| A | B |
|---|
| budget deficit | The condition in which a nation spends more than it takes in from taxes. |
| business | Individuals or organizations that try to earn a profit by providing products that satisfy people’s needs. |
| capitalism, or free enterprise | An economic system in which individuals own and operate the majority of businesses that provide goods and services. |
| communism | First described by Karl Marx as a society in which the people, without regard to class, own all the nation’s resources. |
| competition | The rivalry among businesses for consumers’ dollars. |
| demand | The number of goods and services that consumers are willing to buy at different prices at a specific time. |
| depression | A condition of the economy in which unemployment is very high, consumer spending is low, and business output is sharply reduced. |
| economic contraction | A slowdown of the economy characterized by a decline in spending and during which businesses cut back on production and lay off workers. |
| economic expansion | The situation that occurs when an economy is growing and people are spending more money; their purchases stimulate the production of goods and services, which in turn stimulates employment. |
| economic system | A description of how a particular society distributes its resources to produce goods and services. |
| economics | The study of how resources are distributed for the production of goods and services within a social system. |
| entrepreneur | An individual who risks his or her wealth, time, and effort to develop for profit an innovative product or way of doing something. |
| equilibrium price | The price at which the amount of products businesses are willing to supply equals the amount of products consumers are willing to buy at a specific point in time. |
| financial resources | The funds used to acquire the natural and human resources needed to provide products; also called capital. |
