Russian Bank's Collapse Raises Alarms of Possible Financial Crisis

Dear All,

As this article shows us, the Citizens of Russia are continuing to suffer under the wretched rule of their Dictator Vladimir Putin, and as time goes by, their suffering continues to increase, terribly.

The “Mothers of Russia” (MOR) continue to try to expose the true body count of the growing numbers of their dead sons and soldiers as they return home in body bags and pine boxes from fighting in the Ukraine.  The “MOR” does this in order to expose the truth to their fellow Russians while Putin and his cronies work hard to try and hide the truth from them.  The authorities often threaten the relatives of the dead to keep quiet or else, making the Mothers of Russia’s task extremely difficult.

Meanwhile, the world has turned its back on Dictator Putin in a major show of disrespect.  Unfortunately this also negatively impacts the “Quality of Life” for the average citizens of Russia, as can be seen from the article below. 

To be sure, Putin makes sure to protect his wealthy Oligarch friends, from his reckless leadership and huge mistakes, by subsidizing their financial losses at the expense of the Russian people, just so he can stay in power without fear. 

My question to the Citizens of Russia is, “how much longer are you willing to allow the Dictator Putin to cause you to suffer?........haven’t you seen and had enough? Yet?

The day that Putin is removed from the Russian seat of power will be the day that the world will celebrate and gladly welcome you into its arms to join, in peace and prosperity, with the free nations of the world.

We are waiting…..God Speed to the Citizens of Russia.

Ronald L. Kirkish

Russian Bank's Collapse Raises Alarms of Possible Financial Crisis

http://world.einnews.com/article/245038930/K5K0sAiVRIi6CxW4

• By Howard Amos, Delphine d'Amora
• Jan. 17 2015 - 19:29

Maxim Stulov / Vedomosti  German Gref issued a stark warning of the dangers to Russia's banking system.

The head of Russia's largest bank, German Gref, offered a bleak picture of the fate awaiting the country's banking sector in 2015 during the set piece Gaidar economic forum in Moscow this week.

"It's obvious that the banking crisis will be massive," the Sberbank chief told reporters.

"The state will capitalize the banks and increase its stake in them, and the banks will buy industrial enterprises and become financial-industrial groups," Gref said Wednesday.

"All our economy will be state-run."

The warning from Gref, a former Minister for Economic Development and a prominent economic liberal, is not the only prediction of approaching stress for the country's financial system.

Amid a deepening recession and the collapse of one of Russia's top-30 banks late last year, many analysts are urging banking executives and government regulators to prepare for a crisis that could be as bad, or worse, than that which engulfed Russia in 2008 and 2009.

Already Underway

High interests rates — currently at 17 percent — and the pressures of a recession are already intensifying competition among banks for a shrinking pool of clients and good assets, while Western sanctions imposed for Russia's role in Ukraine restrict the ability of Russian banks to borrow abroad.

"We are already in a crisis," said Oleg Solntsev, the head of banking and monetary policy research at the Center of Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-term Forecasting in Moscow.

There are several different measures usually considered the threshold for announcing a banking crisis, according to Solntsev, and Russia already fulfills at least two of them: State support for the banking sector has exceeded 2 percent of gross domestic product and deposits are contracting.

Solntsev gave a thumbnail sketch of the likely progression of events: a growing squeeze on credit that pushes banks toward insolvency and an increasingly unstable situation that provokes macroeconomic problems.

Finally, at the nadir, panic emerges among the population and runs on banks become possible.

"The speed of the crisis will depend on two key factors: the situation on the oil market … and the behavior of the Central Bank," said Solntsev, who predicted a stabilization might take place only in mid-2016.

Bank Failures

The shock of wild swings in the value of the ruble late last year have already claimed their first victims in Russia's banking sector.

The Central Bank stepped in to save Trust Bank, ranked the country's 28th largest bank by assets by banki.ru, on Dec. 22, after clients rushed to withdraw savings amid the currency collapse.

The size of the bailout has subsequently ballooned to 127 billion rubles ($1.9 billion).

Another bank, mid-sized St. Petersburg lender Tavrichesky, is on the verge of being saved by the regulators, according to newspapers Vedomosti and Kommersant on Friday.

The Central Bank reportedly assigned 262.2 billion rubles ($4 billion) to bank bailouts in 2014, a figure that does not include all the money allocated to save Trust Bank.

"Up until recently there were only problems with top-100 banks but now it's reached the top-30.

There will be more like Trust Bank," Solntsev said.

Regulatory Response

Central Bank officials have sought to calm fears over the extent of the problems facing the banking sector.

Credit provision will expand between 10 and 12 percent this year, deputy Central Bank governor Alexei Simanovsky told delegates during the Gaidar Forum on Thursday.

"It's difficult to call it a crisis," he said.

But Simanovsky added that the regulator was committed to keeping the banking sector healthy, and admitted the current situation was not "simple."

Some analysts have suggested that the appointment of Dmitry Tulin, an industry professional with significant experience of commercial banking, to the position of deputy governor at the Central Bank earlier this week was a sign that the regulator was looking to head off a crisis in the sector.

'Liquidity is King'

Official steps to provide greater access to capital for Russian banks are already underway.

At the end of last year the government decided to allocate 1 trillion rubles ($15 billion) to banks via bond issues.

Officials later said that the money would be received only by banks with a capital requirement of over 25 billion rubles ($384 million).

The first in line are Russia's second-largest bank, state-owned VTB, as well two other major state-controlled financial institutions, Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank.

In a separate move, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Wednesday that 500 billion rubles ($7.6 billion) from Russia's wealth funds could be invested in short-term deposits with the country's banks, the Vedomosti newspaper reported.

Timely government action could contain the fallout of the crisis, according to some banking executives at the Gaidar Forum.

"Gref's fears are somewhat exaggerated," Oleg Vyugin, the chairman of the board of directors at MDM Bank, told a panel on banking on Thursday.

"Liquidity is king.

If the Central Bank handles risk management inside banks effectively enough … banks can exist with insufficient capital," he said.

But the former central banker warned that by toppling weaker players the crisis was still destined to have a deep impact.

"It will be the first time that we'll see a major change in the landscape of the banking system of this country," Vyugin said.

Contact the authors at h.amos@imedia.ru and d.damora@imedia.ru

Recalling what is right about America

Dear All,

Former Assistant Secretary of State Robert “Bobby” Charles has offered up his article below as a peace-pipe offering for all of us. 

America has come very far in healing the wounds of her past and yes there is still work to be done.  Lots of it, it seems.

But, as we Americans have made great progress to right past wrongs, we have a few actors that are hard at work trying to undo all the good work of the past.

We can’t let that happen, and in the long run it won’t….the march of progress “will” continue no matter what…….after all, this is America.

Please read “Bobby’s” words below and I hope you will consider sharing them with everyone within your sphere of influence.

Best regards,

Ronald L. Kirkish
 

Recalling what is right about America

http://amac.us/recalling-right-america/

The Washington Times, December 22, 2014

 By Robert Charles - - Sunday, December 21, 2014

• Robert B. Charles is a former assistant secretary of state [for former Secretary of State General Colin Powell in the Bush 41 administration] and also served as the former staff director and counsel to U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

A nation is defined by its aspirations and accomplishments

Everywhere, we suddenly hear words of division, difference, recrimination.

Suddenly, America is Ferguson, Missouri writ large.  

But are we?  

Are we not still Americans, first?  

We harbor 316 million different dreams, each born of one spirit.  

Peace and love, freedom, respect and being “one people” are all hard stuff.  

What’s new?  

It has always been so.  

Isn’t that what America is really about?  

Isn’t that what makes us Americans, that belief in the possible?

Is trust hard to build and maintain?  

Sure, but it always has been.  

Still, we are the exceptional people who have shown it can be done, adversity notwithstanding.  

We have learned over two centuries that progress requires patience.

Ask Booker T. Washington, Satchel Page, Frank Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, Louie Armstrong or Michael Jackson.

But let’s get deeper than that.   

Ask Mae Jemisim, Stephanie Wilson, Joan Higginbotham or Yvonne Cagle.  

Now there are some real Americans, the sort we can all pause and admire.

You haven’t heard of them?  

Well, you should have.  

·        Mae was a Stanford graduate, majoring in chemical engineering, fluent in Russian, French and Swahili, and a doctor of medicine from Cornell University.  What else?  She served in the Peace Corps and was an avid aviator.  Oh yes, something else.  A black American, she was a Space Shuttle astronaut.

 

·        So was Stephanie — three missions on the Space Shuttle Endeavor.  

 

·        Joan?  Another astronaut, on the Shuttle Discovery, an expert in electrical engineering with 308 hours in space.   

 

·        And Yvonne?   Also an astronaut, a biochemist and a doctor of medicine at the Johnson Space Flight Center.  

They are all women and all black Americans.  

They are also incredible Americans.

What’s the point?  

It’s worth taking time to think about the hope, achievement, promise and exceptionalism they each represent.   

Because they are women and black by heritage?   

Yes, and because they are American.   

Did they overcome incredible obstacles?  

You bet.   

Did they face more obstacles than others?  

Almost certainly.   

But more to the point, they believed in the possible — for America and for themselves.

They are heroes who risked all for their country — no excuses, no half-measures.  

They wanted and found windows of opportunity, then flew through them.  

They must have had beacons in their lives — mentors, teachers and parents who cared, communities around them and people who reminded them on more than one occasion to keep believing in America and in themselves.   

And that is America.  

They realized their dreams, and made us all proud as they did.

What do their stories, and millions of others like them, tell us?   

One thing clearly:  Look up and forward, not back and down.  

They looked at insecurity, defeatism and difference, and stepped beyond them all.

Against impossible odds — since becoming an astronaut is a 15 in 2,000 proposition — they said bring it on.  

They saw the sun behind the clouds, locked on and showed can-do spirit.

Who are we at our best, if not them?  

While we have our differences, we remain one people with a common belief in the possible.  

 We live in an exceptional place, founded on an exceptional document, built on courage, spirit and heart.

So let us stop being defined by others, or letting others redefine us as smaller than we are.   

False leaders divide for their own purposes, some by geography and others by religion, skin color, attractions, distractions and disaffections.

Some want us to divide from each other on the basis of where we are from or where our parents hailed from on this blue globe.  

But that is a misunderstanding of America.

We are defined by the desire to aspire, reinforced by the inspiration of others and by how we inspire them.   

That is the stuff of which Americans are really made.  

That is how we have all defied odds, reached toward the heavens in our own ways, leaped higher and bridged gaps thought unbridgeable.  

That is what we must do again.

Only by daring to trust, risk and believe can we live up to our legacy — that “anything really is possible.”  

The media tell us it is easier to be against than for, deconstruct than construct, blame than assume responsibility, grow frustrated than grow patient, attack than forgive, deflect than to lead.  

Yet we know that is not who we really are.  

We are forward movement, which only comes with believing.

As the call to divide echoes, just let it fade.  

Instead, let’s remember Mae, Stephanie, Joan and Yvonne, four great Americans.  

We cannot all become astronauts, but we can see beyond our differences and lift each other up.  

If not now, as we count our own blessings in the Christmas season and resolve to do better, then when?   

If we can lead from the heart, leaders will follow.  

That is how it works in America.

• Robert B. Charles is a former assistant secretary of state and former staff director and counsel to U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Alzheimer's Game Changer: Scientists Find That Changing One Molecule Reverses Memory Loss

Dear All,

First off, please know that this information is not about marijuana or drug abuse, but I think after reading it you will appreciate its significance and importance.

The Stanford University School of Medicine is doing wonderful work to understand and treat debilitating and insidious diseases that do great harm to many humans; including “cancer and Alzheimer's”.

Approximately a year ago, Stanford published an article regarding a human protein (CD 47) that was able to kill “all” cancers (in mice) including breast, brain, lung, and other forms.

Stanford School of Medicine Cancer Study - Article:  “Cancer Drug Kills Every Kind of Tumor: Study” – Thursday, March 28, 2013. 

Their hope is that their CD 47 work (Stanford School of Medicine) will be the “Holy Grail” to kill all cancers. 

My hope is that their work will soon eliminate all cancers in our lifetime not only for adults but especially for our young children.

Now we see that Stanford is getting close to understanding how to possibly eliminate another insidious disease that mostly affects those who are in their senior years of life.

These are exciting times!

 Ronald L. Kirkish, CDFC/IFBC/CALM

Alzheimer's Game Changer: Scientists Find That Changing One Molecule Reverses Memory Loss

Brain cells called microglia chew up toxic substances and cell debris, calm inflammation and make nerve-cell-nurturing substances.

http://patch.com/california/gilroy/alzheimers-game-changer-scientists-find-changing-one-molecule-reverses-memory-lo-0?utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=around%20town&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_content=article-mostrecent

 By Susan C. Schena (Patch Staff) - December 16, 2014 at 9:24am
 

By Bruce Goldman/Stanford News Service

The mass die-off of nerve cells in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease may largely occur because an entirely different class of brain cells, called microglia, begin to fall down on the job, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. 

(Stanford Medicine article: Blocking receptor in brain’s immune cells counters Alzheimer’s in mice, study finds)

The researchers found that, in mice, blocking the action of a single molecule on the surface of microglia restored the cells’ ability to get the job done — and reversed memory loss and myriad other Alzheimer’s-like features in the animals.

The study, published online Dec. 8 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, illustrates the importance of microglia and could lead to new ways of warding off the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, which is predicted to afflict 15 million people by mid-century unless some form of cure or prevention is found.

The study also may help explain an intriguing association between aspirin and reduced rates of Alzheimer’s.

Microglia, which constitute about 10-15 percent of all the cells in the brain, actually resemble immune cells considerably more than they do nerve cells.

“Microglia are the brain’s beat cops,” said Katrin Andreasson, MD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences and the study’s senior author.

“Our experiments show that keeping them on the right track counters memory loss and preserves healthy brain physiology.”

Implicated: a single molecule

A microglial cell serves as a front-line sentry, monitoring its surroundings for suspicious activities and materials by probing its local environment.

If it spots trouble, it releases substances that recruit other microglia to the scene, said Andreasson.

Microglia are tough cops, protecting the brain against invading bacteria and viruses by gobbling them up.

They are adept at calming things down, too, clamping down on inflammation if it gets out of hand.

They also work as garbage collectors, chewing up dead cells and molecular debris strewn among living cells — including clusters of a protein called A-beta, notorious for aggregating into gummy deposits called Alzheimer’s plaques, the disease’s hallmark anatomical feature.

A-beta, produced throughout the body, is as natural as it is ubiquitous.

But when it clumps into soluble clusters consisting of a few molecules, it’s highly toxic to nerve cells.

These clusters are believed to play a substantial role in causing Alzheimer’s.

“The microglia are supposed to be, from the get-go, constantly clearing A-beta, as well as keeping a lid on inflammation,” Andreasson said. “If they lose their ability to function, things get out of control. A-beta builds up in the brain, inducing toxic inflammation.”

The Stanford study provides strong evidence that this deterioration in microglial function is driven, in large part, by the heightened signaling activity of a single molecule that sits on the surface of microglial and nerve cells. Previous work in Andreasson’s lab and other labs has shown that this molecule, a receptor protein called EP2, has a strong potential to cause inflammation when activated by binding to a substance called prostaglandin E2, or PGE2.

“We’d previously observed that if we bioengineered mice so their brain cells lacked this receptor, there was a huge reduction in inflammatory activity in the brain,” she said.

But they didn’t know whether nerve cells or microglia were responsible for that inflammatory activity, or what its precise consequences were.

So they determined to find out.

Blocking receptor preserves memory

The experiments began in a dish.

Isolating viable microglia from the brain is quite difficult.

But it’s easy to harvest large numbers of their close cousins, immune cells called macrophages.

These cells circulate throughout the body and can be readily obtained from a blood sample.

While not carbon copies of one another, microglia and macrophages share numerous genetic, biochemical and behavioral features.

When placed in a dish with soluble A-beta clusters, macrophages drawn from young mice responded calmly, producing recruiting chemicals and not ramping up production of inflammatory molecules.

Notably, the output of A-beta-chewing enzymes in these young cells was robust.

But macrophages from older mice acted differently: A-beta’s presence incited a big increase in EP2 activity in these cells, resulting in amped-up output of inflammatory molecules and reduced generation of recruiting chemicals and A-beta-digesting enzymes.

This early hint that age-related changes in EP2 action in microglia might be promoting some of the neuropathological features implicated in Alzheimer’s was borne out in subsequent experiments for which Andreasson’s team used mice genetically predisposed to get the mouse equivalent of Alzheimer’s, as well as otherwise normal mice into whose brains the scientists injected either A-beta or a control solution.

In both groups of mice, the expected deleterious effects on memory and learning didn’t arise if EP2 within microglial cells was absent, as a result of a genetic manipulation.

Blocking microglial EP2 activity significantly improved these animals’ performance on two kinds of standard memory tests: one that assesses how quickly a mouse forgets that it has encountered an object before, and another that rates the mouse’s ability to remember where a food reward is in a maze.

Looking beyond aspirin

Clearly, knocking out EP2 action in A-beta-provoked microglia benefited memory in mice that had either gradually (the “Alzheimer’s” mice) or suddenly (the brain-injected mice) acquired excessive A-beta in their brains.

Likewise, mouse microglia bioengineered to lack EP2 vastly outperformed unaltered microglia, in A-beta-challenged brains, at such critical tasks as secreting recruiting chemicals and factors beneficial to nerve cells and in producing inflammation-countering, rather than inflammation-spurring, proteins.

Epidemiological reports suggest that the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin, can prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s — although only if their use is initiated well before any signs of the disorder begin to show up in older people, Andreasson said.

“Once you have any whiff of memory loss, these drugs have no effect,” she said.

NSAIDs’ mainly act by blocking two enzymes called COX-1 and COX-2; these enzymes create a molecule that can be converted to several different substances, including PGE2 — the hormone-like chemical that triggers EP2 action.

Although PGE2 is known to regulate inflammatory changes in the brain, it exercises diverse, useful functions in different tissues throughout the body, from influencing blood pressure to inducing labor.

Complicating matters, PGE2 is just one of five different prostaglandins originating from the precursor molecule produced by COX-1 and COX-2.

So aspirin and other COX-1- and COX-2-inhibiting drugs may have myriad effects, not all of them beneficial.

It may turn out that a compound blocking only EP2 activity on microglial cells, or some downstream consequences within microglial cells, would be better-suited for fending off Alzheimer’s without side effects, said Andreasson.

Meanwhile, her group is exploring the biological mechanisms via which PE2 signaling pushes microglia over to the dark side.

Former Stanford postdoctoral scholar Jenny Johansson, PhD, is the lead author of the study.

Other Stanford co-authors are former graduate student Nathan Woodling, PhD; postdoctoral scholars Siddhita Mhartre, PhD, and Holden Brown, PhD; research associate Xibin Liang, MD, PhD; life-science research assistants Qian Wang and Maharshi Panchal; and undergraduate Taylor Loui.

The study was supported by the National Institutes for Health (grants RO1AG030209, R21AG033914 and NRSA F31AG039195), the Alzheimer’s Association, the Swedish Research Council and the National Science Foundation.

Information about Stanford’s Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, which also supported the work, is available at http://www.neurology.stanford.edu.

Stanford Medicine integrates research, medical education and health care at its three institutions - Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care (formerly Stanford Hospital & Clinics), and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.