Social Science Questions & Answers

A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is an investment fund owned by a government. The funds invested through such funds are usually the proceeds of non-renewable natural resources or a higher return alternative to holding foreign currency. An SWF differs from government funds that invest in their own country as these are usually driven by the desire to direct the economy …

The global slumpometer is a yardstick economists use to measure the severity of the recession in various economies across the world. It takes into account unemployment, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Domestic Income (GDI). To the average person, rising unemployment and pink slips mean a recession. While for many economists, a recession has arrived when there’s a dip in …

It is a fund set aside as a means to repay funds borrowed through a bond issue. The issuer makes periodic payments to a trustee who retires part of the issue by purchasing the bonds in the open market. Rather than the issuer repaying the entire principal of a bond issue on the maturity date, another company buys back a …

A sick-out is concerted action by a group of employees, who call in sick to protest against the company and its policies. It is meant to hold the company to ransom. In ordinary language, it is a strike to show the power they hold over the company’s working. It is a slightly more devious method than taking to the streets …

In poor developing countries, some farmers grow only enough food to feed their families, with a little left over to barter or sell for such things as clothes. This is called subsistence farming. In tropical countries, subsistence farmers clear plots in the forests or savanna and farm them for a few years. When the soil begins to become infertile and …

A shibboleth is a practice of identifying the members of a community or a clan and their social and regional origin. The term originated from the Hebrew language which literally means ‘the part of the plant’s. In modern usage, it is used to solve numerous conflicts between groups speaking different languages of dialects, and is also used to discover hidden …

A salamander is amphibian – an animal that lives both on land and in the water. It is a lizard-like member of a group of back-bones creatures between fish and reptiles. This class includes frogs and toads. Like fish and reptiles, the salamander is cold-blooded. It was anciently believed that the first salamander was born out of the heart of …

In chess tournaments, when two players end up with the same score on the final round, the tie needs to be broken for ranking purposes. Different systems of rating follow different rules for such tie-breaking, and the FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) or the Worldwide Chess Federation system uses the cumulative progressive score. Progressive score in a round is the …

The prefectures of Japan are the country’s 47 sub-national jurisdictions: one “metropolis”, Tokyo; one “circuit”, Hokkaido; two urban prefectures, Osaka and Kyoto; and 43 other prefectures. In Japanese, they are commonly referred to as todofuken. Prefectures are governmental bodies larger than cities, towns, and villages. Under the law, each prefecture is subdivided into cities and districts.

A prebituary is an obituary composed or published prior to a person’s death — it is a write-up of the lifetime achievements of famous personalities to mark their 65th birthdays.