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EU to coordinate how they handle toxic debts

European Union finance ministers agreed Tuesday to coordinate the way they could tackle toxic assets on banks' balance sheets that have frozen lending and aggravated the recession.

They are aiming to stem a possible rash of go-it-alone government moves among the EU's 27 nations — such as Britain's plan to insure the bad assets that have punched huge holes in banks' balance sheets.

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Save it all

"The True Origins of This Financial Crisis". (Peter J. Wallison, American Spectator, Feb. 2009.)

Two narratives seem to be forming to describe the underlying causes of the financial crisis. One, as outlined in a New York Times front-page story on Sunday, December 21, is that President Bush excessively promoted growth in home ownership without sufficiently regulating the banks and other mortgage lenders that made the bad loans. The result was a banking system suffused with junk mortgages, the continuing losses on which are dragging down the banks and the economy. The other narrative is that government policy over many years--particularly the use of the Community Reinvestment Act and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to distort the housing credit system-- underlies the current crisis. The stakes in the competing narratives are high. The diagnosis determines the prescription. If the Times diagnosis prevails, the prescription is more regulation of the financial system; if instead government policy is to blame, the prescription is to terminate those government policies that distort mortgage lending.

There really isn’t any question of approach is factually correct: right on the front page of the Times edition of December 21 is a chart that shows the growth of home ownership in the United States since 1990. In 1993 it was 63 percent; by the end of the Clinton administration it was 68 percent. The growth in the Bush administration was about 1 percent. The Times itself reported in 1999 that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were under pressure from the Clinton administration to increase lending to minorities and low-income home buyers--a policy that necessarily entailed higher risks. Can there really be a question, other than in the fevered imagination of the Times, where the push to reduce lending standards and boost home ownership came from?

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When dogs suffer

Abandoned dogs suffer as the recession bites - Dec 16 2008

Perthshire's dog rescue charity, PADS, launched a Christmas appeal this week for cash to help sick and injured animals.

PADS, the Perthshire Abandoned Dogs Society, says family pets are in even more need than usual right now because of the current economic climate. It wants to boost its SPUD fund, which is set aside to help pay for expensive veterinary treatment for stricken dogs who come into the charity’s care.

The fund, named after a Jack Russell terrier called Spud, pays for operations and costly long term treatment for such dogs in the hope that they become well enough to be re-homed.

A charity spokesman explained: “We named the appeal after a wee Jack Russell who had been left near a riverside path. The little chap’s back legs were completely paralysed. He was very ill and he couldn’t move. Had it not been for a keen-eyed passer-by the dog would have died terrified and all alone.”

Carers at PADS rushed Spud to the vet and the wee dog underwent several operations before being able to get around with the help of a tiny wheeled trolley under his back legs.

Since then the SPUD fund has financed treatment for many dogs, including a lurcher who fell from a window and suffered terrible injuries which took many months to heal.

If you are looking for Pet Insurance visit www.UKPetInsuranceReview.com

Zeitgeist - Punnet Squares - Conspiracy theory or call to action?

With the concession that today's climate of fast paced and high volume information transfer may render a discussion of Zeitgeist, the Movie completely obsolete, I would like to share my reactions to the film.

That’s a fancy wafflemaker you’ve got

How ludicrous can the war on terror get? Now it seems that you’re not safe even when you’re cruising around the electronic social scene. The pentagon has now declared that online games are “creating security vulnerabilities by opening novel ways for terrorists and criminals to move money, organize and conduct corporate espionage.”

Christian Paleontology: Man vs. Earth

I originally was going to digg an article I read on Tuesday, February 14th, because so many digg stories are easy little one-paragraph opinion essays on nothing. Although dinosaurs- the subject- are a bit passe, both in the scientific and religious realms, the mystery remains technically unsolved: Where did the dinosaurs go?  How come they died, or are they still alive somewhere?  I don't see any around...Ken Ham has a lot of answers.

Time in Iraq - My Mercedes Cost 16 Seconds!

Just sickening.

To the father I never had

Whoever you are, finely bearded fellow with the karate suit on, I salute you. There I was, surfing the net, ready to give up on life for the night, when I chanced across your magical piece of inspirational wisdom. In a matter of 19 seconds you have changed my life.

Please if you are out there, if you hear me, I want to put myself in your humble service for the rest of my life. I will not have a beer, I will only eat mushrooms and frog's legs, and I will not rest until I find what I seek: your tutelage and sound advice.

Bengladesh's dilemma

With the rat population in Bengladesh soaring to record highs, the food supply is dwindling because the rodents are getting into all the crops and destroying them. Why not eat the rats? According to BBC news, the Bengladeshis are “reduced” to eating tubers and other roots that grown in the ground. I don’t know about you, but I love a good rutabaga. On the other hand, if chewing with molars is beneath the residents of the country why not feast on some rodent flesh? Thais munch on rats as a delicacy, no doubt as well as people from other cultures. Should a cultural taboo prevent people from being nourished?