Monetarist

– means relating to monetarism.

Ex. 1. Study the following words and word-combinations. What are their Russian equivalents?

money, make money, to be in the money, get one’s money’s worth, to have money to burn, blood money, danger money, hush money, pocket money, money for old rope, raise money.

Translate the sentences below. Pay attention to the words in bold.

1. Many oil-rich countries have money to burn.

2. I always insist on getting my money’s worth.

3. She seemsto be in the money.

4. He made good money when he worked.

5. He deserves to get danger money for that risky job.

6. Do you have any moneyon you?

7. When he was ten, his pocket money was 5 $ a week.

8. It was just money for old rope.

9. Take it away! This blood money of yours!

Ex. 2. There are many words in English with a “money component” in their meanings. Translate them into Russian. Use these words in your own sentences.

Cash, dosh, dough, the wherewithal, a fortune, a tidy sum, change, currency, means, assets, finances, resources, savings, income, benefit, alimony, fund, kitty, bribe, kickback, backhander, allowance, pension, earnings, capital.

Ex. 3. Give the derivatives of:

Ask your neighbour as many questions using these words and their derivatives as you can.

Ex. 4. Translate the following text into Russian in written form.

Money Is a Spectrum of Assets

Currency and checkable deposits are readily convertible into one another. Together, they constitute money in the narrow sense.

In a broader sense, some other assets are also “money”. But they are often called near-moneys.Their values are known in the terms of money, and they can be easily converted into money, if this is desired.

The concept of near-moneys is important. For one thing, people who possess near moneys may feel wealthier than other people of the same income level who do not. Hence, people who hold near moneys are likely to have higher propensity to consume.

Money is more than just paper currency and coins. Money is a spectrum of assets. It ranges from currency and checkable deposits through various types of time deposits to financial claims against businesses and US Treasury.

LET’S READ AND TALK

Read the text. Then explain the meanings of the words and phrases which have been highlighted.

TE X T 1

MONEY

Money is used for buying or selling goods, for measuring value and for storing wealth. Almost every society now has a money economy based on coins and paper notes of one kind or another. However, this has not always been true. In primitive societies a system of barter was used. Barter was a system of direct exchange of goods. Somebody could exchange a sheep, for example, for anything in the market place that they considered to be of equal value. Barter, however, was a very unsatisfactory system because people’s precise needs seldom coincided. People needed a more practical system of exchange, and various money systems developed based on goods which the members of a society recognized as having value. Cattle, grain, teeth, shells, feather, salt, tobacco have been used. Precious metals gradually took over because, when made into coins, they were portable, durable, recognizable and divisible into larger and smaller units of value.

A coin is a piece of metal, usually disc-shaped, which bears lettering, designs or numbers showing its value. Until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries coins were given monetary worth based on the exact amount of metal contained in them, but most modern coins are based on face value, the value that governments choose to give them, irrespective of the actual metal content. Coins have been made of gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), aluminium (Al), nickel (Ni), plastic and in China even from pressed leaves. Gold proves to be the most popular. Since civilization began gold has been regarded as a symbol of power and wealth. In many societies gold was seen as a magic substance which could protect people against illness or evil spirits. Mankind never seems to have enough gold and the search for it has driven men mad. The need to search for gold has been compared to a disease, and is called ‘gold fever’.

An incredible variety of items have served as money at various times and places, but all can be classified as either commodity money or fiat money. Commodity money is valuable apart from what it will buy. Gold, for example, is useful in jewelry or dentistry, even when it is not used for money. But some money is useless except when treated as money. Certain pieces of paper of which you would probably like (e.g. 100 dollar bills) are example of fiat money. Use of fiat money is ultimately based on faith – faith in its purchasing power, in its general acceptability, and in the stability of the government that issues it.

Most governments now issue paper money in the form of notes, which are really ‘promises to pay’. Paper money is obviously easier to handle and much more convenient in the modern world. Cheques, bankers’ cards, and credit cards are being used increasingly and it is possible to imagine a world where ‘money’ in the form of coins and paper currency will no longer be used.

T E X T 2