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We like to think that when we deposit a dollar at the bank, it goes into a big vault and we can pull out that same dollar at any time. But that¿s not how the U.S. banking system works. Banks take that money and invest it to make money themselves, so cash gets spread around. This, naturally, leads to a big risk: What happens if those investments go sour? Well, you¿d be out of luck. You can¿t get your dollar back.
The Federal Reserve doesn¿t like that scenario, so it prohibits banks from putting all the cash it has on deposit on the line. In fact, the Fed forces banks to keep a portion of their assets at the Federal Reserve itself, to make sure that some of your assets won¿t get squandered if the bank¿s bets go south. These are called ¿reserves,¿ (hence, Federal Reserve. Got it? Good), and usually amount to 10% of the total cash kept in checking accounts.
These reserves are never exactly 10%, and banks like to keep a little extra in reserve ¿ not, as you might think, to make you more comfortable that they¿re in good financial shape, but rather so they can take that excess and lend it to other banks and make money off it. (They¿re banks, they can¿t help themselves.) The rate at which they make these loans is called the Federal Funds rate, which is set by the Federal Reserve¿s Federal Open Market Committee.
When you hear people chattering about how the Fed cut or hiked interest rates, this is what they¿re talking about: the interest rate banks can charge for lending money from their reserves. This begs the question: If these are essentially loans between banks, why is the Fed Funds rate so important for the rest of the economy?
Well, simply put, because loans make the financial world go round. Bank A lends Bank B $10,000 at a Fed Funds rate of 5%. Bank B then lends out $10,000 to a small business at 7%. The small business then takes that money and expands the business and hires new workers. Now someone is employed, Bank B has made interest off the loan, and Bank A is the richer for making it all happen. It¿s perhaps overly simplistic, but you get the idea. When you want the economy to thrive, you make lending cheaper.
Of course, sometimes you don¿t want the economy to thrive. In fact, you might want it to cool down, mostly to avoid money flooding the system and causing inflation. In that case, the Fed raises interest rates, making it difficult to lend or borrow.
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Sunday, April 27, 2008
Gene Therapy Provides Vision to People who Were Nearly Blind
Comtex
OWINGS MILLS, Md., April 27, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ ----Scientists employing a gene therapy have provided partial vision to patients who were nearly blind from a condition known as Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) -- a severe form of retinitis pigmentosa. Initial results from the clinical trial, which was funded in part by the Foundation Fighting Blindness, were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
All three patients, who had severely abnormal vision before entering the study, can now read several lines on an eye chart and are able to see better in dimly lit settings. One was also able to navigate better after the injection.
"This breakthrough is the greatest advancement in the 37-year history of the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the entire history of retinal degenerative disease research. We have achieved a critical milestone in curing a form of childhood blindness," says Gordon Gund, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which is the largest non-governmental source of funding for this research.
"Our clinical trial results represent an important first step in developing therapies and treatments that will reverse blindness in people with a variety of retinal degenerative diseases," says Jean Bennett, M.D., Ph.D., who is the study's lead researcher at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
"The three participants in the Foundation-supported study at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are ages 19-26. Though the trial's main goal was to evaluate safety of the treatment, the research team is very excited about the participants' improvements in vision," says Stephen Rose, Ph.D., Chief Research Officer, Foundation Fighting Blindness.
This Phase I study will continue through its planned enrollment of nine individuals between the ages of 8 and 27. The success in the first three patients, however, will position the researchers well to plan Phase II clinical studies to evaluate the treatment's potential effectiveness in younger children who were born blind from LCA. The investigators believe the treatment has the potential to give near-normal vision to these children.
The first step toward the development of this treatment began with the discovery of the RPE65 gene in 1993. In 2000, the first dog born blind from LCA, a Briard named Lancelot, was successfully treated with gene therapy, and has been seeing well since then with just a single treatment. More than 50 dogs have now been treated successfully and are all seeing well. Clinical trials of the procedure began in October 2007 at the Foundation-funded Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)-Penn Pediatric Center for Retinal Degenerations in Philadelphia.
More than 10 million people across the United States are affected by retinal degenerative diseases which include: macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, and Usher syndrome.
About the Foundation Fighting Blindness
The Foundation Fighting Blindness (www.FightBlindness.org) is the largest source of non-governmental funding for retinal degenerative disease research in the world. The urgent mission of the Foundation Fighting Blindness is to drive the research that will provide preventions, treatments and cures for people affected by retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, Usher syndrome, and the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases.
SOURCE Foundation Fighting Blindness
http://www.FightBlindness.org
Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
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