Monday, April 30, 2007
Bond
Bond (finance), in finance, a debt security Government bond, a bond issued by a national government Bond market, a financial market for bonds Investment bond, a life assurance based single premium investment A surety bond is a three party contract, where the surety promises to pay the obligee for non-performance or dishonesty by the principal. Workers in many jobs must be bonded. [1] A performance bond is a surety bond for completion of work under a contract A bail bond is a surety bond for return of a person to a court Tenancy bond (or damage deposit), a deposit taken by a landlord in relation to rental of a property Catastrophe bond (or cat bond), a form of reinsurance A peace bond is a protection order from a Canadian court Bonded labor (or debt bondage) is a system of servitude where someone must work to pay off a debt
Fashions and process change
Fashion, by definition, changes constantly. The changes may proceed more rapidly than in most other fields of human activity (language, thought, etc). For some, modern fast-paced changes in fashion embody many of the negative aspects of capitalism: it results in waste and encourages people qua consumers to buy things unnecessarily. Other people, especially young people, enjoy the diversity that changing fashion can apparently provide, seeing the constant change as a way to satisfy their desire to experience "new" and "interesting" things. Note too that fashion can change to enforce uniformity, as in the case where so-called Mao suits became the national uniform of mainland China.
At the same time there remains an equal or larger range designated (at least currently) 'out of fashion'. (These or similar fashions may cyclically come back 'into fashion' in due course, and remain 'in fashion' again for a while.)
Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some time, for example skirt lengths ranging from ankle to mini to so short that it barely covers anything, etc. In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an impetus to change fashions based on the exotic: Europe in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, for example, might favor things Turkish at one time, things Chinese at another, and things Japanese at a third. A modern version of exotic clothing includes club wear. Globalization has reduced the options of exotic novelty in more recent times, and has seen the introduction of non-Western wear into the Western world.
Fashion houses and their associated fashion designers, as well as high-status consumers (including celebrities), appear to have some role in determining the rates and directions of fashion change.
At the same time there remains an equal or larger range designated (at least currently) 'out of fashion'. (These or similar fashions may cyclically come back 'into fashion' in due course, and remain 'in fashion' again for a while.)
Practically every aspect of appearance that can be changed has been changed at some time, for example skirt lengths ranging from ankle to mini to so short that it barely covers anything, etc. In the past, new discoveries and lesser-known parts of the world could provide an impetus to change fashions based on the exotic: Europe in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, for example, might favor things Turkish at one time, things Chinese at another, and things Japanese at a third. A modern version of exotic clothing includes club wear. Globalization has reduced the options of exotic novelty in more recent times, and has seen the introduction of non-Western wear into the Western world.
Fashion houses and their associated fashion designers, as well as high-status consumers (including celebrities), appear to have some role in determining the rates and directions of fashion change.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Bond
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the issuer owes the holders a debt and is gratified to repay the principal and interest at a later date, termed maturity. Other provisions may also be attached to the bond issue, such as the obligation for the issuer to offer certain information to the bond holder, or limitations on the behavior of the issuer. Bonds are generally issued for a fixed term longer than ten years. U.S Treasury securities issued debt with life of ten years or more is a bond. New debt between one year and ten years is a note, and new debt less than a year is a bill.
A bond is simply a loan, but in the form of a security, although terminology used is rather different. The issuer is equivalent to the borrower, the bond holder to the lender, and the coupon to the interest. Bonds enable the issuer to finance long-term investments with external funds. Debt securities with a maturity shorter than one year are typically bills. Certificates of deposit or commercial paper are measured money market instruments.
