Word: excessive
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When the ancient Assyrians felt the painful aftereffects of excess merriment, they consumed a mixture of ground birds' beaks and myrrh. European doctors in the Middle Ages recommended raw eel and bitter almonds. Mongolians ate pickled sheep's eyes, while China went with a more palatable dose of green tea. Germans still eat Katerfruhstuck, a postbinge breakfast that usually consists of herring, pickles and goulash. Russians don't eat anything at all; they jump in a sauna and sweat it all out, sometimes flagellating themselves with birch branches to aid blood flow...
...1930s was a crisis of liquidity. Stocks plunged, banks went under, and the value of assets disintegrated. Our current policies would have been appropriate in the Great Depression, but they are not appropriate now. Liquidity problems are not the source of our current financial and economic woes. Incredibly, excess reserves of depository institutions have increased from under $2 billion in August to a record $774 billion in mid-December, according to the Federal Reserve's Dec. 18 release. But the banks have not taken advantage of this liquidity to increase their lending. (See pictures of the stock-market crash...
...Because what we have is not a crisis of liquidity but rather a crisis of confidence. With tremendous excess reserves, it is obviously not the case that banks are not lending money because they do not have the money to loan. Instead, they are afraid that other institutions, including other banks, will not pay it back. The banks do not have confidence in each other. Businesses, too, are disinclined to borrow money and take risks. And consumers are not spending because they are afraid they could lose their jobs...
...from being helpful, the Treasury worsened the situation by increasing the liquidity of the financial sector through its bailout. However, the greatly enhanced lending capacity of depository institutions has not yet reached the money supply, as evidenced by the tremendous level of excess reserves. When it does, the Fed will find it difficult indeed to summon the political will, or find the ability, to soak up all this excess liquidity. Recessions ordinarily lead to deflation or disinflation, which increase the real value of assets and act to end the recession by fostering spending. This natural and necessary corrective mechanism will...
...Clement Clark Moore writes a poem for his children, beginning with the iconic lines, "'Twas the night before Christmas." Within one reading, Nicholas shortens his name to Nick, gains weight, starts smoking and adopts seven more reindeer (probably to pull his excess weight). He embarks on his first breaking-and-entering spree...