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value-added tax
value-added tax (VAT), levy imposed on business at all levels of the manufacture and production of a good or service and based on the increase in price, or value, provided by each level. Because the consumer ultimately pays a higher price for the taxed commodity, a VAT is essentially a hidden sales...
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All-American Canal
All-American Canal 80 mi (129 km) long, SE Calif.; part of the federal irrigation system of the Hoover Dam. Built between 1934 and 1940 across the Colorado Desert, the canal is entirely within the United States and replaces the Inter-California Canal, which passes through Mexico. The Imperial Dam, ...
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wages
wages payment received by an employee in exchange for labor. It may be in goods or services but is customarily in money. The term in a broad sense refers to what is received in any way for labor, but wages usually refer to payments to workers who are paid by the hour, in contrast to a salary, whi...
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Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), an independent U.S. federal executive agency designed to promote public confidence in banks and to provide insurance coverage for bank deposits up to $100,000 (temporarily increased to $250,000 from Oct., 2008, through Dec., 2009). The corporation was e...
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hedge fund
hedge fund in finance, a highly speculative, largely unregulated investment device. Originating in the 1950s, the funds "hedge" by offsetting "short" positions (borrowing a security and then selling it at a higher price before repaying the lender) against "long" positions (borrowing mon...
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Augusto Bernardino Leguía
Augusto Bernardino Leguía , 1863-1932, president of Peru (1908-12, 1919-30). In his second administration Leguía promulgated a new constitution (1920), expanded and developed Lima, and considerably modernized his country, but increased the national debt and suppressed all opposition ha...
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Office of War Information
Office of War Information (OWI), U.S. agency created (1942) during World War II to consolidate government information services. The OWI absorbed the functions of the Office of Facts and Figures, the Office of Government Reports, the division of information of the Office for Emergency Management, an...
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public debt
public debt indebtedness of a central government expressed in money terms, often referred to as national debt. The debt is computed differently by nearly every nation. Some authorities exclude all government obligations other than those incurred by public borrowing from individuals.
The U.S. n...
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Alliance for Progress
Alliance for Progress Span. Alianza para el Progreso, U.S. assistance program for Latin America begun in 1961 during the presidency of John F. Kennedy . It was created principally to counter the appeal of revolutionary politics, such as those adopted in Cuba (see Fidel Castro ). It called for v...
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hypertrophy
hypertrophy , enlargement of a tissue or organ of the body resulting from an increase in the size of its cells. Such growth accompanies an increase in the functioning of the tissue. In normal physiology the growth in size of muscles (e.g., in an athlete as a result of increased exercise) and also th...
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