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A
THOUSAND COOL WORDS FOR COOL BUSINESSMEN TO
MAKE ECONOMIC REPORTING AND PRESENTATION MORE LIVELY AND LESS DRYЕ All examples are taken from real economic quality
press: Reuters, Financial Times, The Economist, Euromoney Special thanks to Cambridge Advanced LearnerТs
Dictionary online for providing definitions. >>>>>>>>> Go and Get
them!!!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
bellwether someone or something which shows how a situation will develop
or change:
offset to balance one influence
against an opposing influence, so that there is no great difference as a
result: balance
sth against sth phrasal verb balance
(sth) out/up phrasal verb [M] compensate
With
us Ц the active characters, the practical men, the individuals who, whether
in public or in private affairs Уget on with the jobФ have always held the
first place in esteem, while the theorists and philosophers Ц a place very
secondary by comparison. It is not easy to account for this common estimate
and I really think this belief is without any foundation Ц just one of
the idols of the marketplace. idols (synonym: vulgar
errors, popular fallacies, common mistakes, misconceptions, misapprehensions) Word
used by the 17th century English philosopher Francis Bacon to denote false assumptions and ways of
looking at things which can get in the way of human knowledge. Collectively
he called them 'Idols of the Mind.' ††††††††††† There are four idols, says Bacon: the
idols of the tribe, of the cave, the theatre and the market place. The idols of the tribe are the errors we fall prey to just by virtue of
being human, wishful thinking, for example, or the desire to see greater
order in nature than is actually there. The idols of the cave are the idiosyncrasies and prejudices of the
individual, his personal quirks. The idols of the market place are the errors formed in communication
between society and man based in linguistics and rhetoric, in the sloppy use
of words. The idols of the theatre are the errors due to the authority of
received theories and ways of doing things, imperfect presentation, various
dogmas of philosophy. Further
reading Ц a Francis BaconТs short description of this at http://www.olearyweb.com/cave/idols.html
stint (PERIOD)
fiduciary relating to the responsibility
to look after someone else's money in a correct way:
sortie noun
shed (GET RID OF) tune (AMOUNT) to the tune of to the stated amount:
Maury Maverick, a Congressman
from Texas, made up this word to mean "that terrible, involved,
polysyllabic language those government people use down in Washington."
Gobbledygook is another word
for overly wordy writing which is filled with
Although the Central
Efficiency Rating Committee recognizes that there are many desirable changes
that could be made in the present efficiency rating system in order to make
it more realistic and more workable than it now is, this committee is of the
opinion that no further change should be made in the present system during
the current year. Because of conditions prevailing throughout the country and
the resultant turnover in personnel, and difficulty in administering the
Federal programs, further mechanical improvement in the present rating system
would require staff retraining and other administrative expense which would
seem best withheld until the official termination of hostilities, and until
restoration of regular operation. Gobbled: "All letters prepared
for the signature of the Administrator will be single spaced." Ungobbled: "Single space all
letters for the Administrator." Gobbled: "It is required by this
statue that ..."
"This act requires
..."
IT'S been a topsy-turvy season so far
on Broadway, where the greatest achievement, it seems, is making it to
opening night. What really matters Ц what Warren Buffet would want
to know Ц is, what do the hoi polloi think? How do the actual
diners feel? If they like the meat, they'll buy the stock ... right? Join me in seeing how humdrum everyday
experiences, combined with the wisdom of the immortals, can help you
appreciate and maybe even learn the nitty-gritty of buying low
and selling high. The English flip-flap words and their
meaning: the
nitty-gritty Ц the basic facts of a situation the hoi polloi Ц
ordinary people. topsy-turvy Ц
confused,
not well organized or giving importance to unexpected things; upside down. bigwig Ц
a person
who has an important or powerful position. willy-nilly Ц
If something happens willy-nilly, it
happens whether the people who are involved want it to happen or not. helter-skelter Ц quickly and in all directions, confused or disorderly
haste. hotchpotch (US USUALLY hodgepodge) Ц a
confused mixture of different things, a collection of unrelated things. humdrum Ц lacking
excitement, interest or new and different events; ordinary namby-pamby Ц
weak, foolish or silly. Some Other flip-flap words
and expressions doom and gloom Ч negative
outlook double trouble Ч serious
trouble handy-dandy Ч useful and
readily accessible higgledy-piggledy Ч topsy-turvy hoity-toity Ч pretentious;
pompous nifty fifty Ч refers to the
top hot investment stocks wheeler-dealer Ч an aggressive,
sometimes unscrupulous person; a cunning dealer A complete list
of such words see at: http://www.trussel.com/flipflop.htm
A senior OECD official said: "There
is a hiatus. Nothing is happening because the US position is
unclear." AFTER a four-week hiatus to allow North Korea's negotiators to fly
home to mourn
their late Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, the American- North Korean nuclear
talks started again on August 5th in Geneva. hiatus noun [C
usually singular] FORMAL a short pause in which
nothing happens or is said, or a space where something is missing: great enthusiasm or
eagerness: diligent adjective APPROVING careful and
using a lot of effort: diligence noun [U]
stun (SHOCK) verb [T] -nn- surmise verb [T] FORMAL be alive and well/kicking zest (EXCITEMENT) noun [S or U] vigour UK, US
vigor noun [U]
Mr OТNeillТs successors need to avoid his various
volte-faces (first no support for IMF bail-outs, then massive
bail-outs). The truth is that many of the
measures being proposed across the globe already formed part of international
standards to deal with the phenomenon, and should have been implemented long
ago. So-called 'know your customer' standards are being enthusiastically
promoted by the Republican government in the US, which has undergone
the most remarkable volte-face as regards money laundering
legislation. The kind of legal risk represented by an
abrupt regulatory volte-face can hardly be avoided; it can only be
coped with. Aside
from the blunders of their gaffe-prone leader, Japanese
politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen have good reason to feel that the
internet has the potential to lift the world's second biggest economy out of
a 10-year rut. That
services gaffe could hurt Micron's credibility with new
customers, said analysts. volte-face (synonym:
U-turn)
(русск.
эквивалент - разворот на 180 градусов) gaffe
(русск.
эквивалент Ц промах, оплошность) bail sb/sth out (HELP), UK ALSO bale sb
out phrasal verb [M] (русск.
эквивалент Ц срочна¤ помощь финансовому учреждению, испытывающему трудности.
государственна¤ поддержка банкам)
to see the
light (of day) 1. to be born
2. to be made public. e.g. His draft
report first saw the light of day more than a month ago. embroil verb [T] mot juste† FORMAL
mound noun [C] abuse
to set sth at
Уarm's length to keep sth as
far away as possible e.g. He held the
dirty rag at arms length mishmash
noun [S] The Bible has always been a
source of excellent quotations, giving the reporter's commentaries the
required weight and emphasis. The examples are numerous, but I have chosen
for today just two (the wages of sin
and legion: e.g. The disconnection
between profits and stock values happened because Philip Morris had been externalizing
too many of the costs of those profits for too long. Just as "the
wages of sin is death", so the wages of externalization
is value destruction. The expression actually
comes from the Bible, (Romans 6:23), (ѕослание к –имл¤нам): "For the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord." It could be translated into
Russian as "расплата за грехи" Consider also some other
uses of the phrase in the quality economic press:
17.
"WorkersТ Wages" Whilst there is
authority that Сthe wages of sin is deathТ, there remains a
question as to whether the extraordinary (if not actually sinful) way in
which workersТ wages are dealt with under the Bill will be the death of
provisional supervision. 18.
A simple way to comply with the equity allocation
rule is to adopt an Уofficial intentФ resolution on or before the bond
closing stating the intent to use payments with respect to the property to
reimburse the equity. If the equity allocation rule is not complied with, any
payments received with respect to the property are allocated between the
bonds and the equity on the basis of the relative amount of funding provided
by each (e.g., if the property was financed 60% with bonds, then 60% of the
payments are allocated to the bonds). Such a pro-rata allocation of payments
may cause the bonds to meet the private security or payment test and
therefore be treated as private activity bonds. A final thought - УThe
wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, itТs
just sort of a tired feeling.Ф 19.
A vintage year for the wages of sin
and the wagers of lawyers vintage adjective Sometime reporters and
writers play with this phrase, creating similarly
expressive constructions: 1.
"The Wages of Virtue: The Risk/Return Structure of
Socially Responsible Mutual Funds," Academy of Financial Services, Ninth
Annual Meeting Paper Abstracts, (October 18, 1995). It comes from the British
Author Samuel Butler (1835Ц1902): If the wages of sin are
death, what else, I should like to know, is the wages of virtue? 2.
The Economist : Are poor countries pinching the rich ones' jobs?: The
wages of fear. 3.
The wages of war are legion. The promise of peace is eternal.
The choice is ours. The last phrase contains
another useful word - Legion - that
has become recurrent in modern English: legion adjective [after
verb] FORMAL Originally it comes from the
Bible: MAR 5:9 And he asked
him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are
many. 1.
For the sake of clarity and brevity, people are
consumers when we talk about demand, workers when we talk about labor market activity,
investors/savers on one side of financial activity, borrowers on the other.
When they get sick, they are patients, when wounded, casualties. We are
legion... 2.
ThereТs no need to swap between funds. But that
means no sales commission for financial advisers and lower fees for the fund
management companies they are often tied to. Such СmisinformationТ and
sharp practice are legion throughout the global financial services
industry. Banks, fund managers, life insurance companies, big and small, all
try to put their products in the most flattering light possible and spend
millions marketing their products. 3.
Reforms in many sectors might have been smoother had
the government appointed a regulator in that sector first before throwing it
open to the private sector. The number of sectors where policy muddles
have slowed the pace of reforms are legion. Take the oil and gas
sector. In 2002, the government dismantled the administered price mechanism,
a relic of the control era that sought to cross-subsidize products like
kerosene, diesel and, curiously, LPG with punitive pricing on products like
petrol. 4.
Examples are legion where long
established businesses simply close their doors. 5.
The antitrust cases are legion which reiterate
the proposition that, if the fact of damages is proven, the actual
computation of damages may suffer from minor imperfections. 6.
The average business office of a charitable
institution should not try to administer the pooled income fund by itself. The
pitfalls are legion and normally, that is asking for trouble. Key to
this decision is to realize that is your Fund is found to be invalid by the
IRS at some later date, all past gifts to the Fund are invalid and tax
deductions claimed by those donors are invalid as well. pitfall noun [C usually
plural] This morning I was reading
an article in the site of УEuromoneyФ devoted to M&A League Tables
compiled by the ranking agencies to help corporates to identify the
individual advisers to guide them through a transaction or help them head one
off. There were at least seven
words of the Greek and Latin origin in it. I assume that at times they really
give the edge to the reportersТ and the writersТ arguments: Here are just two
examples: The introduction of
rankings of individuals makes many investment banks unhappy. Star deal-makers
are supposed to have gone out of fashion in the late 1980s, along with highly
leveraged buy-outs and mergers arbitrageurs. Team work is the new ethos.
Senior managers at leading investment banks don't relish their M&A stars
being poached or demanding bigger salaries, and M&A bankers themselves
are wary of seeking public glory. This
goes back to Aristotle who described three main forms of rhetoric and human
relations: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. Ethos
Ethos is appeal based on the
character of the speaker. An ethos-driven document
relies on the reputation of the author. Aristotle writes that the
appeal from ethos comes not from appearances, but from a person's use of
language. The Greeks established a sense of ethos by a family's reputation in
the community. Without the ethos of the good name and handshake, current
forms of cultural ethos often fall to puffed-up resumes and other papers.
Aristotle tells us that there are three things that inspire confidence in
people: good sense, good moral character, and goodwill. False statements and
bad advice come from the lack of any of these elements. Using these three
aspects of character in your work and writing can play a large part in
gaining credibility for your ideas. Logos Logos is appeal based on
logic or reason. Documents distributed by
companies or corporations are logos-driven. Scholarly documents are
also often logos-driven. Pathos Pathos is appeal based on
emotion. Advertisements tend to be pathos-driven. While appealing to pathos
in your readers (or listeners), you establish in them a feeling of reception
for your ideas. You may try to fill your readers with respect for somebody or
contempt for some wrong. You can create a sense of envy or of indignation. *** Hobbs does not deny
that there are problems. "We provide as accurate a picture as
possible," he says. "That's all any financial data provider can do.
We have to be careful as it can be a minefield, but we talk to not only the
advisers but also the corporates - the real litmus test of who's doing
what." litmus test noun
[C usually singular] 1.
"I think that the individual rankings are not actually that
relevant. The people doing the deals are getting coverage anyway and head-hunters
are already aware of who's doing what - they don't need these tables to show
them." It's a fair point. But if this is so, concerns that tables
ranking individual bankers might encourage poaching are also a red herring. red herring noun [C] 2.
"It's a flash in the pan," says Peter Boone, the head of research
at Brunswick UBS Warburg. "If the government destroys Yukos then it will
be a bigger flash in the pan, but nothing the government has done has
changed the basic structure of the economy and Russia remains a very
profitable place for business at the moment." flash in the
pan 3.
"The oil story is over," says Greg Thain, the chairman of IMS, a
leading market research company that released a "hot 100" list of
potential IPO candidates earlier this year. "All the action is going to
be in the nuts and bolts of Russia Ц the machine makers, the food
processors, the tyre manufacturers." the nuts and
bolts 4.
The Yukos affair has shaken markets and rattled investors' confidence.
Some observers speculate that Russia is on the cusp of a new authoritarian
era and the rolling back of free-market reforms. cusp noun [S] 5.
Between a quarter and a third of deputies in the Federation Council,
the upper house of parliament, are connected to one of the big companies, and
the Moscow Times estimates that one in five Duma candidates were
bankrolled by companies. bankroll verb [T] INFORMAL 6.
Gref had revised his blueprint for economic reform in
2002 and two-thirds of the new plan was dedicated to boosting manufacturing
sectors. blueprint noun [C] an early plan or design which explains
how something might be achieved: 7.
If the two LNG plants can be built at a reasonable price they could make good
business sense, but this rationale could still be upset by Gazprom's
political role as pipeline politics continue unabated. rationale FORMAL (русск. эквивалент Ђпричины, побудившие к действиюї) NOT TO
BE CONFUSED WITH УrationalФ Ц showing clear though and
reason 8.
He goes on to say that it was felt by these banks that
individual rankings would inevitably lead to a "star culture" and
cause internal problems with issues such as salaries and team morale.
He acknowledges, however, that the individuals involved feel flattered to see
their names associated with these tables. morale NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH Уmoral (мораль басни) or
morals (нормы поведени¤)Ф Ц The
oligarchs took Putin's warning to heart and have been busy getting their act
together. Companies now talk about shareholder value and corporate governance
through increasingly slick PR machines. The fact that everyone is making
money hand over fist on the back
of high international commodity prices has only added to the impetus. hand over fist on the back of sth With the carve-up
of assets among the rich and well connected over, the only thing left to do
is start trying to make these companies work better. carve sth up (DIVIDE) phrasal
verb [M] DISAPPROVING The saving grace may be the need for money
and management's increasing openness to the idea of independent directors.
The 1998 crisis killed off any chance of debt financing, and so companies are
thinking more about the possibility of equity financing. saving grace noun [S] The Kremlin is well aware that recent strong
growth will peter out unless deep structural reforms are made and more
foreign investment is brought into Russia. peter out phrasal verb Until the 1998 crisis investing in
Russia was more a question of choosing the right time than choosing the right
stock - a "plain vanilla equity
product" as Steve Jennings, chief executive of Renaissance Capital
describes it. plain-vanilla This year kicked off with a kerfuffle over Russia's repayment of its debts
to the Paris Club of sovereign lenders. kerfuffle noun
[S] UK INFORMAL Laocoon, the Trojan priest, didn't trust the Greeks and their
wooden horse. But before he could warn his fellow Trojans, the hostile gods
sent two snakes to throttle him and his sons. The sculptor's treatment of
this event seems to epitomize the
struggle between the regulators and the regulated in today's financial
markets. But who is being strangled and who's doing the strangling? epitomize, verb
[T] The G30 report on derivatives practices and
principles, produced in July 1993, was the first attempt to fight fire with
fire, anticipating a crackdown by regulators. fight fire with fire (рус. эквивалент клин клином вышибают) to use the same methods as someone
else in order to defeat them Since Barings, the focus has shifted somewhat from number-crunching exercises and the bugbear of derivatives to a broader
view of market and credit risk management, operational risk and control,
standards of business conduct, and even the culture of an institution and the
character of the people who run it. number-crunching noun
[U] bugbear noun
[C] BCCI was allowed to operate long after the first
suspicions of nefarious dealing were
raised. Barings' risk controllers dithered
when faced with some puzzling unreconciled trades. nefarious †adjective FORMAL dither verb
[I] DISAPPROVING
We're all seeking the most satisfactory way to
underpin the international capital market without tying it up in red tape. red tape noun [U] DISAPPROVING "Blind counterparties are an issue that
concerns us," says Douglas Harris, until recently senior deputy
comptroller at the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). comptroller †noun
[C] MAINLY US FORMAL Indeed, many of Roberts's peers can't
help but express a certain irritation with the ongoing efforts by regulators
and legislators to impose good corporate governance on CEOs by fiat, the most notable of which
was the Sarbanes-Oxley market reform legislation passed by Congress in late
2002. fiat noun
[C or U] FORMAL (постановление, указ) He has transformed Pfizer from a global also-ran into a long-term contender
with three of the world's ten top-selling drugs. also-ran noun
[C] white elephant noun DISAPPROVING I
am sure you know what Political Correctness (PC) means. But do you actually know
how to be politically correct in speech? What is a politically correct word
for УhandicappedФ УbumФ (бомж) УbaldФ (лысый) in English?
Here
is a cute collection of these denominations (please take it with some
grain of salt ;) take sth with a pinch of salt UK (US
take sth with a grain of salt) ETHNICITY (PC
people do not recognize the term, "race," as valid) Black is now
African-American (NOTE: DOES NOT INCLUDE LIBYANS, EGYPTIANS, WHITE
S-AFRICANS. DOES INCLUDE PEOPLE WITH DARK SKIN REGARDLESS OF WHERE THEY ARE
FROM OR WHERE THEY LIVE.) Oriental is now
Asian-American (NOTE: NOT CONSIDERED "REAL" MINORITIES SINCE THEY
TEND TO DO WELL) Indian is now
Native-American, the Indigenous Peoples of North American Continent (NOTE:
THE FOLLOWING TEAMS ARE NOT PC: Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Kansas
City Chiefs, Washington Redskins. AVOID THESE CITIES!!! And never buy tickets
from a "scalper"!) Chicano is
Hispanic (NOTE: THE FOLLOWING ARE NOT PC: Cheech and Chong, Chico and the Man
episodes, Cisco Kid, Rosarita Salsa, Speedy Gonzales. BOYCOTT THEM!!) White Trash is
now PC Unaware Rustically Inclined WASP (white
male) is now Insensitive Cultural Oppressor (ICO) GENDER
(PC'ers don't like the word "sex" as it has confusing connotations)
Woman is now
Womyn, Vaginal-American, Gyno-American Girl is now Pre-Womyn
Male is now
Testosterone Poisoned Housewife is now
Domestic Engineer Wife is now
Unpaid Sex Slave Fireman is now
Firefighter Stewardess is
now Flight Attendant Meter Maid is
now Parking Enforcement Aduciator Post Man is now
Post Person Mail Man is now
Person Person Policeman (cop,
pig)is now Law Enforcement Officer, Baton Boy, Cal. Clubber Prostitute is
now Sex Surrogate MANkind, HuMAN,
PerSON is now Earth Children PEOPLE :
SUB-GROUPS Handicapped is now
Differently Abled, Handi-Capable, (Blind - Optically Darker, Photonically
Non-receptive; Deaf - Visually Oriented) Poor is now
Economically Unprepared Bum is now
Homeless Person, Displaced Homeowner, Philosophy Major, Involuntarily
Domiciled Hunter is now
Animal Assassin, Meat Mercenary, Bambi Butcher Commercial
Fisherman is now Flipper Whipper Whaler is now
Blubber Lover Old Person /
Elderly is now Senior Citizens, 4th-Dimentionally Extended, Gerontologically
Advanced Conservative is
now Right Wing Extremist Fascist Pig Drug Addict is
now Chemically Challenged Bald is now
Comb-Free Vegetable is now
Noble Unconscious Hero Bisexual is now
Sexually Non-preferential Small Penis is
now Phallically Challenged Midget, Dwarf is
now Little People, Vertically Challenged Insane People is
now Selectively Perceptive, Mental Explorers Tree-Hugger is
now Environmental Activist Logger is now
Wood Weasel, Paper Pirate, Treeslayer Incompetent is
now Uniquely Proficient, Differently Qualified, Specially Skilled Chronically Late
is now Temporarily Challenged Obese/Fat is now
Differently Weighted, People of Mass, Gravitationally Challenged Corpse/Stiff/etc
is now Metabolically Challenged, Victim of GlosBiDS (Global Systematic
Biological Dysfunction Syndrome), Terminally Inconvenienced ACADEMIC /
CURRICULUM Far East is now
Asia Censorship is
now Selective Speech B.C. is now
B.C.E. Older Students
is now Non-Traditional, New-Traditional Computer
Illiterate is now Technologically Challenged Learning Disability
is now Self-Paced Cognitive Ability Cheating is now
Academic Dishonesty Library is now
Educational Resource Center Used Books is
now Recycled Books Dorm is now
Residence Hall Berkeley is now
Mecca MISCELLANEOUS Broken Home is
now Dysfunctional Family HouseBroken is
now Family Disfunction Mercy Killing is
now Euthanasia, Putting.. Down/to Sleep/Out of Misery Insult is now
Emotional Rape Senile Bag o'
Bones is now Alzheimer's Victim Ghetto/Barrio is
now (EHA) Ethnically Homogenous Area, Pre-Integrated Pre-Nirvana Hamburger is now
Seared Mutilated Animal Flesh (SMAF) Cheeseburger is
now Adding Insult to Injury Trees is now
Oxygen Exchange Units Gang is now
Youth Group Pimp-mobile,
Low-rider is now Culturally Responsive Transportation Option Drunk/Trashed is
now Spatially Perplexed Slum is now
(EOZ) Economic Oppression Zone China is now
Porcelain Delicatessen is
now Corpse Farm, Charnel House SOCIALLY
INTOLERABLE WORDS (SIWs) These are some, but
unfortunately not all, words that are used to describe people. Remember,
there are much more eloquent PC ways to say the same thing (and mean the same
thing) without offending any of Earth's Children. DO NOT USE THESE
WORDS (except when telling other people not to use them). IF YOU HEAR ANYONE
USE THESE WORDS, REGARDLESS OF CONTEXT, RESPOND IMMEDIATELY: "Alky,
Babe, Beaner, Belgian-Bastard, Betty, Bimbo, Bitch, Blonde, Broad, Bum,
Canuck, Chick, Chink, Coolie, Coon, Commie, Crip, Dego, Dike, Dot-head,
Druggie, Fag, Fairy, Four-Eyes, Fudgepacker, Greaser, Hebe, Hippie, Honky,
Hooknose, Indian, Injun, Jap, JAP, Jesus-Freak, Kike, Kraut, Lez, Lush,
Nigger, Nudnick, Pinko, Pollock, Raghead, Redneck, Redskin, Retard, Ruskie,
Sambo, Skirt, Spic, Spook, Tart, Toots, Uncle Tom, Wetback, Whore,
White-Trash, Wop, Vegetable" For further
information see: http://webpages.marshall.edu/~hartwel1/humor/misc/politically_correct_handbook.html 1. Yet despite the
improving standard of living, a third of the population still live on, or
below, the poverty line. Many survive on the produce grown on their dachas
and moonlighting in the
black economy. moonlight (WORK)
verb [I] moonlighted, moonlighted 2. With all these unknowns
it is hard to say where Russia is going. Will the current robust growth be a blip in an otherwise
miserable record, or is this the start of long-term recovery? No-one can be
sure. blip noun [C] 3.
When it comes to ownership, says Andrew Cowley, managing director at United City
Bank, "on the debt side, clearly there is a lot more leeway
and so a lot of people want to use that window". leeway (FREEDOM)
noun [U] 4. In common with its
peers in the telecommunications equipment sector, Lucent is not an attractive
customer for most banks. Citigroup took a different view, riding to the
rescue white knight-style.
"Many clients, for example Lucent have called us because they thought
that a firm like Citigroup would provide multiple avenues of assistance,
advice, distribution, research and capital to be of help," says Michael
Klein, head of investment banking. "We've been of significant help to
them." Whether any plausible white knight would be a more attractive partner than
Comcast is debatable; indeed, it is easy to imagine blacker knights now
joining the tournament to win Disney. white
knight noun [C] 5.
Ever felt that
your local bank branch was a little dull? Are you spending time in the bank
when you have other chores to do? Do banks make you feel hungry? According to one bank spokesman, people actually
enjoy coming to the bank. "They can get all their chores
done in one place. We have kids coming to the bank with their parents to do
their homework." chore noun [C] 6.
Hans de Gier, chairman and chief
executive of Warburg Dillon Read, didn't mince
words at the grand opening of the Financial Services Authority (FSA)
in Canary Wharf on June 1. not
mince (your) words 7. Ahold
Secured Emergency Loan In Nick Of Time
Before $500M Shortfall Revealed HSBC's purchase of Household
International seems to have come in the nick of time. "Bear
markets are good for credit derivatives," says Frost at JPMorgan.
"Credit derivatives are a force for transparency in the credit markets,
and that's healthy. In the current downturn the credit market needs a robust
credit derivatives market more than ever, Sceptical users are turning to the
credit derivative market in adversity, and our view is that the credit
derivatives market has reached maturity - in the nick of time." in
the nick of time 8. The
TotalFina camp argues the complex scheme was cooked up by number-crunching
investment bankers, and stood at
odds with the earlier thinking of Elf chairman Jaffré. be
at odds 9. Ironically, these very successes spell trouble for some Russian
brokers. They have a tough winter ahead of them and some may not survive it. spell
trouble 10. The deal shows that investors still harbour reservations about Russia. "High-risk foreign
capital has been in Russia for two years and so far has made zero
returns," says Jordan. harbour (HAVE IN
MIND) UK,
US
harbor verb [T] 11. Russia is likely to launch a Eurobond next year and some large
Russian companies will follow suit. follow
suit 12. A rule of thumb in identifying Russian companies which are beginning to be run
for shareholder benefit is to look at those companies which have appointed western
auditors to prepare IAS audits. rule
of thumb 13. They provide bread-and-butter
business for new Russian investment banks like Renaissance, which has
just closed a small placement for restaurant chain Rosinter and is working on
a few others. bread-and-butter say
when 1. Private-equity firms
were left holding the baby. The businesses they had been priming for an IPO
and a correspondent blaze of glory were suddenly unloved and unwanted. The halcyon days were over. The Carnegie
Endowment's Birdsall says: "In middle-income countries like Turkey and
Brazil (and now Argentina), there's a new recognition that these countries
can default. Or rather, a renewed recognition: it was forgotten in the halcyon days of the early
1990s." Halcyon
days seemed to be back for the agencies. halcyon
days 2. In reality, though,
despite the shift in emphasis, the European private-equity industry is in
fairly good shape. Although one or two skeletons might fall out of the
cupboard in the next six months, there's little evidence of the crash and
burn that has characterized the sector in the US. skeleton
in the/your cupboard/closet 3. It wasn't so long
ago that the US was funding 60% to 70% of the European industry because its
own investors wouldn't play ball. play
ball INFORMAL 4. They absolutely
have to sell. Europe's telecom firms notched up e150 billion of debt as
auctions for 3G licences spiralled out of control last year. notch
sth up phrasal verb [M] INFORMAL 5. Reforms of the corporate
tax laws, due to take effect next year, will trigger a wave of activity, they
say as small and medium sized family owned companies seek to take advantage
of the tax dispensations. dispensation (PERMISSION)
noun [C or U] FORMAL 6.
Another hurdle to overcome is
the fact that family-owned companies tend to be extremely secretive and are
reluctant to disclose details of their business to outsiders. hurdle (PROBLEM) noun [C] 7.
"If
you pay a top whack for a company where are the returns going to come
from?" asks Tom Lamb, managing director UK at Barclays Private Equity.
"Even if the company is great and has a reliable and growing business,
if you buy it at a price that is too high, you won't make money." whack (SHARE) noun [U] 8. Wireless data
transfer technologies such as Bluetooth are currently flavour of the month
with a lot of general partners. They're placing bets on the companies working
on ironing out the glitches in these areas. And the advantage of investing
further down the line is that partially-tested technology is much safer. glitch noun
[C] 9. It is perhaps
telling that private-equity funds of funds talked to for this article say
they do not invest in funds housed inside an investment bank, even if they
include third-party money. pitch into sb/sth phrasal
verb INFORMAL Good morning! This is real relish! At times even dry
economic writing can create nice cultural associations:
Euromoney
Feature: Although
Klein plays down the importance of Citigroup's balance sheet in winning these
and other mandates, the writing is on the wall: it's no use
looking to a securities firm to bail you out of a financial crisis. International
Herald Tribune ''The writing is
on the wall for an easing in monetary policy, the questions
being when and how much,'' said Annette Beacher, a senior economist at
Citibank Ltd. the
writing is on the wall said
to mean that there are clear signs that something will fail or no longer exist In fact it comes
from the Bible, when the Babylonian king saw the mystic words written
on the wall, and the prophet Daniel interpreted them to the king: "And
this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN."
"This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has
numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you
have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your
kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." relish noun [U] SLIGHTLY FORMAL
pick
'n' mix UK
one-stop adjective
tout (MAKE KNOWN)
verb
tout (SELL
UNOFFICIALLY) UK
verb
[T] (US
scalp) DISAPPROVING
ancillary adjective
straits plural noun
avenue (POSSIBILITY)
noun
[C]
lifeline noun [C]
botch verb [T] (UK ALSO
bodge)
top-notch adjective INFORMAL
bring/take
sb down a peg (or two) INFORMAL catch
sb off guard
linchpin, lynchpin
noun
jumbo adjective
[before noun] in
the pipeline
venture (RISK)
verb
[I usually + adverb or preposition;
T] FORMAL
be
in a tight corner/spot
gauge (JUDGE), US ALSO
gage verb [T] 1.
Another solution is to sell
stock forward at a premium valuation. Just as three years ago forward
purchases were all the rage to try to mitigate rapidly rising share prices,
now the opposite is true. be
(all) the rage OLD-FASHIONED 2.
While old-style equity
capital markets business has slowed to a trickle, if not an intermittent
drip, it's a different story for equity derivatives. trickle noun
[S] 3.
BackTracks spends much of its
time these days investigating current and wannabe hedge fund managers, but it
has not always been that way. "We've evolved into hedge-fund
specialists," says Shain. "But we still do other pre-deal checks.
We follow the trend and market ourselves to what's going on." wannabe, wannabee
noun [C] INFORMAL
DISAPPROVING 4.
It's a similar story for some
of those setting up hedge funds, they say, and among the chief culprits are
the investment banks. culprit noun
[C] 5.
And
next time the firm comes back to market, it may find that investors have placed
an indelible black mark against its name. It is much safer to placate lending
banks with a bond deal than a precious advisory or equity mandate. placate verb
[T] 6.
Besides
this, securities firms are thought to have superior distribution capabilities
- on the retail side too at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley - and the
ability to garner maximum investor support for an issue through clever
marketing. garner verb
[T] LITERARY
7.
And
for a large number of corporates, it's true that this reticence is largely
irrelevant. Investment banks are what they are and their remit does not
extend to providing credit. remit (AREA) noun
[C usually singular] 8.
There's nothing like hearing
that a bank has rejected your request for financing and approved a rival's to
make a treasurer see red. see
red 9.
Investment
banks say that their commercial bank competitors have already pushed the
boundaries too far and that treasurers would prefer to pay the going rate for
credit and be free to go elsewhere for investment banking business. But
they're fighting a losing battle. "It is very important that our
revolving credit facilities are thinly priced," says Stora Enso's
Kasurinen. fight
a losing battle 10. But banks probably
shouldn't expect too much in return for lending. Corporates might have been
profligate with their bond business but it's far from clear that they will
share out their equity-related and advisory mandates quite so freely. profligate adjective
FORMAL 11.
It's
only if the investment banks start to underperform - perhaps because the banks
woo away teams of talented individuals or because the benefits of a big
balance sheet when doing acquisitions become more apparent - that there'll be
room under the table for another pair of feet. Woo
verb
[T] wooing, wooed, wooed Leg
room Ц space available for a seated personТs legs. e.g. There is not much leg room in these aircraft. 12. The company's
management is taking an axe to the cost structure of the business. It
announced in February that it would lay off 5,000 of its 10,000 US employees
and outsource much of its production to China. get
the axe UK the
axe, US ALSO
the ax noun [S] UK 13. "I think that levels are likely to
accelerate but there is a strong element of fragility to the recovery and it
would take relatively little to make it start to crack," says Dante
Roscini, global co-head of ECM at Merrill Lynch. "Disappointing
earnings, an economic shock, or another massive terrorist act would probably
be enough to throw a spanner in the works." put/throw
a spanner in the works
UK
(US
throw a (monkey) wrench in the works)
(вставл¤ть палки в колеса) 14. "Interest
in the market has been somewhat modest," admits Javed Masud, CEO of
PACRA, a joint venture with Fitch-IBCA. "This is a case of 'All dressed
up and nowhere to go.'" Masud
attributes the situation to a number of factors that fit the picture of a
country lacking some of the conditions for effective market
development. All dressed up and nowhere
to go Ц русск. эквив. 15.
This man, who has made a dog's dinner of launching the
euro (at the behest of the Germans whose economy it suits), has the
presumption to come over here and lecture us about how we should manage our
economy and who should benefit. done
up/dressed up like a dog's dinner UK INFORMAL 16.
By October 1998, SG's global book was volatility
neutral, thanks more to serendipity than strategic policy. But many
individual traders' books were short volatility. serendipity noun [U] FORMAL The equities environment of the
past three years should have suited the likes of Morgan Stanley better than
most, even as all had to suffer as revenues from equity underwriting
plummeted, because hedge funds have been the mainstay
among active investors. As one of the top two prime brokers along with
Goldman Sachs, that has been to Morgan's advantage. mainstay noun plummet verb [I]
Cahouet
continues to proselytize for a new mindset in banking. During
the Bank Administration Institute's finance and accounting management
conference in June, he was asked what advice he had for other banks interested
in buying a mutual funds company. His prompt reply: if they still thought of
themselves as a regulated, commercial bank, they probably "should stay
away from it." mindset noun
[U] proselytize, UK USUALLY proselytise
verb [I]
FORMAL DISAPPROVING
FORBES:†
Masayoshi Son should be hiding in a dark
barroom these days. At the height of the dot-com bubble the iconoclastic Japanese
businessman was worth $76 billion, within spitting distance of Bill Gates,
only to watch his worth collapse to a mere $1.1 billion three years later. THE
ECONOMIST: Mr. Harrison has pulled off another big deal, taking his institution to within
spitting distance of Citigroup, the bank it
most resembles in structure and scale.††
in/within
spitting distance INFORMAL iconoclast noun [C] FORMAL The confluence of these favorable factors in 2002 caused our
book-value gain to outstrip the performance of the S&P 500 by 32.1
percentage points. This result is aberrational: Charlie Munger, BerkshireТs
vice chairman and my partner, and I hope to achieve Ц at most Ц an average
annual advantage of a few points. In the future, there will be years in which
the S&P soundly trounces us. aberration noun [C or U] FORMAL trounce verb [T] INFORMAL Then, pessimism turned into
near panic when a spurt in the US producer price index greeted traders just
before Wall Street opened on Friday morning. The Dow sank 266 for the day and
640 for the week. But everybody knew that the PPI number was a fluke. DBS was as successful in equity as it was in general
banking. It was global coordinator and joint bookrunner and underwriter for
Singapore's most important IPO of the year, Singapore Post's S$684 million
offering, which attracted strong demand, enabling the deal to price at the top
end of the range. DBS also launched the first real-estate investment trust in
Singapore, for CapitaMall. It was five times oversubscribed and appealed to
retail investors, who picked up 39% of the S$235 million deal. To prove the
success was no fluke, another larger real-estate investment trust followed
for Ascendas-MGM Funds Management, coming in at around S$275.7 million. fluke "They
approached us and asked us about a merger and shouldn't we think about it. To
which we replied 'not particularly'. We were busy doing our own thing. We
just wanted them to leave us alone. And the demand to present to the board in
the absence of management was in our opinion an attempt to try and
steamroller the board and everyone into it. Clearly they wanted this deal
come hell or high water." come hell or high
water INFORMAL steamroller verb [T] INFORMAL
протаскивать (решение, законопроект) let up (IMPROVE) phrasal verb INFORMAL |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Russia, 119899
Moscow, Vorobyovy Gory, The Lomonosov Moscow State
University, 1st Humanities, †Faculty of Philology,
Department of
English Linguistics, Room 1046, Tel: + 7 (095) 939-2036, Fax: +7 (095)
939-51-14 E-mail: marklen@online.ru
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