This hypothetical account pretty well describes the actual plight of our National Institutes of Health.

In a cash-balance plan, a worker earns benefits expressed as a balance in a hypothetical individual account, which grows every year according to a predetermined interest rate.

Each employee is allocated a hypothetical account, but account balances accrue at a specified rate, rather than depending on investment performance.

The partial transcript of the interview begins with Ms. Regan asking Mr. Simpson to begin his hypothetical account of the night of June 12, 1994.

The linguistic move was to avoid mentioning actual individual accounts but using the words hypothetical account or notional account.

A typical "design" for a cash balance plan would provide each worker a "hypothetical account" and pay credits in the current year of say 5% of current salary.

Because his second year "hypothetical account" starts the year with a $1200 balance, the interest credit at 6% would be $72.

It was because the terms were so unambiguous to actuaries that they could construct the initial balances in each worker's "hypothetical" account for these new cash balance pension plans.

In a cash-balance plan, workers are given regular statements telling them how much interest they have accumulated in hypothetical accounts.

Sharif's hypothetical account of the diagramed deal, holding the South cards himself, involves some revealing bidding activity by his opponents.