1. Mixed economy
A market economy in which both private-sector firms and firms owned by government take part in economic activity. The proportions of public and private enterprise in the mix vary a great deal among countries. Since the 1980s, the public role in most mixed economies declined as nationalisation gave way to privatisation.
2. Monopsony
A market dominated by a single buyer. A monopsonist has the market power to set the price of whatever it is buying (from raw materials to labour). Under perfect competition, by contrast, no individual buyer is big enough to affect the market price of anything.
As good as it gets, given the constraints you are operating within. For the concept of optimum to mean anything, there must be both a goal, say, to maximise economic welfare, and a set of constraints, such as an available stock of scarce economic resources. Optimising is the process of doing the best you can in the circumstances.
Short for North American Free-Trade Agreement. In 1993, the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed to lower the barriers to trade among the three economies. The formation of this regional TRADE AREA was opposed by many politicians in all three countries. In the United States and Canada, in particular, there were fears that NAFTA would result in domestic job losses to cheaper locations in Mexico. In the early years of the agreement, however, most studies found that the economic gains far outweighed any costs.
