The Federal Reserve, informally the Fed, responding to fears about a possible United States recession, makes a surprising move to cut its overnight discount rate between banks to 3.5 percent, from 4.25 percent, International Herald Tribune (01/22, Grynbaum and Holusha) reported. This is a good example of "monetary policy" as a tool for the government to manage the economy.
As the central banking system of the United States, the Fed is composed of (1) the presidentially-appointed Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; (2) the Federal Open Market Committee; (3) 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks located in major cities throughout the nation; (4) numerous private U.S. member banks, which subscribe to required amounts of non-transferable stock in their regional Federal Reserve Banks; and (5) various advisory councils. Currently, Ben Bernanke serves as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
The Federal Reserve is in charge of monetary policy, which influences the availability of cash and credit in the market to stabilize the growth of national economy. To achieve it goals, the Fed relies on three main tools:
Microcredit is the provision of very small loans to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs, or to other living in poverty who are normally considered "unbankable" because of high repayment risks. Originated in India and gradually gaining credibility in the mainstream finance industry, microcredit is a part of microfinance, which includes a wider range of financial services, such as credit, savings, insurance, and fund transfers, to the very poor.
In recent years, microcredit has been championed as a financial innovation which may enabled extremely impoverished people to engage in self-employment projects that allow them to generate an income and, in many cases, begin to build wealth and exit poverty. In 2006, Grameen Bank, a microcredit pioneer in Bangladesh, and its founder Muhammad Yunus were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The success of the Grameen model relies on some innovative ways, such as solidarity lending, to reduce repayment risks through social networks.
If well-managed, microcredit has gained recognition as an effective way to bring very poor families low-cost financial services and meanwhile to add profits to the investors (for it charges much higher interest rates). However, critics argue that microcredit shouldn't be used to support a privatization of public safety-net programs; it would be dangerous if enthusiasm for microcredit among government officials as an anti-poverty program may motivate cuts in public health, welfare, and education spending.
After carefully checking my UCal, email account, and webvista course website, I left home Friday morning without my laptop, intentionally. The first no-computer (office) day turned out to be a productive and healthy one. I was able to concentrate myself on reading a book the whole day, uninterruptedly most of time -- first ever in a few months. And I played badminton which I have don't in three years. Everything reminded me the beautiful old days of the "pre-Internet era."
Since when we have been so obsessed with Internet, email, or cellphone? Do we really need to have instant access to all information -- be it global news or personal messages -- all the time? Never been a big fan of TV programs and glad to have quited cellphone, I hope to have some more "unplugged" days, just like this peaceful quite Friday.
I have long felt myself too old to use an Ipod. I owned a shuffle and then a 2nd generation mini, but I had hardly used them after the first few weeks of acquiring. Supposedly, the two-hour daily bus commute in weekdays is a perfect timing for plugging up the earbuds , as many others do -- but I always had a hard time finding a tune so good that I cannot resist the temptation to listen to even with a kinkling-kukling noisy background. Besides, what else could be better than a mindful emptiness -- good for some healthy daydreaming, maybe -- before or after a long day of brain stretching?
Things seemed to change recently after I discovered the Economist Podcast. The weekly journal is claimed to be the best by many "intellectual" readers -- economists, politicians, business analysts, or other individuals with an "upscale" taste of reading -- to quote a famous New-Oriental English instructor in China. Well, I don't know about that. But the Podcast is indeed pretty good -- the free audio files comes almost daily and I alway carry a full load of them with me on the go.
