See FAST TRACK.

A trademark is a distinctive word, name, symbol, or device which enables consumers to identify PRODUCTs or SERVICES. Trademarks support business efforts to create brand recognition, preference, and EQUITY, providing marketers a strategic advantage over generic products.

See ACCOUNTS PAYABLE, TRADE CREDIT.

Trade barriers may be loosely defined as laws, regulations, policies, or practices on the part of a government to either protect domestic PRODUCTs from foreign COMPETITION or artificially stimulate EXPORTING of a particular domestic product. The most straightforward way that this can be done is to institute a duty on the IMPORTS of an item.

Trade balance (or balance of trade) is the difference between merchandises exports and IMPORTS in a country’s BALANCE OF PAYMENTS. While a country’s balance of payments must, by definition, be balanced, its trade balance can be either positive or negative.

In the United States, trade-adjustment assistance (TAA) refers to government-sponsored training programs and supplemental cash UNEMPLOYMENT compensation provided to workers who lose their jobs due to increased foreign COMPETITION. Some TAA programs require participation in job-training and job-search programs.

Time management, simply stated, is controlling the use of one’s most valuable resource: time. Proper time management allows for the elimination of wasted time, the refusal of excessive workloads, and the allocation of time appropriate to a task’s importance. It leads to greater efficiency and effectiveness, and it reduces the effort needed to accomplish goals.

Time deposits (also called certificates of deposits, or CDs) are nontransaction deposits at banks. Checks cannot be written on these accounts, and they carry substantial penalties for withdrawal before maturity, which can range from a few months to 5 years.

See SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS.

In the 360-degree feedback evaluation system, assessments of employee performance are gathered from a variety of sources and used in PERFORMANCE APPRAISALs. A typical system may include 10 or more peers, managers, customers, underlings and others who are asked to write up an evaluation.

Think tanks are nonprofit organizations, usually institutes, created to study and advocate positions on social, political, and business issues. An INTERNET search would lead to a listing of almost 200 think-tank institutes.

Post-World War II manager assumptions about subordinate workplace ethics and their affect on HUMAN RESOURCES management significantly changed in 1960 with management theorist Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y propositions.

Webster’s defines the word theory as “the analysis of a set of hypothetical facts and their relationship to each other.”

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federal CORPORATION providing public power services in seven southeastern states. The TVA, created by the U.S. Congress in 1933, was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislation designed to stimulate the U.S. economy out of the GREAT DEPRESSION.

A tender offer is an offer from a firm or INVESTMENT group to buy shares of stock. In a tender offer, stockholders are usually offered a price above the stock’s current market price. This premium is used to induce SHAREHOLDERS to sell. A tender offer is a means for an outside group to take control of a company and can come in the form of a friendly or hostile takeover.

Telemarketing is DIRECT MARKETING conducted entirely by telephone; the term includes both inbound and outbound telemarketing. Inbound telemarketing usually involves a toll-free number that customers can call to obtain information or make purchases.

Technology transfer occurs when the developer or owner of certain technology shares that technology with organizations or individuals who wish to have access to it. The technology may be in the form of a PRODUCT, a PRODUCTION process, a design, information, KNOW-HOW, or some combination of these.

See INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS.

Technical analysis is a STOCK MARKET prediction method based on the analysis of changes in a stock’s price and volume of trading. Technical stock analysts (known as technicians or “elves” on Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street Week television show) construct a variety of charts plotting stock-price changes. Based on these charts, technicians predict future price movement.

A tax shelter is a method of giving investors certain tax benefits by allowing them to avoid, reduce, or defer payment of taxes. Tax shelters may be legitimate or abusive. The INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE (IRS) prohibits the use of abusive tax shelters.

Tax incremental funding (TIF) is the use of tax revenues to address specific funding priorities. Most often TIF, also called tax incremental financing, involves the commitment of increased property-tax revenue from increased values of properties that are rehabilitated.

See BUSINESS TAXES; LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX; PAYROLL TAXES; PROPERTY TAXES; TRANSFER TAXES.

A tariff is a tax or duty imposed on goods imported into a nation. Tariffs increase the price of imported PRODUCTs. The U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to levy uniform tariffs on IMPORTS. There are several types of U.S. tariffs, the most common being an ad valorem (“according to the value”) rate.

The phrase takings clause refers to the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which provides that no “private property [shall] be taken for public use without just compensation.” Individuals and businesses before the U.S. Supreme Court have extensively disputed the meaning and scope of the takings clause.