Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[missdaredevil]

1.fair-trade agreement: an agreement between a manufacturer of a product and distributors or retailers that the product will not be sold for less than a price set by the manufacturer


Does that agreement do consumers any good?


2.Alas, our world revolves around moeny and the pursuit *thereof*.

from that as a reason or cause
Could anyone use it in another sentence?

3. ....when the paycheck *clears*
What does that mean?


Thanks

[CP]

1. No, but I think it is supposed to help the retailers by protecting them from cutthroat competition. My little candy shop can't compete with the gigantic Wal-Mart down the street, if Wal-Mart is willing to sell its candy at a loss until I am forced out of business. After that, Wal-Mart can charge whatever it wants, and you, my neighbor, no longer get to come into my little candy shop and listen to me whistle.

2. The use of "thereof" more or less replaces "of money": "Alas, our world revolves around money and the pursuit of money." We'd rather use an old fashioned word than repeat something that way.

3. You take your paycheck (or any check) to the bank and deposit it into an account. The money in your account won't be available to you until that check gets back to the issuing bank, and the issuing bank honors it (because there is enough money in the account of the person who wrote the check), and pays the money to your bank. We call that clearing the issuing bank. Once the check clears, you can withdraw the money from your account or write a check against it, etc.

Sometimes your bank will trust that your paycheck will clear and will let you have all or most of it in cash, even if you don't have enough in your account to cover the check. If it does not clear the issuing bank, because there was not enough there (insufficient funds) or because the person who made the check stopped payment (canceled the check), we say that the check bounced. Then your bank reverses the credit to your account and charges you. You get the bad check back and can try to cash it at the issuing bank, or get a new, good check from the issuer, or maybe sue the issuer for cheating you.
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