Quantitative Easing

A government monetary policy occasionally used to increase the money supply by buying government securities or other securities from the market. Quantitative easing increases the money supply by flooding financial institutions with capital, in an effort to promote increased lending and liquidity. Central banks tend to use quantitative easing when interest rates have already been lowered to near 0% levels and have failed to produce the desired effect. The major risk of quantitative easing is that, although more money is floating around, there is still a fixed amount of goods for sale. This will eventually lead to higher prices or inflation.

Deleverage
A company's attempt to decrease its financial leverage. The best way for a company to delever is to immediately pay off any existing debt on its balance sheet. If it is unable to do this, the company will be in significant risk of defaulting.

Companies will often take on excessive amounts of debt to initiate growth. However, using leverage substantially increases the riskiness of the firm. If leverage does not add to further growth as planned, the risk can become too much for the company to bear. In these situations, all the firm can do is delever by paying off debt. Any sign of deleverage shown by a company is a red flag to investors who require growth in their companies.

Safe Haven Currency A major traded currency, such as the U.S. dollar or Swiss franc, used by investors and fund managers seeking a safe haven for their funds in times of market turmoil. Repatriation
The process of converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country. The amount that the investor will receive depends on the exchange rate between the two currencies being traded at the settlement time. Hard Landing A term used to describe an economy going into recession as the government attempts to slow down inflation. The government will try to avoid a hard landing by raising interest rates only enough to slow the economy down without putting it into recession (a soft landing). Soft Landing A term used to describe a rate of economic growth high enough to avoid recession, but slow enough to avoid high inflation.

When the economy is growing at strong rate, the government will try to engineer a soft landing by raising interest rates enough to slow the economy down without putting it into recession.