Market Equilibrium
This is the one price where the amount consumers want to buy equals the amount producers want to sell.
What is the equilibrium price?
Long before Uber Eats, if you wanted dinner delivered, you'd have to offer the cook something in return, like a fishing net or a woven basket.
What is bartering?
Two mates decide to open a food truck selling loaded fries. They agree to split the profits 50/50. This is the type of business structure they've created.
What is a partnership?
You work 10 hours at your local café and get paid $230. This word describes the money you've earned from your labour.
What is income? (or wages)
You buy a hoodie online for $100. When you check out, the total is $115. That extra $15 has a three-letter name.
What is GST? (Goods and Services Tax)
A popular new gaming console is released before Christmas. The price in online auctions skyrockets. This economic principle describes the limited availability.
What is scarcity?
During this tough time in the 1930s, some unlucky Wall Street bankers who lost everything ended up selling apples on street corners to survive.
What is the Great Depression?
This Kiwi company started in 1935 making agricultural equipment. Today, you'll spot their bright yellow signs on construction sites all over the country.
What is Fulton Hogan?
You want to buy a car in 6 months, so you figure out how much to set aside each week to reach your goal. This plan has a name.
What is a budget?
You check your payslip and notice a chunk of money is gone before it even reaches you. This tax is taken so the government can fund hospitals, roads, and schools.
What is income tax?
If the price of avocados is set below the equilibrium price, this term describes the long line of people waiting to buy them.
What is a shortage?
Before New Zealand had its own currency, early settlers used these for trade. Some were gold, some were made by the Royal Mint, and they made a satisfying clink.
What are coins? (or gold coins / British coins)
You're craving a pie and an L&P. You pop into this Kiwi convenience store chain with a blue and yellow logo, found on corners all over the country.
Night 'n Day
You deposit $500 into a savings account that pays you extra money each year just for leaving it there. This "free money" is called this.
What is interest?
Your uncle is a builder who only takes cash payments and never declares them. He's technically a participant in this "shadow" part of the economy.
What is the cash economy? (or underground economy)
A new study says eating chocolate cures all known diseases. The demand curve for chocolate would do this (shift left or shift right?).
What is shift right? (Demand increases)
In medieval England, if a peasant wanted to buy a cow but only had chickens, they'd need to find a cow owner who desperately wanted poultry. This tricky problem had a long name.
What is the double coincidence of wants?
This iconic Kiwi brand's slogan is "Good honest food." Their baked beans, spaghetti, and tomato sauce have been fuelling Kiwi kids' lunches for generations.
What is Wattie's?
Your friend tells you about a "guaranteed" crypto investment that will double your money in a week. Your brain should be screaming this four-letter warning.
What is a scam? (or Ponzi scheme)
The government wants more people to buy electric vehicles, so they give a discount to buyers. This government payment that encourages a behaviour is called this.
What is a subsidy?
Dairy farmers decide to switch from producing milk to producing cheese because cheese prices have risen. This causes the supply curve for milk to do this.
What is shift left? (Supply decreases)
This economic disaster in 2008 started when American banks gave too many risky home loans. It caused job losses worldwide and gave us the term "too big to fail."
What is the Global Financial Crisis (GFC)?
This Kiwi company revolutionised the appliance world with their "dish drawer" and now makes breathing machines used in hospitals globally.
What is Fisher & Paykel Healthcare?
You own shares in a popular NZ company. At the end of the year, the company sends you a payment because they had a good year. This payment has a special name.
What is a dividend?
When you buy a packet of cigarettes, a huge chunk of the price is this type of tax, designed to discourage people from smoking.
What is an excise tax? (or sin tax / indirect tax)