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justme
2009 Feb 3, 4:01pm
Fed currency swaps extended until 30. october:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aBH3xG1Wrt80&refer=home
I still have trouble understanding the Fed motivation behind the currency swaps. What does the extension mean for the dollar in the short term?
OO Says:
OK, what is the plan B for chocolates when Scharffen Berger becomes Hershey’s? Now that SB and JS are gone, are we supposed to support European chocolates now? I’d like to buy American if I can, unless they insist on shoveling down corn-syrup down my throat.
Dagoba is a decent american brand. There was another micro-chocolatier in Burlingame, but I forget the name.
Among european brands, Neuhaus (belgian) is pretty good. Lindt & Sprungli is okay, though they have a factory in Mexico, so the stuff they sell in the US is probably made there.
JustMe:
I take it you stayed far, far away from Chemistry and Biology while pursuing your education?
I don't doubt you're skeptical about anti-oxidants, seeing they suppress the creation of "Free Radicals." Such Bushitler molecules!
(Not that I buy the bit about chocolate as a *health* food... That'd spoil the fun!)
Cocoa is health food! A super-food even! It's just the sugar/corn syrup that is bad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa#Health_benefits_of_cocoa_consumption
I have a kefir/blueberries/walnuts/raw cocoa smoothie every morning and its literally changed my life. Never felt better!
justme
2009 Feb 3, 11:39pm
MST,
Actually, no, chemistry used to be a favorite topic of mine during my otherwise lengthy education. However, I find that the popular press has extrapolated the effect of otherwise naturally occurring free radicals (and their reduction via food) way out of the proven territory.
The wikipedia articles on "anti-oxidants" and "free radicals" are relatively somber, filled with cautionary words such as "may".
Even the mainstream press, always to be counted upon as a cheerleader for substances that have marginal health effect (red wine, chocolate, ...) sometimes uses the weasel-word "linked" when the evidence clearly is much too weak to imply a strong effect or causation.
I'm generally sceptical of such claims.
I agree, chocolate is more fun if one allows the sin-factor in full.
justme
2009 Feb 3, 11:46pm
Kewp,
How about the kefir? Is it possible that the kefir is more significant than the cocoa?
SP,
thanks for the suggestion, I am going to order a couple samples from Dagoba's website.
Lindt is what I grew up with, it was very big in Asia, being advertised as a made-in-Switzerland chocolate. Maybe the Lindt here is produced elsewhere, but I was not impressed with the Lindt that I grew up with, it was better than Cadbury, but quite a notch away from gourmet chocolate.
How about the kefir? Is it possible that the kefir is more significant than the cocoa?
Possibly; but dairy isn't all that good for you. I try to minimize the downside by sticking to low-fat, organic kefir. Raw cacao is actually an extremely healthy food.
http://www.brainready.com/blog/thetop5brainhealthfoods.html
I got the idea for the smoothie from this article:
http://leftofzen.com/brain-food/2008/01/04/
My current recipe is as follows:
1 cup organic kefir (I like the Lifeway Acai/Pomegranite)
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 cup walnuts (halves and pieces)
2 tbsp cocoa nibs
1 tbsp Trader Joe's 'Very Green' mix
1 tbsp organic virgin coconut oil
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
I might try adding some raw almonds to the mix at some point.
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On Jan 29, 2009, at 7:24 AM, Rolfe W. wrote:
But consider the math. If you have $100,000 of deposits at a bank. Do you also have the capacity to pay yourself back $100,000 if that money is lost?
If taxpayers lose all their money in widespread bank failures, they'd have no cash left to bail themselves out.
On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 11:45 AM, Patrick Killelea wrote:
It gets confusing because I'm not sure what cash really is. If taxpayers lose all their money, they could print more and pay themselves back. Would that be inflationary? Maybe not, if the money they "lost" in bank failures was lost real estate equity. Equity gets counted as money, though maybe it shouldn't be.
I keep trying to reduce it in my mind to hours of human labor. That's something that cannot be inflated. I think the essence of the credit crisis in one sense is that people have promised more years of work that can possibly exist. It starts with the guy who bids 100 years of income for a house. He's not going to live 100 more years. So that debt will not be paid. Now that it's clear many debts are bad, all debt is suspect. And lending stops.
#housing