Calorie availability pivotally affects metabolic rate, reproductive fitness, growth, and survival in fish (Tocher, 2003). Calories in the form of fatty acids are the most significant source of ATP for many species of fish. Accordingly, fish manipulate storage and mobilization of fatty acids as part of their natural history resulting in a variety of outcomes. Striped bass increase intracellular lipid droplets 13-fold in red muscle during cold acclimation (Egginton and Sidell, 1989) and salmon increase serum cholesterol without eating during spawning migrations (Farrell and Munt, 1983).
The expression of fat metabolism genes is regulated by free long chain fatty acids and their metabolic by-products, however the definitive mechanism by which they do so remains elusive (Duplus et al., 2000). Characterizing the molecular signaling behind these changes in fat metabolism has traditionally been approached by looking at candidate proteins, (e.g. fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) (Londraville and Sidell, 1995)) organelle function (peroxisomes (Crockett and Sidell, 1993)), and enzymatic indicators of fatty acid flux (Sidell et al., 1995). However, these are specific indicators, not an integrated global mechanism. One family of transcription factors, the peroxisome proliferated-activated receptors (PPARs), has the potential to attach a mechanism to the metabolic changes detailed above.
In 1933 President Roosevelt closed all banks in the U.S. The “bank holiday” was a desperate effort to calm bank depositors and halt the runs that were draining money and credit from circulation.
In 2004 and 2005 the governments of Georgia and North Carolina permanently closed all the payday lenders operating in their state. Payday lenders are “fringe banks” (Caskey 1994): small, street level stores selling $300 loans for two weeks at a time to millions of mostly lower middle income urban households and members of the military. The credit is popular with customers, but despised by critics, hence the bans in Georgia and North Carolina. This paper investigates whether those “payday holidays” helped households in those states. Why might less credit help? Because payday loans, unlike loans from mainstream lenders, are considered “debt traps” (Center for Responsible Lending 2003).
During the recent past central banks around the world have increased their efforts to improve the analysis of systemic financial stability. Examining situations of stress for the financial system has gained particular attention reinforced by the IMF’s Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) that explicitly requires stress testing exercises, in particular for banks.
While many new contributions have been made it is fair to say that a canonical framework of analysis has not yet emerged. In this paper we suggest a method that might provide such a framework for the analysis of banking systems of financially highly developed economies relying mostly on market data. We apply these ideas to the major UK banks. Our analysis gives us new insights into the role played by correlations between the values of bank assets on the one hand and on interbank linkages on the other hand for Systemic Risk - the large scale breakdown of financial intermediation. In our view correlations and interlinkages capture the two central aspects of systemic risk and should indeed form the focus of analysis for an institution in charge of systemic risk monitoring. This is because these two properties of financial networks will usually result in simultaneous bank failures. If banks have correlated exposures a consequence of an adverse economic shock may directly result in simultaneous multiple bank defaults. Banks in distress may default on their interbank liabilities and hence cause other banks to default triggering a domino effect. Modeling these two aspects requires a risk analysis that looks at banks simultaneously and that captures credit linkages between them.
