The term "white-collar crime" refers to financially motivated, nonviolent or non directly violent crime committed by individuals, businesses and government professionals. It was first defined by the sociologist Edwin Sutherland in 1939 as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of their occupation." Typical white-collar crime includes wage theft, fraud, bribery, Ponzi scheme, inside trading, labor racketeering, embezzlement, cybercrime, copyright infringement, money laundering, identity theft, and forgery. White-collar crime overlaps with corporate crime. Modern criminology prefers to classify the type of crime and the topic: By the type of offense, e.g., property crime, economic crime, and other corporate crimes like environmental and health, and safety law violations. Some crime is only possible because of the identity of the offender, e.g., transnational money laundering requires the participation of senior officers ...

An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, the compounding frequency, and the length of time over which it is lent, deposited, or borrowed. The annual interest rate is the rate over a period of one year. Other interest rates apply over different periods, such as a month or day, but they are usually annualized. The interest rate has been characterized as "an index of the preference . . . for a dollar of (present) income over a dollar of future income." The borrower wants, or needs, to have money sooner rather than later, and is willing to pay a fee - the interest rate - for that privilege. Interest rates vary according to: the government's directives to the central bank to accomplish the government's goals the currency of the principal sum lent or borrowed the term to mat...