Services: Economic activities -- such as transportation, banking, insurance, tourism, telecommunications, advertising, entertainment, data processing, and consulting -- that normally are consumed as they are produced, as contrasted with economic goods, which are more tangible.

Socialism: An economic system in which the basic means of production are primarily owned and controlled collectively, usually by government under some system of central planning.

Social regulation: Government-imposed restrictions designed to discourage or prohibit harmful corporate behavior (such as polluting the environment or putting workers in dangerous work situations) or to encourage behavior deemed socially desirable.

Social Security: A U.S. government pension program that provides benefits to retirees based on their own and their employers' contributions to the program while they were working.

Standard of living: A minimum of necessities, comforts, or luxuries considered essential to maintaining a person or group in customary or proper status or circumstances.

Stagflation: An economic condition of both continuing inflation and stagnant business activity.

Stock: Ownership shares in the assets of a corporation.

Stock exchange: An organized market for the buying and selling of stocks and bonds.

Subsidy: An economic benefit, direct or indirect, granted by a government to domestic producers of goods or services, often to strengthen their competitive position against foreign companies.

Supply: A schedule of how much producers are willing and able to sell at all possible prices during some time period.

Tariff: A duty levied on goods transported from one customs area to another either for protective or revenue purposes.

Trade deficit: The amount by which a country's merchandise exports exceed its merchandise imports.

Trade surplus: The amount by which a country's merchandise exports exceed its imports.

Venture capital: Investment in a new, generally possibly risky, enterprise.

This glossary is based principally on-line glossaries developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Virtual Trade Mission, and the Wisconsin Economic Education Council.