New terms from the last global recession

Introduction

The Global Depression of 2008–2010 is considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was started by a liquidity shortfall in the United States banking system, and has resulted in the collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market has also suffered, resulting in numerous evictions, and prolonged vacancies. It contributed to the failure of key businesses, declines in consumer wealth estimated in the trillions of U.S. dollars. It also contributed to the appearance of new words and expressions in the sphere of economics in general and the banking system in particular.

A lot of new terms have recently come out of the US banking system. The US Treasury Department is now going to evaluate banks by using a 'stress test ’ in the medical sense, you can undergo a stress test to see, for instance, how strong your heart is. So that is used as a diagnostic method in medicine. Stress tests are also used, for instance, in information technology to test software in different situations. In the financial sense, it is to determine how robust (strong) a bank or other financial institution is to withstand further economic conditions that could increasingly get worse in the future.

And now we have words like 'good bank' and 'bad bank' and ' zombie bank.' What are those?

The zombie bank is a term that has s been used to refer to a bank that really should have gone bust but it is being kept alive by government guarantees in the form of bailout money. So there are banks that people are saying 'Well, it's really just surviving because it is being propped up by the government.' So it's a zombie – it is really already dead, but the government is somehow trying to keep alive a bank that is already dead because its stock is almost worthless, its value has really gone under. And so people are talking about zombie banks in this way.
But there are a lot of banks that are in a kind of a gray area right now, where it's unclear what their future is going to be. And what happens with them will really be contingent on what happens with the government taking over their bad debt, what is often called 'toxic debt' or 'toxic assets.' And so the proposal is to have a government-run bank, which has been labeled a bad bank. That would allow these private banks to unload all of their bad debt. There are people in the government who don't like that term. They would prefer to call it an 'aggregator bank' because it aggregates all of this toxic debt from the private banks and allows the government to deal with it without the government completely taking

over the bank.
Often we need some distance on a particular event before we really know what new terminology is going to describe it. For instance, we don't really even know what to call this current economic downturn (2008 -2010). There have been lots of suggestions about calling it the GreatRecession or the Great Credit Crunch or various other terms. But like the Great Depression of the 1930s we probably need some distance before we really have a label that will stick.

Here is an additional short list of newly-coined or now revived words and phrases:

1) bankster: combination of "bank" and "gangster" (revival of term from the '30s);

2) shovel-ready: used to describe infrastructure projects that are ready to go when stimulus money is available;

3) three-legged stool: Obama's metaphor for a multi-pointed approach to economic recovery (restoring jobs, restoring credit, regulatory reform);

4) depression: a dangerous word, as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently learned. He dared to use the D-word to describe the global economic picture, but then he issued a correction saying that he meant "recession." Ironically, "depression" was originally used by Herbert Hoover as a more benign (gentle) term for what had previously been called a (financial) "panic”;

5) doing more with less: a management cliche used to justify downsizing and belt-tightening. The expression goes back to the 19th century but became a catchphrase during the austerity measures of World War II.

Source: adaptedfrom Ben Zimmer, visualthesaurus.com

VOCABULARY NOTES

liquidity shortfall – дефицит ликвидности

bailout – финансовая помощь (нерентабельным банкам)

( to bail out – выручать из беды/

помогать)

downturns – зд. спады деловой активности

stock markets – фондовые биржи

evictions –выселения, лишение владения

жильем

prolonged vacancies – отложенное заполнение вакантных

рабочих мест

to go bust –обанкротиться, разориться

to prop up – зд. поддерживать, помогать

to go under – зд. терпеть банкротство,

обанкротиться

zombie banks – банки-«живые трупы»

in a gray area –в переходной зоне

be contingent on… – зависеть (от обстоятельств)

a government-run bank –банк, управляемый государством

to aggregate – объединять (зд. активы)

to take over a bank –взять банк под контроль

Credit Crunch – затруднения в связи с «невозвратом»

кредитов («кредитный крах»)

… a label that will stick – название (ярлык), к-е закрепится

newly-coined words –новообразования (в лексике)

catchphrase –крылатая фраза

austerity measures – меры строгой экономии

TEXT 3

Access to information technology in “information society”

Introduction

When you hear the term 'information society', you might guess that people are talking about the Internet and the level of access people have to information. According to the United Nations it is important to understand the 'information society' because it affects the way we live, how we learn and work, and how we relate to each other. The term is used in the news because the ability to get information, whether you get it from a computer, a telephone, or your radio, produces a number of interesting issues. How is access to information controlled? And how does this affect economic and political development in the process of globalization? You might also hear of 'the digital divide'. What do you think is the best way to bridge the gap between those who have access to new technology and those who don’t? The text below deals with (is concerned with) the issues of ‘digital divide’ in Britain.

Since the 1980s we have been living through what has become known as thedigital revolution. The digital revolutionrefers to the major changes brought about by computing and communication technology during the second half of the 20th century and which is still going on today.

In fact, nowadays a fast internet connection is seen as an essential service because now most people rely on the Internet in so many areas in their lives. Having access to the Web is as necessary as water, gas and electricity!

While many of us are going online regularly to shop, keep in touch with

friends, apply for jobs, there are also many people who either can't or don't want to get themselves online, which is leading to a digital divide. A digital divide is what we call the gap between people with access to digital technology and those with very limited or no access.

This could be either because of technical or financial reasons or simply because people are not interested in getting themselves online. Whatever the reason, it is beginning to cause problems as more and more public services rely on their customers having the Internet.

You cannot be a proper citizen in our society in the future, if you are not

engaged online. It is not only engaging with public services but having access to the same information and choice as other people.

Unfortunately, there is a rise in the number of people who are saying the Internet is simply not relevant to their lives. The reasons they used to give before were that it is too expensive or they can't get access. But now they say it is more because they have got other things they would rather spend their time doing. They can't 'fit it in' which means they don't have time for it.

The British government is worried about the number of people who feel like this. They are so concerned that they have hired someone called Martha Lane Fox to try to encourage people to get online. She is convinced that some people strongly resist getting themselves online. She believes the Web enables you to have more freedom about how you run your life. The people who are stubbornly refusing to use the Web, saying “there is nothing in it for me”, have not had the opportunity to see what might be for them on the Web, they simply don’t know what they are missing.

How many people over the age of 15 in Britain are now estimated to not use the Internet? The answer is, in fact, 17 million people currently do not have regular access to the Web.

Source: adapted from bbclearningenglish.com

VOCABULARY NOTES

· Issues – проблемы, проблемные вопросы

· the digital divide – зд. разделение на пользователей и не пользователей Интернетом

· to bridge the gap… – ликвидировать разрыв …

· brought about by … – реализованные благодаря …

· to rely on the Internet,,, – полагаться в работе на …

· to get themselves … – научитьсяработать в

online Интернете/в диалоговомрежиме

· to be engaged online – заниматься Интернет общением

· …not relevant to… – не имеет значения/важности для …

· …how you run your life – как вы управляете своей жизнью

· …what they are missing – что они теряют/упускают

TEXT 4

Advertising

Introduction

Advertising is the promotion of goods and services for sale. It is actually a form of communication used to persuade televiewers, readers or listeners to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Virtually any medium can be used for advertising: newspapers and magazine, television and radio commercials, the Internet and other electronic media. The following material for independent reading is concerned with different forms and strategies in advertising goods and services.

These days we are bombarded by advertising and marketing messages. Advertising reaches people through various types of mass communication. In everyday life, people come into contact with many different kinds of advertising. Printed ads are found in newspapers and magazines. Poster ads are placed in buses, subways, and trains, web pop ups appear suddenly on our computer screen to advertise some goods and services when we browse the internet, junk mail is constantly sent to our homes or spam to our email. Neon signs are scattered along downtown streets. Billboards dot the landscape along our highways. Commercials interrupt radio and television programming. We receive lots of marketing messages every day. We often ignore advertising because we are sick and tired of it and we don’t really trust it. In many countries, advertising is the most important source of income for the media through which it is conducted.

One genuine and honest way we get information is through word of mouth. This expression means we hear about something because other people have been talking about it. Maybe family or friends recommend something to us, tell us a film is good. We trust their opinion so we go to see the film. We might also learn about things because we overhear other people talking about them – on the train, in a café or in the pub, for example. But now it seems that even this form of information may not be entirely genuine.

Advertising companies have become more creative and imaginative in order to sell us things. One new form of advertising that is becoming more and more common is known as buzz marketing or stealth marketing.

What is it? Well there is a clue in the name. Stealth is an adjective for something that is very difficult to detect. Stealth bombers, for example, are planes that can’t be seen by radar. Stealth marketing is advertising that can’t be detected, the people being advertised to do not know that what they are experiencing is actually advertising. We think it’s genuine.

For example, you might be in a café or a pub and you hear people talking about something, maybe it’s a new mobile phone or a new service of some kind. You think they are ordinary people so you might consider that what they are recommending to each other is an honest source of information. But, you could be wrong. Stealth marketing companies employ actors to go to places where people are and they act out a script which involves talking about particular products or services. Sony Ericsson used stealth marketing in 2002 when they hired 60 actors in 10 major cities, and had them come up to strangers and ask them: “Would you mind taking my picture?" The actor then handed the stranger a brand new picture phone while talking about how cool (attractive and fashionable) the new device was. And thus an act of civility (polite behaviour) was converted into a branding event.

The most recent media development, the Internet, was advertisement-free until the first banner advertisements were sold in 1994. Ownership of computers and use of the Internet advertising are both increasing rapidly

Direct-mail advertising or marketing is also widely used now. The term "direct mail" refers to communications sent to potential customers via (travelingthrough)the postal service. Direct mail is sent to customers based on criteria such as age, income, location, profession, buying pattern, etc. For example, a person who has demonstrated an interest in golf may receive direct mail for golf-related products or perhaps for goods and services that are appropriate for golfers. This use of database analysis is a type of database marketing. The United States Postal Service calls this form of mail "advertising mail".

Direct mail includes advertising circulars (рекламный проспект, рекламное объявление), catalogs, free-trial CDs, pre-approved credit card applications, and other unsolicited (добровольные) merchandising invitations delivered by mail to homes and businesses. Bulk mailings are a particularly popular method of promotion for businesses operating in the financial services, home computer, and travel and tourism industries.

Advertising is a multibillion dollar industry (more than $100 billion a year) in the U.S. In many businesses, sales volume depends on the amount of advertising done. Manufacturers try to persuade people to buy their products. Business firms use advertising to promote an "image" for their company. Businesses use advertising to gain new customers and increase sales.

Individuals, political candidates and their parties, organizations and groups, and the government also advertise. The armed forces use ads to recruit volunteers. Special interest groups promote a cause or try to influence people's thoughts and actions. Politicians use ads to try to win votes.

VOCABULARY NOTES

1) poster ads – рекламные афиши, постеры

2) web pop ups – Интернет (всплывающие) клипы

3) junk mail – «нежелательная» Интернет-почта

4) word of mouth – из уст в уста/молва/сарафанное

радио

5) buzz marketing – маркетинг с помощью слухов/

креативная реклама (buzz – слух,

молва)

6) a clue – ключ (к разгадке ч.-либо)

7) …act out a script – разыгрывать рекламный «сценарий»

8) a branding event – рекламное брендинг-событие

9) banner advertisements – баннерная реклама (способ

рекламирования веб-сайта)

10) free-trial CDs – бесплатная пробная версия

компакт-диска

11) bulk mailings – бесплатная массовая рассылка по

почте рекламных материалов

UNIT 4

TOPIC: Figures, Numbers and Calculations

TEXT FOR STUDY: Statistics and Econometrics (TEXT A)

GRAMMAR GUIDE: 1. THE PAST and PRESENT PERFECT

PROGRESSIVE (CONTINUOUS) TENSES

READING Topic: Tabular and Graphical Data (TEXT B)

Skill: Professional Vocabulary

WRITING: Writing a Summary.

INDEPENDENT READING (Presenting numerical and statistical data):

TEXT 1. The Economy of the United States.

TEXT 2. Cars and the Environment.

TEXT 3. Travelling to Work in Britain.

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