6. Corporation

A business corporation is an institution established for the purpose of making profit. It is operated by individuals. Their shares of ownership are represented by stock certificates. A person who owns a stock certificate is called a stock-holder.

There are several advantages of the corporate form of ownership. The first is the ability to attract financial resources. The next advantage is that the corporation attracts a large amount of capital. It can invest it in plans, equipment and research. And the third advantage is that a corporation can offer higher salaries and thus attract talented managers and specialists.

The privately owned business corporation is one type of corporation. There are some other types too. Educational, religious, charitable institutions can also incorporate. Usually such corporations do not issue stock and are nonprofit. If there is a profit it is reinvested in the institution rather than distributed to private to stockholders.

In some western countries, cities, states federal government and special agencies can establish governmental corporations. A few examples of these governmental corporations are state universities, state hospitals and city owned utilities. Governmental corporations are nonprofit as a rule and usually they do not issue stock certificates.

7. Inflation

Inflation is a steadily rise in the average price and wage level. The rise in wages being high enough to raise costs of production, prices grow further resulting in a higher rate of inflation and, finally, in an inflationary spiral. Periods when inflation rates are very large are referred to as hyperinflation.

The causes of inflation are rather complicated, and there is a number of theories explaining them. Monetarists, such as Milton Friedman, say that inflation is caused by too rapid increase in money supply and the corresponding excess demand for goods.

Therefore, monetarists consider due to government control of money supply to be able to restrict inflation rates. They also believe the high rate of unemployment to be likely to restrain claims for higher wages. People having jobs accept the wages they are being paid, the inflationary spiral being kept under control. This situation also accounts for rather slow increase in aggregate demand.

On the other hand, Keynesians, that is, economists following the theory of John M. Keynes, suppose inflation to be due to processes occurring in money circulation. They say that low inflation and unemployment rates can be ensured by adopting a tight incomes policy.

Incomes policies, though, monetarists argue, may temporarily speed up the transition to a lower inflation rate but they are unlikely to succeed in the long run.

The costs of inflation depend on whether it was anticipated and on the extent to which the economy’s institutions allow complete inflation adjustments.

The longer inflation continues, the more the economy learns to live with it. Indexation is a means to reduce the costs of some inflation effects. Indexed wages or loans mean that the amount to be paid or repaid will rise with the price level. Indexation has already been introduced in countries that had to live with inflation rates of 30 or 40 percent for years. And the more countries adjust their economies to cope with inflation, the closer they come to hyperinflation. Indexation means that high rates of inflation are much more likely to continue and even to increase.