Progress report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Progress report - Essay Example A credit crunch usually happens during a recession (as what we are in right now) that results in greater difficulty in getting or securing borrowed money from banks and lenders. A crunch occurs because the usual lenders are nervous about lending out their monies due to the reduced prospects of repayment, such as during a recession when the economy is not doing so well and impacts negatively on people’s ability to repay a loan. This brief paper aims to look and discuss how the current credit crunch is affecting all consumers. Most academic research and newspaper reports only talked about a credit crunch and its impact on big corporations but neglected its effect on individuals. It is the objective of this paper to correct this oversight and enlighten people on how the credit crunch affects them individually on a personal level. The rationale for choosing this topic is that a credit crunch has a negative effect on everybody from availability of jobs to the ease of getting a loan and to the interest charged on credit cards and home mortgages; its impact is very wide ranging. Discussion Consumer spending accounts for roughly 70% of the United States economy. GDP is the measure of all the goods and services produced by labour and property within the country (Young, 2011:1). The United States economy has a big impact on the world economy because of its sheer size. However, there are also some constraints to consumer spending, primarily a depressed economy that contributed to a high 9.8% unemployment rate. Even here at United Kingdom, the economy is also largely dependent on consumer spending. Figures produced from the statistics office showed that household final consumption expenditure (HHFCE) had grown by 1% only in the third quarter of last year (at current prices) compared to1.9% growth in the second quarter of 2010 (Clancy, 2011:7). The practical implications of a credit crunch are more expensive credit cards, higher rates for housing mortgages, decreased savings or pension funds reduced in value and perhaps even much worse, personal bankruptcies and repossessions. A cause of the credit crunch that is experienced today can be traced to the â€Å"housing bubble† in the US where house prices kept increasing due to low interest rates. An asset price bubble (residential properties) came about when house prices went up without any corresponding change in the fundamental demand. It simply means house prices increased due to speculation (Kroszner, 2005:3). Because of this sudden drop in housing prices, the wealth of most home owners had been wiped out. Structure of this paper follows the trail of effects of a credit crunch on people. It begins with different channels of credit, then how it affects jobs and employment, then on to interest rates and then followed by the implosion in savings and pensions. The last part of this portion talks on the pain of home foreclosures. The next parts of the paper discuss how an asset price bubble will start to form because once a bubble bursts, it results into a recession and a credit crunch. The last part discusses how the central bank deals with it and how people can cope with it. Because of the credi

Evalue my diet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Evalue my diet - Essay Example On the other hand, weaknesses of my diet can be observed in the failure to consume adequate amounts of certain crucial components of any diet. This is evident in the low intake of vegetables, which falls below average by not consuming starchy vegetables, which are required for good health, while at the same failing to stick to healthy eating in a consistent manner. This is evidenced by lack of admission to taking three meals a day, which are only taken occasionally and not frequently, while the meals that are taken are taken until I am full. This is a grave admission of a poor diet meaning that I fail to observe healthy eating habits and the failure to eat slowly shows lack of dedication to healthy eating no matter how nutritious a meal is. In addition, the bad habits of my diet are also displayed by the lack of a limiting factor in eating as a form of eliminating stress or as a way of coping with stress. Though done sometimes, eating mindlessly in response to stress portrays a form of irresponsibility in my diet, as it creates a discrepancy in healthy eating. I believe that improvements to my diet could be done through the inclusion of plenty of juice in my diet, reducing sweetened drinks, especially in the juices and other drinks. The drinks also need to be of low caloric value, which implies low sugar drinks and beverages, while making sure that they are low fat as they are as important as water is by having zero calories. Furthermore, in relation to solid meals, there is need to rid my diet of fried foods as such as fries, which are high in calories, while consuming high sugar and fat foods on rare occasions if at all there is need or craving for them. My diet can further be improved through the application of nutrients that are rarely consumed such as dark green vegetables, starchy, red, and orange vegetables that I do not consume on a regular basis. This is because it is not done in a weekly basis that is worth to be considered as appropriate as can also be seen with other crucial nutrients such as vitamin A, D and E. Therefore, in order to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, I will require making a number of changes in my diet, and these lie especially in relation to calorie intake, which translate to the first modification being the elimination of fried foods and high fat snacks from my diet. With this in mind, it is bound to reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering the amount of fat in the diet and, as a result in the body. In addition, high sugar snacks need to be eliminated or consumed on rare occasions and not sometimes, to eliminate the risk of being obese as these sugary foods contribute to obesity. To meet the recommendations there is need to include high fiber foods to cater for the high sugar diet, while water would serve as the perfect replacement for high sugar snacks and other high calorie and fried foods. In my current lifestyle, there are potential barriers that need to be overcome in order to ge t the recommended dietary measures and conduct. These include the need to allocate more time to my eating so that I do not have to eat in a hurry, the same way that there will be more time in order to have all three meals. This is because, with my current lifest