Dearest Delegates,

Only two weeks until conference! Hope you all are as excited as I am! After reflecting on the complexity of the topics, especially in terms of economics, I thought it would be best to compose a glossary with terms that have probably come up in your research, many blogposts, and will definitely come up during committee. Please review these words; they will be essential to your understanding of both topics.

Some Economic Jargon:
(I'm pulling these definitions from both my economics textbooks and my own understanding of them -- this will help to simply some of these concepts to make them easier to understand)

Austerity: Deficit reduction measures
Bail-Out: Giving countries or entities capital or loans to prevent bankruptcy, solvency, or total liquidation.
Balanced Budget: A balanced budget is when the government's expenditures equals the amount of tax revenue (no borrowing allowed)
Debt: The difference between revenue and expenditure
Debt Ceiling: The highest amount of debt that a country can incur legally. I believe the only country with a debt ceiling is the United States of America.
Deficit: Short fall in revenue; how much is spent over budget (deficits BECOME debt after the fiscal year)
Eurozone: The 17 member states in Europe that utilize the Euro as their official currency.
European Union: 27 nations that joined together under the doctrine of cooperation in economics and political matters (NOT all of these countries use the Euro)
European Central Bank (ECB): The central bank of the Eurozone where inflation targeting is its main concern (aims for about 2% a year)
Federal Reserve: Central bank of the United States. This bank controls money supply in the U.S. through open-market operations, discount rate, and federal funds rate through monetary policy.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The value of all the final goods and services produced in a country within a year
International Monetary Fund (IMF): This organization was created in 1944 and has transformed into an organization that promotes economic cooperation, international trade, employment and exchange rate stability, through loans and programs to improve the country
Liquidity: How easily something can be converted into a monetary unit
Recession: Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth (depression is not a REAL economic term -- rather it is a really bad recession)
Subsidy: A sum of money given to a country for a specific industry or purpose
Tariff: Tax on import/export
World Bank: Provides loans to developing countries in the hopes of a reduction of poverty

Hope this helps! If you take issue with any of these definitions, feel free to browse the internet/email me for more information.

Can't wait to meet you all!
Amy