In the mid 1600s simple fences denoted plots and residences in the New Amsterdam settlement in what we now call lower Manhattan Island. This location on the island was critical as it allowed easy access to both the Hudson River and the East River. To protect this settlement, in 1653, the Dutch West India Company led the construction of a strong barrier, a 12 foot high wall of timber, as a defense against attack from Native American tribes.
In 1685 the city planners laid out a street running parallel to this 12 foot high wall and for lack of a better name called it “Wall Street.” Wall Street continued to grow in popularity, and in 1789, the Federal Hall building at the corner of Wall Street was the scene of the United States’ first presidential inauguration of George Washington. This is also the same location where the Bill Of Rights was passed into law.
In the late 18th century, a group of traders and speculators started meeting underneath a large, shady, buttonwood tree on Wall Street to trade investments informally. In 1792, twenty-four of theses most active traders formalized their association with the Buttonwood Agreement.
A Stock ExchangeStock exchanges are simply organizations that allow people the ability to buy and sell stocks. also developed in Philadelphia at about the same time period, and the founding members of the Buttonwood Agreement, fearing the success of the Philadelphia exchange, formally created the New York Stock and Exchange Board on March 8, 1817. Originally, there were five securities traded in New York City with the first listed company on the NYSE being none other than the Bank of New York.
In 1889, the newspaper that was the first to list stocks and their afternoon prices, called the Customers’ Afternoon Letter, changed its name to The Wall Street Journal for obvious reasons.
Buying and selling real estate as an investment strategy is quite different from simply buying a home or commercial building. Just as important in determining FMV (fair market value) as comparable properties are when buying a home, the income stream generated by a property is a primary component for an investor. You typically have three options if you want to invest in real estate:
Investing in FX (foreign exchange), currency speculation, and hedging are variations of the same basic investment strategy—you are betting that one currency will strengthen or weaken against the other. Not for the faint-hearted, these investments involve more due diligence and savvy than all of the other security types we have covered so far. Trading in FX is requires a strong macro-economic background and an understanding of interest rates as well.
Precious metals, particularly gold and silver, are attractive investments to many people. But as usual, you must learn to become a knowledgeable investor as precious metals can fluctuate in value as rapidly as common 
If you had invested in IXF in the summer of 2009, you would have done well, earning about 17% in one month. But if you had invested in FAS, you would have made a killing of over 70%! That is the power of leveraged ETFs. However, remember that leverage cuts both ways: up and down.
“Productivity” is a major economic indicator that measures how much each worker is producing. As workers produce more, they become more valuable. However, when a company suddenly lays off many workers, this can also increase productivity. The reason is that the remaining workers might be working harder because they are afraid to lose their jobs, or because the people who are laid off are usually the least productive (the employees that companies can “afford to lose” the most).
As the market price of a good goes up, the amount of that good that people are willing to pay generally goes down. This is because each person puts some value on the good – if the price is higher than the amount a person values it, they will not buy it.
As the market price for a good goes up, companies want to sell more of it to try to make greater profits. Conversely, as the market price goes down, companies are less interested in production, and so the quantity supplied generally goes down.
Capitalism is a type of Market Economic System. Under a pure capitalist economy, there is little or no direct government regulation of the economies. Instead, the economy is regulated by the “invisible hand” of the markets. Companies that are inefficient or unpopular simply lose business to their competition. This should give companies incentive to always innovate. This also applies to the environment and business practices. If consumers do not like companies that heavily pollute or engage in worker exploitation, they will take their business to other companies. In contrast, companies that put emphasis on environmental stability would attract the business of consumers who value the environment. This also applies to prices. Companies with high prices will quickly lose business to companies with lower prices. The balance between prices and values (worker exploitation, the environment) should then reflect the population’s values as a whole.
Communist economic systems are also known as “non-market socialism”. The factories and materials are “owned” entirely by everyone in the economy. The central planning agency determines how much of each item is produced, and who gets the finished products. For example, the central planning agency would decide how many shoes are produced, and then distribute the shoes to all the people it determines needs them the most.
The paths that countries take towards development out of a Feudal-type economy based in agriculture has a lot to do with what type of economic system they use. Generally speaking, feudal economies that experience a gradual increase in strength of the Merchant classes based in cities will develop into Capitalist economies. If power is seized by the Peasant classes, either through revolution or a military coup, the economy has generally started development under Communism.
The New York Federal Reserve Bank also has the world’s largest gold storage facility. Over 95% of the gold stored here is from other countries as part of their own currency reserves, making up about 10% of all the world’s gold reserves. Countries keep the gold stored at the Federal Reserve for practical reasons – if countries need to trade gold between each other, it is easier to move it from one vault to another within the same facility than to ship it between countries.
