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political action committee

(Encyclopedia)political action committee (PAC), U.S. organization formed by a corporation, labor union, or association to raise money for political activity. Funds can be gathered by voluntary contributions from me...

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...

Latin American Integration Association

(Encyclopedia)Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), organization formed in 1980 by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela, taking over the duti...

building and loan association

(Encyclopedia)building and loan association: see savings and loan association. ...

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...

Hot Springs National Park

(Encyclopedia)Hot Springs National Park, 5,549 acres (2,247 hectares), W central Ark.; est. 1921; nearly surrounded by the city of Hot Springs. Visited by Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto in 1541, the springs, lon...

Hooks, Benjamin Lawson

(Encyclopedia)Hooks, Benjamin Lawson, 1925–2010, African-American civil-rights leader, b. Memphis, Tenn. In 1972 President Nixon named Hooks, a lawyer, Baptist minister, and former Tennessee county criminal court...

Bernanke, Ben Shalom

(Encyclopedia)Bernanke, Ben Shalom bĕrnăngkˈē [key], 1953–, U.S. economist and government official, b. Augusta, Ga.; grad. Harvard (B.A., 1975), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1979). He was a p...

Kitt Peak National Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Kitt Peak National Observatory, astronomical observatory located southwest of Tucson, Ariz.; it was founded in 1958 under contract with the National Science Foundation and is administered by the Assoc...

Home Owners' Loan Corporation

(Encyclopedia)Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), former U.S. government agency established in 1933 to help stabilize real estate that had depreciated during the depression and to refinance the urban mortgage deb...