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Duisenberg, Willem Frederik

(Encyclopedia)Duisenberg, Willem Frederik, 1935–2005, Dutch banker and advocate of European monentary union. He worked (1965–69) as an economist with the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., and was...

Trichet, Jean-Claude

(Encyclopedia)Trichet, Jean-Claude zhäN-klōd trēˈshĕ [key], 1942–, French banker and government official, b. Lyons. During the 1970s Trichet held a number of French finance and treasury positions and in 1978...

Copernican system

(Encyclopedia)Copernican system, first modern European theory of planetary motion that was heliocentric, i.e., that placed the sun motionless at the center of the solar system with all the planets, including the ea...

Continental System

(Encyclopedia)Continental System, scheme of action adopted by Napoleon I in his economic warfare with England from 1806 to 1812. Economic warfare had been carried on before 1806, but the system itself was initiated...

Latin Monetary Union

(Encyclopedia)Latin Monetary Union. In 1865, France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland (joined in 1868 by Greece) agreed to regulate their national currencies on a uniform basis, thus making it freely interchangeable...

European Space Agency

(Encyclopedia)European Space Agency (ESA), multinational agency dedicated to the promotion, for exclusively peaceful purposes, of cooperation among European states in space research and technology. Member states in...

Draghi, Mario

(Encyclopedia)Draghi, Mario mäˈēō drägˈē [key], 1947–, Italian economist and government and international ...

Federal Reserve System

(Encyclopedia)Federal Reserve System, central banking system of the United States. Established in 1913, it began to operate in Nov., 1914. Its setup, although somewhat altered since its establishment, particularly ...

central bank

(Encyclopedia)central bank, financial institution designed to regulate and control the money supply of a nation, with the goal of fostering economic growth without inflation. Although central banking systems have v...

European Commission

(Encyclopedia)European Commission (EC), institution of the European Union (EU) invested with executive powers; it also is the main EU institution that initiates legislation. Located in Brussels, Belgium, it was fou...