Quantitative Easing

Advanced 💰 Finance / Accounting

Definition

When the central bank prints money and buys stuff to stimulate the economy, which is basically a cheat code that would get you banned if the economy were a video game. It sounds sophisticated, but it's the monetary equivalent of fixing a leaky boat by adding more water.

Example Usage

"The Fed announced another round of quantitative easing. Economists praised it, the stock market rallied, and the word easing did a lot of heavy lifting."

Related Terms

Beginner

earnings before interest and taxes

Operating income that excludes financing costs and tax expenses, providing a clearer view of operational performance. It's EBITDA's more conservative cousin that remembers depreciation and amortization are real expenses.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Intermediate

perpetual inventory

An inventory tracking system that continuously updates quantities with each transaction in real-time, as opposed to counting everything periodically and hoping nothing walked away. It requires technology, discipline, and faith that employees actually scan items.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Beginner

share

A tiny slice of corporate ownership that lets you pretend you're a business mogul while actually just gambling on quarterly earnings reports. When it goes up, you're a financial genius; when it drops, the market is 'irrational.' Comes with the bonus feature of limited liability, meaning you can't lose more than you invested (small consolation when you've invested everything).

💰 Finance / Accounting
Beginner

gross

The beautiful, untarnished number before reality sets in—your total earnings before taxes, fees, and other joy-killing deductions take their bite. It's what you earn in theory versus what actually shows up in your bank account (the "net"). Finance departments love talking in gross because it makes everything sound way more impressive.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Intermediate

markup

The magical percentage retailers add to their costs to create what they optimistically call a "selling price," essentially the difference between what they paid and what they're convinced you'll pay. In tech, it's the invisible code that tells computers how to format text without making it look like a ransom note. Both definitions involve making something look more expensive or prettier than it actually is.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Intermediate

Securities

Tradeable financial instruments like stocks and bonds, given a name that implies safety despite being approximately as secure as a sandcastle at high tide. The irony of calling them securities when they can lose 50% of their value overnight is Wall Street's longest-running joke.

💰 Finance / Accounting

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