Glossary

The Treat on European Union, unofficially known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the agreement responsible for the formation of the European Union (EU). The Maastricht Treaty was approved in December 1991 by the heads of government of the founding states of the European Union. These states were members of the European Community, the organisation that preceded the EU. The agreement came into effect 1 November, 1993.

Macro accounting the compilation of macroeconomic data of any given country. Macro accounting forms the basis for official statistics regarding the economic performance and development of a country. In macro accounting, the national statistics and economic indicators of a country are collected and analyses. These indicators include gross domestic product, external debts, retails sales, non-agricultural employment, imports and exports, inflation, etc. Such figures are usually released on a monthly and quarterly basis by government bodies.

A macro (short for microinstruction) is a pattern of rules that describes how inputs of a certain should be automatically transcribed to replacement output sequence. Macros are used to make long sequences of instructions easily available to a user as a single input. This is often useful in programming or complex operations with data, i.e., in Microsoft Excel.

Macroeconomic factors are events that affect the regional or national economy as a whole, rather than small sections of the population or an economic sector. Macroeconomic factors can be of a fiscal, natural or geopolitical nature, such unemloyment rates, inflation and various economic outputs.

Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the performance, structure, behaviour and decision making in the overall economy. Macroeconomics tries to gain an understanding of the general economy by studying the interrelations among the different sectors and with a focus on economy-wide indicators like GDP, national income, price indices, national unemployment, etc. These are developed into models that explain and predict the relationships between national income, output, consumption, unemployment, inflation, and other indicators. The two main areas of research in macroeconomics attempt to understand: a) the short-term fluctuations in national income (the business cycle), including their causes and consequences; b) the causes of long-term economic growth.

A macro environment is a term used to describe the condition of the economy as a whole, rather than any individual region or sector.

A macro manager is the antipode of a micro manager. This means that a macro manager takes a more hands-off approach, letting employees do their jobs with little supervision. Alternatively, a macro manager can refer to a person in charge of a global macro hedge fun.

A macro virus is a kind of malicious macro instruction set which is designed to infect a machine it is executed on. A macro virus operates like a regular macro (computers) instruction, but it is obfuscated to conceal its purpose. Macro viruses are usually spread through the internet and infiltrate programs already installed on a computer. For example, a macro virus could be sent over email and replace an existing macro in Microsoft Word. Often, these viruses are relatively harmless, but they can be used to spread more effective malicious payloads.

The Madrid Fixed Income Market .MF is the name given to the trade of Spain's public debt and other securities. Trade of Spain's public debt is undertaken by the national government, regional governments and some public-sector organisations. It is represented on the Madrid Stock Exchange.

Maintenance expenses are the costs associated with keeping an item in good condition. These can include repair costs, oil changes, parts replacement and the like.

A majority shareholder is a person or entity that owns and controls more than half of a company's shares. With these shares, a majority shareholder will usually have significant or absolute control over a company's operation.

Make to order (also frequently called made to order) is a business production practice that allows customers to purchase products designed to their particular specifications. In this process, manufacturing of an item can only begin after the confirmation of an order.

Malfeasance is an act of deliberate sabotage by an act the is intended to cause damage. Corporate malfeasance refers to crimes committed by officers of a company. These can include acts that are intended to harm the company or any failure to perform duties or adhere to the law that can cause damage to the company.

Managed currency is a currency the valuation of which is influenced by interventions from a central bank or a governmental body.

Managed futures is a term that refers to an investment portfolio of futures contracts that is actively managed by professionals. Such investments are often used to diversify portfolios and are considered alternative investments. The diversification of a portfolio in this scenario is achieved by gaining exposure to asset classes usually not accessible through direct equity investments like stocks or bonds. Managed futures' performance is either weakly or inversely correlated with the performance of traditional stock and bond markets, which makes them ideal for diversification.

Mergers and acquisitions is a term that refers to the consolidation of different companies or assets by means of various types of financial transactions. Under the umbrella of M&A fall various types of financial transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, purchase of assets, management acquisitions and tender offers. In all cases of M&A, at least two companies are involved.

Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behaviour of individuals and companies, as opposed macroeconomics, which studies trends in the economy as a whole. By the study of microeconomics we come to understand the market mechanisms that affect prices of goods and services and the means of allocation of limited resources.

The money supply is the total value of money available in an economy at any given time. Money can be defined in several ways, but usually the term refers to currency in circulation and easily accessed deposits (demand deposits). Information on the money supply of an economy is usually recorded and curated by the country's central bank. Changes in the money supply are closely monitored by public and private analysts, as these are considered to affect price levels, inflation, the exchange rate, and the business cycle.

M-Pesa is a banking service operating over the mobile phone network. It allows users to store and transfer money through their mobile phones. M-Pesa originates in Kenya it 20017 by Safaricom, the largest mobile operator in the country. It was introduced as an alternative financial service for the underbanked. M-Pesa operates a virtual banking system over the mobile network. This means that M-Pesa provides transaction services through a SIM card using SMS messages. Users' funds are stored in accounts held by Safaricom, which serve as regular checking accounts. To transfer funds both parties need to have exchanged phone numbers, as the numbers acts as account numbers. After settlement, both parties receive an SMS notification with the full details of the transaction.