Credit Crisis - News - The New York Times

Understanding the Credit Crisis - The New York Times

What a great article - read the full article and understand what has happened.

In the fall of 2008, the credit crunch, which had emerged a little more than a year before, ballooned into Wall Street’s biggest crisis since the Great Depression. As hundreds of billions in mortgage-related investments went bad, mighty investment banks that once ruled high finance have crumbled or reinvented themselves as humdrum commercial banks. The nation’s largest insurance company and largest savings and loan both were seized by the government. The channels of credit, the arteries of the global financial system, have been constricted, cutting off crucial funds to consumers and businesses small and large.
In response, the federal government adopted a $700 billion bailout plan meant to reassure the markets and get credit flowing again. But the crisis began to spread to Europe, where governments scrambled to prop up banks, broaden guarantees for deposits and agree on a coordinated response.
Origins
The roots of the credit crisis stretch back to another notable boom-and-bust: the tech bubble of the late 1990’s. When the stock market began a steep decline in 2000 and the nation slipped into recession the next year, the Federal Reserve sharply lowered interest rates to limit the economic damage.
Lower interest rates make mortgage payments cheaper, and demand for homes began to rise, sending prices up. In addition, millions of homeowners took advantage of the rate drop to refinance their existing mortgages. As the industry ramped up, the quality of the mortgages went down.
And turn sour they did, when home buyers had to leverage themselves to the hilt to make a purchase. Default and delinquency rates began to rise in 2006, but the pace of lending did not slow. Banks and other investors had devised a plethora of complex financial instruments to slice up and resell the mortgage-backed securities and to hedge against any risks — or so they thought.

Growing Tomatoes

Why are Tomatoes Beneficial to our Health?

Cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease, stroke and blood vessel disease) is the single leading cause of death in New Zealand. It causes 40% of all deaths annually in our country - approximately 10,500 people each year. It is the leading cause of death for both men and women in this country, much of which is premature and preventable. Tomatoes are one of the most versatile food ingredients.

Some therapeutic properties of tomatoes:

Tomatoes have a substantial amount of antioxidants. They also have notable amounts of vitamin E, rather less vitamin C and small amount of beta-carotene. People who eat more of foods rich in these antioxidants have been shown to have lower levels of several forms of cancer, as well as of heart disease, stroke and cataracts.

Tomatoes are good source of the flavonoid substance quercetin, plus a large amount of a carotene called lycopene. Both are being investigated for their potential protective effects.


I'm part of a tomato challenge - plants must be selected and planted by today, with judging for the biggest tom on Feb 1, 2009.

The selected plants are the Hearty Red - available from Mitre-10 Garden Centres.

Mitre-10 dontate 50c from each sale to the New Zealand Heart Foundation.

Will be a good challenge.

Tomato growing notes...

BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - Mind - What Am I Like?

BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - Mind - What Am I Like?

Take the Test !

100 Skills Every Man Should Know – DIY Advice - Popular Mechanics

100 Skills Every Man Should Know – DIY Advice - Popular Mechanics
Useful stuff !

Not sure how many of them are useful here in NZ, but I'll put a few local ones in to round otu the skills.

Another Year, Another Blog - What's Different ?

this one is going to be a bit more personal. I've kept another couple of blogs going - randomly - but these have been focused on tchnology and business issues rather than things that relate directly to me.
This is a bit of a double-edged sword, I'm not sure of where the line is between maintaining privacy and exposing personal stuff. I think I'll try out a few things in here that won't necessarily come back to haunt me, but who knows...
I've been impressed by a couple of extremely open and honest blogs that have, in some ways, had more of an impact on me that about 90% of other stuff I read on the net. These blogs are raw in emotional truth, very, very personal and expose their authors as genuine, real people.
I'm interested in that level of online dialog - if only to see where it goes and how it might interact with other social networks etc.
So - look for some interesting posts in the next few months.