Tuesday 2 November 2010

Confused World Economy At Odds on Money Issues

From The New York Times:

Looking for Investments, China Turns to Europe

As China puts money into infrastructure and European debt, it is seeking friends in currency and trade disputes.

http://nyti.ms/aJHD6z

Fear of inflation and deflation occurring in different parts of the globe. While America spends more dollars, other countries want to spend less, but are getting caught up in what could become a 1973-76 style world inflation resulting from a flight from dollars and a push to grab energy resources. Many countries have too much liquidity and seek to reduce inflationary risks without encouraging deflationary risks.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704141104575588211544818170.html?mod=djemTEW_h

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703778304575590093875291612.html?mod=djemTEW_h

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704462704575590061846845530.html?mod=djemTEW_h

Will not time reveal the lasting importance of friends and mutual respect? Be kind to those who think well of you and those you know and try to add positive elements to your world. Promote peace in your heart and sunshine in the minds of those around you by your own good works. Elevate the level of discussion by thinking less of the issues and more of how you can reduce the tension of stress that arises with honest disagreement. Relax by breathing more deeply and consciously.

Hair Loss an Insurmountable Problem or Just a Challenge?

A radically new approach may work for you:

http://swns.com/miracle-hair-growth-serum-on-sale-021659.html

Will not time reveal the lasting importance of friends and mutual respect? Be kind to those who think well of you and those you know and try to add positive elements to your world. Promote peace in your heart and sunshine in the minds of those around you by your own good works. Elevate the level of discussion by thinking less of the issues and more of how you can reduce the tension of stress that arises with honest disagreement. Relax by breathing more deeply and consciously.

The Confusing Arena of Left and Right Wing Politics Which is the Wrong Way to Understand Politics

It's not really an issue of democrat against republican or liberal against conservative or right against left wing. That's what makes modern political dialogue so confusing. We get wrapped up so much in labels that don't tell us very much.

It might be more helpful to understand politics in terms of large and small. Small things often grow to be large things. Children grow to become adults. Our treatment of small and immature things is very different from our treatment of large and mature things. We know that large things have a way of protecting themselves and gaining a handle on situations. Large people tend to have different issues from small people. Large companies have different issues from small ones.

We can also factor in age. If things grow large they then tend to be older. The needs of older entities and people are very different from the needs of younger entities and people. So to understand the position of things, we need to understand their age and size, or at the age and size of the grouping to which they belong.

What we find is that larger and older entities and people tend to have advantages at their peak and then disadvantages when they are over the hump.

Right and left wing reflects interests not of whether radical change is appropriate or not, but what the entity or person belonging to a particular grouping sees as it's interests.

What confuses the politics is that entity age groupings and people age groupings do not match and frequently work at cross purposes. An older company should have things sorted out for it's retirees, but we find that an older company to stay young hires young people who do not want the interests of older staff to be catered to. The mix between old and young causes political conflict.

Similarly, small company interests are very different from large company interests and their politics reflect that. It's too much of a short cut to say that large company interests reflect the interests of older people. The politics of large and small organizations is very different.

Will not time reveal the lasting importance of friends and mutual respect? Be kind to those who think well of you and those you know and try to add positive elements to your world. Promote peace in your heart and sunshine in the minds of those around you by your own good works. Elevate the level of discussion by thinking less of the issues and more of how you can reduce the tension of stress that arises with honest disagreement. Relax by breathing more deeply and consciously.

The Competitive Inequity that Modern and Traditional Banks Create

Ever wonder why there is unemployment. It is not something to be easy found within the ideas of Keynes General Theory or within the ideas of innovation to be found in Schumpeter. To be sure, it is contained in both the long and short term approaches of these theories, but the fact is that the role of the banking system in both is somewhat misunderstood or just plain lacking.

Put very simply banks, especially large banks enjoy economies of scale. If they want to make money they do preferential lending to big customers. Big customers put more money in more branches mor widespread across the country or globe than small customers. Big customers demand that banks treat them preferentially.

So why is the British Prime Minister surprised that he cannot get big banks to lend to small business?

It should be obvious.

Big banks have both customer small and customer big as customers. Customer small asks the bank for a loan that will take away business from customer big. Bank says no to customer small because it wants the revenue of customer big to continue and figures customer big is the better bet. Banks research their customers competitive positions and get outside advice on business prospects.

If customer small and customer big are bidding for the same government procurement contract, do you think that the bank does not know. Think again because the bank has all the information of customer big and small it needs to decide which it wants to lend to. Customer big deposits in many branches and in key important branches, while customer small banks in a few branches somewhere! When the branch manager of a bank branch assesses customer big, there is a routine and similarly with customer small.

Head Office has the final say and takes two piles of files, one for customer big and one for customer small. Weighing both and taking into account relativities, customer big wins in the mind of the bank.

What happens in the government office is not so very different though it relates to familiarity breeds friendship. The supplier big is more prevalent and has more friends, especially the bank that finances or smoothest it's financial operations. Supplier big is well known and offers fewer head aches. Who would you think will win the government procurement contract? This is not yet eBay!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/01/david-cameron-difficulties-banks-lend-more?CMP=EMCGT_021110&

Will not time reveal the lasting importance of friends and mutual respect? Be kind to those who think well of you and those you know and try to add positive elements to your world. Promote peace in your heart and sunshine in the minds of those around you by your own good works. Elevate the level of discussion by thinking less of the issues and more of how you can reduce the tension of stress that arises with honest disagreement. Relax by breathing more deeply and consciously.

The Lion's Den and What Business Banks are Really Interested In!

You might have thought that banks were interested in lending to firms for investment in activities that create jobs. No, that's the role of the stock market, angel investors, government schemes, and lions. Banks lend to consumers where they can get a strong handle on the risk. They don't like lending to companies if they cannot get a superb handle on the risk.

Banks lent to the property market because they thought it was risk free. Banks want a return on investment of 35 percent so this limits their choice of risk taking somewhat. If you want 35 percent growth, you will look for three times that before lending at risk. There is not much new activity going on that will produce a growth rate of over 100 percent per annum.

Generally, small firms take a hit before they break even. Banks want the hit to occur very soon and the break even point to be within a short period, the shorter the better.

The truth is that banks are not really suited for lending for innovation. If they lend to an innovating company, it might just put another customer out of business, which is not what they want. Even if that customer banks with another bank, they do not want to put companies out of business.

Capitalistic innovation requires winners and losers so banks are not in the game of innovation.

They want to make loans for working capital after a revenue stream has been well identified and established. Then there is low risk and they act as an insurance lender in the event of a hiccup. The gamble banks take is that the winners will always outnumber the losers and the and bad loans will be very limited. The 35 percent growth on capital is quite sacrosanct and the charges banks impose reflect this need to make profits in excess of interest rates.

The high rates on consumer credit create bad loans, but this does not seem to phase banks, who create a sheltered pattern of approval for new lending that maximizes the return on capital even if it is at the expense of customers. Consumer loans for credit cards are a two stage process of profit taking. Make a profit lending to the lending credit card bank and also make a profit lending as the credit card bank!

Both make a return of greater than 35 percent on capital which is built into their charges. So choose only addicted customers who are so desperate for money that they always maintain an excellent credit record. That this excellent credit record comes from playing the field of lenders is unseen or ignored. Borrowing is a secret addiction and the most common one, ahead of alcohol, and it leads to stress and premature death.

Growth in credit comes from the demand of established customers for working capital be this consumption or investment. This is what banks are interested in.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/01/david-cameron-difficulties-banks-lend-more?CMP=EMCGT_021110&

Will not time reveal the lasting importance of friends and mutual respect? Be kind to those who think well of you and those you know and try to add positive elements to your world. Promote peace in your heart and sunshine in the minds of those around you by your own good works. Elevate the level of discussion by thinking less of the issues and more of how you can reduce the tension of stress that arises with honest disagreement. Relax by breathing more deeply and consciously.

Fighting Viruses and the Body's Immune System

These days, progress in medical science is the result of thorough research into the mechanisms of disease and the means at hand in the body to fight. We have all suspected that the strengthening of the body's own immune system would be the way of much future medicine. How do we do it, however? It's one thing to take vitamin C which apparently does not work very well, but what are the other options. Science has discovered more secrets about how the body fights it's enemies. You might ask whether it really knows how to identify them.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/nov/01/viruses-immune-system-antibody?CMP=EMCGT_021110&

Will not time reveal the lasting importance of friends and mutual respect? Be kind to those who think well of you and those you know and try to add positive elements to your world. Promote peace in your heart and sunshine in the minds of those around you by your own good works. Elevate the level of discussion by thinking less of the issues and more of how you can reduce the tension of stress that arises with honest disagreement. Relax by breathing more deeply and consciously.

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