having to do with creations from a person’s mind. The ownerships of such property are recognized as rights that can be possessed, bought, and sold. As such, they have also given rise to relevant fields of law. As a result of this intellectual property rights and law, creators [...]

The Interbank Market refers to the modern day financial system which involves banks trading cash and other instruments with other financial institutions and banks. This never involves banks trading money with non-financial businesses, consumers, or retail investors. It is possible for interbank trading to be pursued by banks for the benefit of their bigger customers, yet in general such trading [...]

Interest rates are the levels at which interest is charged a borrower for using money that they obtain in the form of a loan from a bank or other lender. These are also the rates that individuals and businesses are paid for depositing their funds with a bank. Interest rates are central to the running of capitalist economies. They are [...]

Interim financing is a way of obtaining funding on a short term basis for a project. It can also be called gap financing or bridge financing. People or companies elects for this kind of financing for a specific purpose. They may be seeking to get funding so that a project can be finished and start creating revenues. This would keep [...]

The IRR is the acronym for internal rate of return. This IRR proves to be the capital budget rate of return that is utilized in order to determine and compare and contrast various investments’ profitability. It is sometimes known as the discounted cash flow rate of return alternatively, or even the ROR, or rate of return. Where banks are concerned, [...]

The Internal Revenue Service is an agency of the United States government. It is an entity that falls under the Department of the Treasury. The IRS’ purpose is to collect incomes taxes from businesses and working individuals. Workers generally pay in their incomes taxes to the IRS once a year. There are cases where groups pay taxes quarterly, as with [...]

The International Accounting Standards Board is an independent and private entity which arose back in 2001. The group was originally created to replace the former International Accounting Standards Committee. The IFRS Foundation maintains all oversight of the IASB. Under their auspices, the IASB creates, publishes, and approves the International Financial Reporting Standards for the global accounting community. There are presently [...]

IBAN is an acronym which stands for the International Bank Account Number. This standardized numbering system for identifying bank accounts around the world with precision was first conceived of and implemented by the banks of Europe. They wanted to make simpler the means of transacting between bank accounts of financial institutions based in different countries. This internationally agreed to system [...]

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development proves to be a principal and original organization within the World Bank. It loans money to help out middle income nations as well as poorer countries that are creditworthy. It derives the majority of its funds from selling bonds on the global capital markets. Over 180 countries participate as members of the IBRD. [...]

International financial institutions (IFIs) are international financial organizations which multiple nations founded. They are subject to international law instead of the laws of any one single country. The IFIs are usually owned by national governments of the founding members. Sometimes other international institutions or organizations are stakeholders as well. Even though there are IFIs that two or three nations created, [...]

The International Financial Reporting Standards prove to be the principally used set of accounting regulations in the world. Their main rival is the United States’ based GAAP Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures. These IFRS turn out to be a single collection of accounting standards. They were created and are maintained still by the IASB International Accounting Standards Board based in London. [...]

The International Monetary Fund represents an international organization with membership of 189 different countries. As such it counts nearly all countries of the world among its almost global membership. This IMF seeks to achieve financial stability, helps to encourage worldwide monetary cooperation, pushes for economic growth that is sustainable and for high unemployment, helps to facilitate international trade, and attempts [...]

International Monetary Unit can refer to two different things. It could be the U.S. dollar, which is the world’s primary reserve currency. The International Monetary Unit is also the Special Drawing Rights, which are the currency units that the International Monetary Fund issues. Special drawing rights are not an actual unique currency per se. They are units that are made [...]

The Internet bubble is also known as the dot com bubble. This Internet bubble proved to be a spectacular asset bubble that occurred during the years of 1995-2000. It’s peak turned out to be on March 10 of 2000 when the NASDAQ stock market saw a high of 5,132.52 in the middle of the trading day. In this time, stock [...]

Intraday refers to trades that occur during the normal course of the day. These price movements are especially important for traders who practice short term trading. They attempt to earn profits trading repeatedly throughout the one day trading session. Sometimes the term is utilized to refer to securities which engage in normal trading on the stock exchanges throughout the regular [...]

Intrinsic value has several meanings where finance and business are concerned. The first of these meanings pertains to companies and their underlying stock issues. An intrinsic value of a stock could be said to be the actual per share value of a stock, in contrast to its book value or price according to the stock market. Intrinsic value takes many [...]

Inventory refers to a collection of items that are an important part of any firms’ assets. These finished goods, products which are being built, and even raw materials constitute items that the company will sell. As such, analysts often consider inventory to be among the most crucial assets of companies since it is the sale of such goods that constitutes [...]

Investment Banking refers to a particular subdivision of banking. This investment type of banking pertains to developing capital for governments, organizations, and corporations. Investment banks will come up with new equity and debt securities to float and sell them on behalf of any corporation. They also facilitate mergers and acquisitions and company reorganizations. They help to sell the securities and [...]

Investment Management proves to be a general term which most often relates to purchasing and selling investments inside of a portfolio. It might also be utilized to cover budgeting and banking tasks and tax management. Most of the time, the phrase pertains to managing portfolios and trading securities to reach a particular set of investment goals or objectives. Analysts and [...]

An investment trust represent a type of collective investment pool generally utilized in Great Britain. These closed end funds are established as public limited companies within the United Kingdom primarily. Analysts have stated that the British investment trust was a forerunner of the American-promoted investment company. In truth the name is somewhat of a misnomer. These investment trusts are not [...]

Investment Value refers to an asset’s specific value given a particular range of investment parameters. It can be defined as the property value to a given group of investors (or an individual investor) who have specific investment goals in mind. This makes it a subjective measurement of the asset or property’s value. Many times potential investors will employ the investment [...]

Strictly speaking, an investor is any person or entity that makes an investment. In the past, the word investors has acquired a far more specific meaning. In the world of business and finance, investors has come to characterize those individuals or companies that routinely buy debt instruments like bonds, or equity issues like stocks in an attempt to make financial [...]

An IRA custodian is commonly represented by some form of a financial institution. This would likely be a brokerage or a bank. These Individual Retirement Accounts’ custodians have the job of protecting your assets in your IRA. Per the rules of the Internal Revenue Service, such IRA custodians have to be financial institutions that are approved. People can not choose [...]

iShares prove to be a group of ETF’s, or exchange traded funds, that are run by BlackRock. The very first iShares were called WEBS, or World Equity Benchmark Shares. They were later renamed iShares. Today iShares are traded on stock exchanges the world over. This iShares proves to be the biggest ETF issues in both the United States and the [...]

Itemized Deductions refer to an amount of money that is subtracted off of an individual American’s adjusted gross income. These deductions are comprised of money the individuals spend on some services and goods that officially qualify during the tax year in question. It is the American IRS Internal Revenue Service which decides what deductions specifically will be permitted as outlined [...]