The US financial system is undergoing a painful restructuring as credit losses originating in the mortgage finance sector of the economy grow ever larger. A combination of factors including general prosperity, demographic shifts in demand for housing, low interest rates, innovations in mortgage lending and securitization, and a breakdown in credit quality control systems all contributed to this problem. Public policymakers and industry leaders are struggling to find ways to stem the credit losses, restructure and recapitalize the financial industry, and set the economy on a path to recovery. This paper reviews the origins of this problem, explains the events that precipitated the crisis in 2007, and analyzes the pros and cons of the "fixes" that have been proposed to address these problems.
Malnutrition produces a pronounced effect on the complement system of man and animals. There is little information, however, to indicate whether individual complement components are affected at different stages of age. In the following studies, we have demonstrated that in guinea pigs and in both conventional and germ-free rats, protein malnutrition adversely affects the complement system. The levels of complement components C2 and C3 are suppressed by protein malnutrition at an early stage while C4 and C8 are less affected by malnutrition. Experiments in germ-free animals demonstrated that decreased complement component levels can be directly associated with decreased synthesis and/or secretion of components. In conventional animals, further reductions in complement levels could occur as a result of infection associated with malnutrition.
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