U-SHAPED COST CURVES: The family of short-run cost curves consisting of average total cost, average variable cost, and marginal cost, all of which have U-shapes. They are U-shaped because each has high but falling cost at low quantities of output, which then reaches a minimum, then has rising cost at larger quantities of output. Although the average fixed cost curve is not U-shaped, it's occasionally included with the other three just for sake of completeness.

     See also | average total cost | average variable cost | marginal cost | average fixed cost | average total cost curve | average variable cost curve | marginal cost curve | average fixed cost curve | short-run production | stages of production | increasing marginal returns | decreasing marginal returns | law of diminishing marginal returns | total cost | total variable cost | total fixed cost |

U-SHAPED COST CURVES, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: July 18, 2025].

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A slang phrase for credit cards, especially when such cards used to make purchases. The "plastic" portion of this term refers to the plastic construction of credit cards, as opposed to paper and metal of currency. The "money" portion is an erroneous reference to credit cards as a form of money, which they are not. Although credit cards do facilitate transactions, because they are a liability rather than an asset, they are not money and not part of the economy's money supply.

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