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THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM: Another term for scarcity, which is the pervasive condition of human existence that exists because society has unlimited wants and needs, but limited resources used for their satisfaction. In other words, while we all want a bunch of stuff, we can't have everything that we want (see free lunch). In slightly different words, this scarcity problem means: (1) that there's never enough resources to produce everything that everyone would like produced; (2) that some people will have to do without some of the stuff that they want or need; (3) that doing one thing, producing one good, performing one activity, forces society to give up something else; and (4) that the same resources can not be used to produce two different goods at the same time. We live in a big, bad world of scarcity. This big, bad world of scarcity is what the study of economics is all about. That's why we usually subtitle scarcity: THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM.
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                           NET INTEREST: The official item in the National Income and Product Accounts maintained by the Bureau of Economics Analysis measuring interest earned by the household sector for supplying capital services. This is one of five official factor payments making up national income. The other four are compensation of employees, rental income of persons, corporate profits, and proprietors' income. Net interest is usually less than 10 percent of national income, typically in the 6 to 8 percent range. In principle, net interest is considered payment for the productive services of capital. At first glance, this might not seem to make a great deal of sense. After all, interest is the payment for borrowing funds, is it not? Closer inspection, however, indicates that this is more reasonable than it might first appear.The key consideration is the close, very close, connection between financial markets and capital investment. - First, financial markets and capital investment are two alternative and competing investment opportunities. If firms in the business sector have a little extra revenue on hand, that is retained earnings, they are likely to compare the return generated from capital investment with the return obtained through financial markets. The one with the higher return gets the investment. This competition between physical capital and financial capital investment tends to equalize the returns.
- Second, financial markets are a primary source of funding used by the business sector to invest in capital goods. The return on capital investment, that is the profitability of capital, influences the interest rate business firms are willing to pay for borrowing funds. If capital investment generates greater profit, then the business sector is willing to pay a higher interest rate on borrowed funds.
The end result is that interest payments on loans used to finance investment in capital goods is, at least indirectly, compensation for the use of physical capital. While the lenders do not own the physical capital directly, their loans make production of the capital goods possible.While net interest is consider a payment for the services of capital goods, it is not the only factor payment entry in National Income and Product Accounts to do so. Although rental income of persons intends to capture payment for the services of land, a portion also includes payment for the services of capital. The same can be said for corporate profits, which does not distinguish between payment for entrepreneurship and capital ownership. Likewise, proprietors' income includes factor payments for the services of capital owned by proprietors, in addition to services provided by proprietors' labor, land, and entrepreneurship.
Recommended Citation:NET INTEREST, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: November 14, 2025].
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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time strolling through a department store trying to buy either a New York Yankees baseball cap or a solid oak entertainment center. Be on the lookout for telephone calls from long-lost relatives.
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The first "Black Friday" on record, a friday marked by a major financial catastrophe, occurred on September 24, 1869 -- A FRIDAY -- when an attempted cornering of the gold market induced a financial crises and economy-wide depression.
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"Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it. " -- Arthur Ashe, tennis player
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IADB
Inter-American Development Bank
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