Since January, deflation in the economies of East and Central Europe, including the Baltic Republics and the Balkans, has started to to pick up steam as banks crash, stock markets collapse and local currencies plunge.
In many ways, what's happening now across Eastern Europe - including Russia - is reminiscent of the Asian economic depression that began in Thailand in July 1997.

Punch-drunk from easy credit in the 2002-2007 period, regional economies aggressively borrowed from abroad, mainly from Austria and other EU members that included leveraged mortgage loans tied to low interest rate currencies like the Swiss franc. That strategy has violently backfired since last summer as investors fled risky assets en masse.

In some East European countries, Swiss franc-denominated mortgages comprised more than 50% of all outstanding mortgage loans. Combined with plunging local currencies, the cost to service those loans has surged, causing foreclosures and defaults to skyrocket.

The problem of Internet addiction does not seem to attract a lot of public attention. The majority of people are certain that addiction to web-surfing is nothing in comparison with addiction to drugs or alcohol. However, The American Journal of Psychiatry, the world’s largest association of psychiatrists, published an article last year, which suggested categorizing addiction to the internet as a mental disorder.
Up to ten percent of online surfers suffer from the Internet overuse. It does not seem to be a large amount of people, but it means that at least 400,000 Muscovites are in need of medical aid at this point. Hundreds of Internet addicts have already died in the world because the human body is unable to cope with the excessive use of computers. As for the so-called risk group, the problem touches upon about 40 percent of web surfers.

Internet addicts may sit for hours and even days in front of computer screens without eating and sleeping. They lose interest in personal hygiene and household routines. Family, work, studies and friends lose their importance as people start living in the virtual world.

Social action begins with concerns, which may include anger or outrage at injustice. But effective strategy must also take account of the power, positions, and possibilities of the various social forces and social classes involved. A number of such factors must be considered when mobilizing around the interests of ordinary people during the emerging world economic crisis.
First, we need to note that the share of national profits enjoyed by the financial sector in the U.S. rose from 6 percent in 1980 to 40 percent in 2008. In short, the economic power and weight of this sector has expanded astronomically in the past few decades. Almost half of all profits last year went to those who produced no goods or services useful to human beings, other than the manipulation of money and credit.

Alongside their economic ascent, this financial sectors' political power has simultaneously expanded. Witness the way the U.S. Congress rapidly agreed to the proposal of Paulson , Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, to devote 800 Billion or so of tax money, most of it from workers, to 'bailing out the banks'. This decision was taken without testimony by even one independent economist before the Congress. As one courageous legislator asked: "Are we the U.S. Congress or the boardroom of Goldman Sachs'. In the event, the answer became obvious.

It became even more obvious that finance capital is currently dominant in the U.S. when industrial capital, in the form of the 'Big three' Auto companies asked for only 25 billion U.S., a tiny fraction of the money just given to the banks, and had to beg hat in hand to garner in the end an even smaller support.

It is true that with the collapse of one bank and finance company after another the economic position of U.S. finance capital has become perilous. But with the election of Obama, whose economic team is almost entirely imported from Wall Street, its' political dominance within the U.S. state has, paradoxically, become even greater.

There are a number of occupations that can be categorized as male occupations only. For example, a Norwegian whaler, a Soviet smelter, a Japanese samurai, etc. Many women think of such men as the only true men that have the genuine nature of a real man. There are many of such women who share this opinion, but they may not even realize that they think it wrong.
All genuine feminine women love genuine masculine men. What is the definition of masculinity, though? Is there a formula to it?

Men have their own notion of manhood, which may often differ from what most women think on the matter. Some men think that it is very man-like to spit in public on the street, others believe that it is very masculine to scratch and touch the groin area so that other people could see it. What’s next? It’s very macho-like to smell like a rat, to breathe tobacco and drink wine 24/7.

As a matter of fact, masculinity, which seems to be a very attracting factor for many women, is different with every individual. A male often takes all attempts to make females dislike him. He acts rude, he farts and burps in front of other people and makes them pay attention to it, he tells dirty jokes and refers to other women as ‘chicks’.

Most women would hate it, but some of them can develop an attraction even to this type of men. They fall for something else, though.

China’s giant $585 billion (4 trillion yuan) economic stimulus package is showing signs of taking effect. Economists now project that China will be the likely leader of an elusive worldwide economic recovery.
Chinese banks heeded the government’s call to extend more credit to support the economy as they issued $237 billion (1.62 trillion yuan) in new loans in January, up a whopping 101% year-over-year, the People’s Bank of China said. The surge provides evidence that state-owned banks are heeding the government’s call to extend more credit to support the economy.

"The banks are fighting for the best projects in the government’s stimulus package,” Ha Jiming, chief economist of China International Capital Corp, told China Daily. "It’s not surprising to see that an array of the deals were sealed in the past month."

The massive jump in lending is equal to about one-third of the loans issued in all of 2008, prompting some economists to say the government might discontinue cutting interest rates.

"The bank lending figures are just a stunningly good piece of news for China," Glenn Maguire, chief Asian economist for Societe Generale in Hong Kong, told Reuters.