1. What is the Federal Reserve System?
The Federal Reserve System, also known as "The Fed," is the central bank of the United States. In its role as a central bank, the Fed is a bank for other banks and a bank for the federal government. It was created to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and m

　Listed firms may be allowed to sell shares
The country\'s regulators will consider allowing listed firms to sell shares as a first step toward lifting its suspension on new IPOs in domestic markets, but no timetable has been set, domestic media reported Monday.
China is proceeding with a ser

　经济结构调整
The Third Plenary Session of the CPC 11th Central Committee, held in 1978, made the decision to shift the policy stress to socialist modernization, and implement the strategic decision on reform and opening to the outside world. The reform began in the countryside: The contracted household responsibil

　Multinational Companies Accelerating the Sales Strategy Rearrangement
There is a new trend in the investment by multinational enterprises: to shift their businesses and technical transformation to establishing production bases, the core strategy is first to occupy the huge Chinese market.
Re

　　Multinational Companies Adjust Strategies to China
China is Now a Key Area in the Global Strategies of Multinational Companies
Once upon a time, multinational companies were very sober-minded about investing in China. Of the large German and Japanese companies, originally only Volkswagen an

　OVERALL ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IN 1999
GDP China\'s GDP grew slightly more than 7 percent in 1999, thanks only to the government\'s ongoing stimulus program. With other Asian countries recovering, China\'s probable WTO accession this year, and a new drive to boost the private sector, however, both the Chinese

　　M&T Insurance Expands Into Maryland
M&T Bank Corporation (Buffalo, NY) has 650 bank branches up and down the Mid-Atlantic Coast, from Virginia to New York. It would like to have property and casualty insurance agencies throughout its footprint.
Toward that end, the $55 billion (asse

　Insurance Soars 42 Percent at Guaranty Bank
Guaranty Bank (Austin, TX) reported $66.8 million in insurance commissions and fees in 2005, up 42 percent from $47 million in 2004, according to the upcoming issue Singer\'s Annuity & Funds Report. This will likely place Guaranty among the top 20 \'banks in in

　Missouri\'s First Bank Acquires Insurance Brokerage
First Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of First Banks, Inc. (St. Louis), has acquired Adrian N. Baker & Company, a large, privately owned independent insurance brokerage company based in Clayton, Missouri that provides a range of employee benefits, and c

ICBC increases loans to small firms
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the nation\'s biggest commercial bank, said Tuesday it had granted 46.3 billion yuan (5.8 billion U.S. dollars) in loans to small firms in the first quarter this year.
The ICBC said the non-performing rate

上一讲中我们介绍了两个重要的国际组织：International Monetary Fund－国际货币基金组织和 World Trade Organisation－世界贸易组织。
这两个在二次大战期间和之后相继成立的国际组织为稳定世界经济秩序发挥了重要的作用。但是澳广金融节目主持人巴里克拉克说，战后的国际经济也有它的黑暗面：
While the IMF and the GATT, created during and after World war II, were part of the explanation for trade expansion and income gr

　在这一讲中我们要谈谈过去五十年中对稳定世界经济作出贡献的两个重要国际组织 Iternational Monetary Fund 国际货币基金组织和 World Trade Organisation 世界贸易组织及其前身 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade，简称 GATT，也就是关税及贸易总协定的由来和发展。
澳广金融节目主持人巴里克拉克首先介绍了这两个国际组织诞生的历史背景：
These institutions came into existence because policy makers in the United States

　在上一讲中我们跟您谈了生产和经济活动中的效率，也就是efficiency，包括：
1 productive efficiency 生产效率2 allocative efficiency 配置效率3 dynamic efficiency 动态效率4 exchange efficiency 交换效率
今天我们要谈的话题是 competition － 竞争。
要获得所有形式的效率，必须要有“完全竞争”，也就是 perfect competition.而完全竞争需要有两个先决条件：
1 有大量生产者各生产产品的一小部分

　各位朋友好！在上一讲中，我们讲了调控市场供求关系的一个重要因素，就是：price － 价格。
我们今天要谈的话题是 efficiency － 效率。
经济学家认为，单纯就市场机制本身来说，它应该能有效率地分配宝贵的资源。那么什么是效率呢？澳大利亚新南威尔士大学管理学教授弗莱德希尔莫归纳了这样几种基本的效率：
1 productive efficiency 生产效率，讲的是如何生产的问题，通常要以最低成本来获得最好的效率2 allocative efficiency 配置效率，生产何种产品，如何分配人力物力资源3 dynamic efficien

在市场经济中，一个能够调控买卖双方关系甚至调控生产资源分配的重要因素就是：
Price 价格。
在这一讲中，我们就跟您谈谈价格和它的功能。
价格可以说是一种能把买方和卖方联系在一起的机制。任何货物或服务都必须制定出买卖双方都能认可和接受的价格，才能保证现代的市场顺利运行。
澳大利亚墨尔本莫纳什大学经济系主任福塞斯教授对价格做了这样的解释：
We sometimes think of prices as being the equilibrating mechanism， to u