My initial interest in Oregon’s cheeses was sparked by a popular food blog, which noted that Oregon’s Rogue Creamery was receiving national and international acclaim for its cheeses. The creamery’s Rogue River Blue was selected as Best Blue Cheese at the 2004 World Cheese Awards in London. Intrigued, I chose to investigate further into what other notable cheeses Oregon has to offer. It wasn’t until I began sampling the cheeses, though, that I decided to dedicate the next several months to exploring Oregon cheese. Tasting Ancient Heritage’s Valentine cheese and Pholia Farm’s Elk Mountain cheese was a revelation and I was hooked.
Why did Japan’s non-performing loan problems and the banking crisis last more than a decade? According to Hutchison and McDill (1999), the average duration of a banking crisis is 3.9 years that is smaller than the Japan’s case by 10 years ! Finland and Sweden went through more serious asset market collapses than Japan and yet needed only four years to solve the bad loan problems. Korea were hit by a serious Asian currency crisis but also solved the bad loan problem in four years.
Our argument is that an inadequate enforcement of capital adequacy requirements was one of important sources of the long-lasting non-performing loan problem in Japan. Capital adequacy requirements constitute a core element of prudential regulation that is intended to induce sound risk management of bank asset portfolios. Nonetheless, the regulatory authorities allowed banks to engage in accounting discretion and to overstate bank capital. In response, banks had a strong incentive to conceal non-performing loans by extending additional loans to almost insolvent firms. It is obvious that the extended loans became further non-performing loans.
Insulin resistance is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular diseases (CVD), both independently and in association with the insulin resistance syndrome. Decreased insulin sensitivity has been documented in those known to be at risk for T2DM, such as normoglycaemic first-degree relatives of patients with T2DM, or women with history of gestational diabetes. It is now well established that generalized obesity and abdominal obesity (excess subcutaneous and intra-abdominal fat) are associated with insulin resistance. Other important factors contributing to insulin resistance include accumulation of hepatic fat and intra-myocellular lipids, both of which can exist independent of generalized adiposity.
In most people with T2DM, insulin resistance is generally present for many years before the diagnosis. Despite possible influences from genetic and perinatal factors, diet and physical activity are likely to have greater and often overriding influence in pathogenesis of the insulin resistance syndrome and T2DM.
