Asset

In financial accounting, an asset is an economic resource. Anything tangible or intangible that can be owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset. Simply stated, assets represent value of ownership that can be converted into cash (although cash itself is also considered an asset).

The balance sheet of a firm records the monetary value of the assets owned by the firm. It is money and other valuables belonging to an individual or business. Two major asset classes are tangible assets and intangible assets. Tangible assets contain various subclasses, including current assets and fixed assets. Current assets include inventory, while fixed assets include such items as buildings and equipment.

Intangible assets are nonphysical resources and rights that have a value to the firm because they give the firm some kind of advantage in the market place. Examples of intangible assets are goodwill, copyrights, trademarks, patents and computer programs, and financial assets, including such items as accounts receivable, bonds and stocks.

Asset (economics)

An 'asset' in economic theory is an output good which can only be partially consumed (like a portable music player) or input as a factor of production (like a cement mixer) which can only be partially used up in production. The necessary quality for an asset is that value remains after the period of analysis so it can be used as a store of value. As such, financial instruments like corporate bonds and common stocks are assets because they store value for the next period. If the good or factor is used up before the next period, there would be nothing upon which to place a value.

As a result of this definition, assets only have positive futures prices. This is analogous to the distinction between consumer durables and non-durables. Durables last more than one year. A classic durable is an automobile. A classic non-durable is an apple, which is eaten and lasts less than one year. Assets are that category of output which economic theory places prices upon. In a simple Walrasian equilibrium model, there is but a single period and all items have prices. In a multi-period equilibrium model, while all items have prices in the current period. Only assets can survive into the next period and thus only assets can store value and as a result, only assets have a price today for delivery tomorrow. Items which depreciate 100% by tomorrow have no price for delivery tomorrow because by tomorrow it ceases to exist.

Asset (intelligence)

In intelligence, assets are persons within organizations or countries that are being spied upon who provide information for an outside spy. They are sometimes referred to as agents, and in law enforcement parlance, as confidential informants, or 'CI' for short.

There are different categories of assets, including people who:

Forum

Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to:

Buildings

Shopping centres

Sports and entertainment

Penthouse Forum

Penthouse Forum, sometimes simply Forum, is a magazine owned by FriendFinder Networks, the publishers of Penthouse magazine.

History and profile

Penthouse Forum was started in March 1970 as a supplement to Penthouse. Unlike the main Penthouse title, Penthouse Forum is more journalistic than pornographic, and features editorials and opinion pieces on controversial contemporary topics. It features regular monthly columns titled "On the Boards", "On the Beltway", and "On the Edge". It also features a section for the "Letter of the Month".

Notable contributors

Alastair Campbell, a journalist and Tony Blair's former Director of Communications, was a contributor to the magazine, as was Chad Varah, the founder of The Samaritans charity and an Anglican priest, who was a consultant on sex education for the magazine.

In July 2006 the rights to the UK edition were licensed to Trojan Publishing.

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Forum (KQED)

Forum is a two-hour live call-in radio program produced by KQED-FM, presenting discussions of local, state, national and international issues, and in-depth interviews. The program began in 1990 as a politics-oriented talk show, created and hosted by Kevin Pursglove. Since 1993, it has been hosted by scholar, author, professor, and former KGO Radio host Michael Krasny, who broadened the program's scope to a cross-section of current events.

The format of Forum varies from show to show, but generally involves an in-person interview followed by public Q&A via phone or email with one or more subjects, often nationally prominent authors and scholars. The program airs for two hours on weekday mornings, with an hour repeated in the evening.

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