Why should we be concerned with the level of bank capital? Why is regulatory intervention needed to ensure an optimal level of bank capital? These questions have occupied economists, regulators, and bank managers over the past decades. In this paper, we provide a general equilibrium or macroeconomic perspective on the issues raised above. We highlight the costs and benefits of bank capital. Benefits arise when equity acts as a buffer against losses in the presence of macroeconomic risks or reduces excessive risk-taking of banks. Costs arise because banks compete with industrial firms for equity. Higher bank capital can reduce the amount of equity supplied to industrial firms, thereby increasing moral hazard problems and credit constraints within the industrial firms which the banks are supposed to be easing.
Obesity has become a significant yet preventable public health problem of the twenty-first century. Over 10% of American children ages 2-5 years old are overweight (Body mass index (BMI) ? 95%). Studies have demonstrated that many children’s diets are high in fat and calories and low in nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables. Many children’s dietary intake includes an increasing consumption of fast-food. Adult chronic diseases such as type II diabetes and hypertension or their risk factors8 are now seen in childhood. This trend makes early prevention through lifestyle modification of healthy diet a potentially important public health and primary care prevention strategy. Some researchers have studied overweight in preschool children, parental diet-related attitudes and knowledge, fruit and vegetable and fast food intake of young children. No study was located investigating either fast food dollars spent in families and obesity/overweight or all variables together in children ages 2-5 years.
The purpose of this study was to examine preschool children’s parents’ dietary attitudes and knowledge, and determine the possible correlation of family fast food dollars and/or fruit and vegetable intake with children’s body mass index-for-age (BMI). These findings may assist nurses and other health care providers in directing strategies to promote healthy life-long diets.
There has been a strong emphasis on export promotion for economic development in the policy-making community, especially in developing countries. While many observers view the economic success of the countries in East Asia, most notably People’s Republic of China, as convincing evidence that an economy with a strong export sector can achieve successful economic development, some extend the argument and focus on the merits of intervening the foreign exchange market to bring about competitive currency values as one of the important ingredients of export-led growth. In this context, the possible downside of export promotion leading to misallocations of resources and macroeconomic mismanagement is often neglected.
