Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

European Free Trade Association

(Encyclopedia)European Free Trade Association (EFTA), customs union and trading bloc; its current members are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. EFTA was established in 1960 by Austria, Denmark, Great...

Young Men's Christian Association

(Encyclopedia)Young Men's Christian Association, (the Y or YMCA), organization having as its objective the development of values and behaviors that are consistent with Christian principles. Despite its name, member...

Young Women's Christian Association

(Encyclopedia)Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), organization whose stated mission is “to empower women and girls and to eliminate racism.” The movement is nondenominational. It grew out of the homes f...

Bush, George Herbert Walker

(Encyclopedia)Bush, George Herbert Walker, 1924–2018, 41st President of the United States (1989–93), b. Milton, Mass., B.A., Yale Univ., 1948. Bush's handling of domestic affairs was less successful. The savi...

credit union

(Encyclopedia)credit union, cooperative, not-for-profit financial institution that makes low-interest personal loans to its members. It is usually composed of persons from the same occupational group or the same lo...

Weah, George

(Encyclopedia)Weah, George (George Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah), 1966–, Liberian soccer player and political leader. An outstanding striker, Weah was soccer's African, European, and World player of the year in 1995...

Cassel, Gustav

(Encyclopedia)Cassel, Gustav go͝osˈtäf käˈsəl [key], 1866–1945, Swedish economist and authority on international monetary problems. He was a delegate to many world economic conferences and wrote valuable pa...

speculation

(Encyclopedia)speculation, practice of engaging in business in order to make quick profits from fluctuations in prices, as opposed to the practice of investing in a productive enterprise in order to share in its ea...

Latin American Free Trade Association

(Encyclopedia)Latin American Free Trade Association: see Latin American Integration Association. ...

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

(Encyclopedia)Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), organization established by the Bangkok Declaration (1967), linking the nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Subsequent...