Bond, a security, whose owner has the right to obtain income as a fixed interest from its nominal cost or premiums; a promissory note issued by the government or company on certain terms when floating a domestic loan. In capitalist countries, bonds are issued by the state or private joint-stock companies, and are one of the forms of fictitious capital. Income from bonds, issued by capitalist states, is paid out as premiums. Owners of the bonds, issued by joint-stock companies, receive incomes in the form of a pre-established interest. Once a definite term has expired, bonds have to be redeemed. Unlike shares (see Stock [share]), bonds do not grant their owners the right to vote at the meetings of the shareholders. In capitalist society bonds circulate on the money market and have an exchange rate of their own, which depends on the income they bring and on the level of the loan interest, as well as on their supply and demand. Bonds very often become an object of exchange speculation. Capitalist countries usually use the money received from the sale of bonds to cover budget deficits, and spend much of it on the arms race, warfare, etc. The taxes raised from the working people usually finance the interest which the bourgeois state pays out on bonds, while the profit of the enterprise serves as the source of interest paid out on bonds issued by a capitalist joint-stock company. Under socialism, bonds are issued only by the state, which makes state loans (see Loans, State). They are one of the forms of mobilising the financial assets of the working people for developing the economy in the interests of the people as a whole.