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America's banks are in trouble, but need not meet the same fate as our savings and loans, says the chairman of the FDIC. However, he adds, extra bank insurance funding must be expended now to prevent spending much more later. Who will pay? (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This article presents the views of several authors and readers concerning the outlook for the banking system in the United States. The Lowell L. Bryan article on bank reform, "A Blueprint for Financial Reconstruction (May-June 1991) is both praised and criticized. Bryan's proposal for a two-part banking sector can protect small depositors from loss, but they will still be affected by monopoly actions. A common view is that banking organizations were not able to adapt efficiently to financial innovation and improvements in information technology. Topics include restrictions on product lines, location, and ownership, the two types of government insurance in the banking system, efforts to maintain market share, the effect of lower underwriting standards and higher deposit rates, and the idea that bank profitability can be improved if they are allowed to diversify.

Most bankers are looking for the same things -- better ways to retain customers and increase fee income. Unfortunately, as competition heats up your customers become a target for your [...]

America's largest corporations have invested billions of dollars in knowledge management (KM) software that has produced endless amounts of data, but little insight into how to better manage their businesses. […]

America's largest corporations have invested billions of dollars in knowledge management (KM) software that has produced endless amounts of data, but little insight into how to better manage their businesses. [...]

The debate on banks conducting financial activities through operating subsidiaries has been portrayed as a battle between the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. The Treasury believes banks should be permitted [...]

The regional distribution of white matter (WM) abnormalities in schizophrenia remains poorly understood, and reported disease effects on the brain vary widely between studies. In an effort to identify commonalities across studies, we perform what we believe is the first ever large-scale coordinated study of WM microstructural differences in schizophrenia. Our analysis consisted of 2359 healthy controls and 1963 schizophrenia patients from 29 independent international studies; we harmonized the processing and statistical analyses of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data across sites and meta-analyzed effects across studies. Significant reductions in fractional anisotropy (FA) in schizophrenia patients were widespread, and detected in 20 of 25 regions of interest within a WM skeleton representing all major WM fasciculi. Effect sizes varied by region, peaking at (d=0.42) for the entire WM skeleton, driven more by peripheral areas as opposed to the core WM where regions of interest were defined. The anterior corona radiata (d=0.40) and corpus callosum (d=0.39), specifically its body (d=0.39) and genu (d=0.37), showed greatest effects. Significant decreases, to lesser degrees, were observed in almost all regions analyzed. Larger effect sizes were observed for FA than diffusivity measures; significantly higher mean and radial diffusivity was observed for schizophrenia patients compared with controls. No significant effects of age at onset of schizophrenia or medication dosage were detected. As the largest coordinated analysis of WM differences in a psychiatric disorder to date, the present study provides a robust profile of widespread WM abnormalities in schizophrenia patients worldwide. Interactive three-dimensional visualization of the results is available at www.enigma-viewer.org.

Background.Chinese psychiatrists have gradually started to focus on those who are deemed to be at ‘clinical high-risk (CHR)’ for psychosis; however, it is still unknown how often those individuals identified as CHR from a different country background than previously studied would transition to psychosis. The objectives of this study are to examine baseline characteristics and the timing of symptom onset, help-seeking, or transition to psychosis over a 2-year period in China.Method.The presence of CHR was determined with the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS) at the participants' first visit to the mental health services. A total of 86 (of 117) CHR participants completed the clinical follow-up of at least 2 years (73.5%). Conversion was determined using the criteria of presence of psychotic symptoms (in SIPS). Analyses examined baseline demographic and clinical predictors of psychosis and trajectory of symptoms over time. Survival analysis (Kaplan–Meier) methods along with Log-rank tests were performed to illustrate the relationship of baseline data to either conversion or non-conversion over time. Cox regression was performed to identify baseline predictors of conversion by the 2-year follow-up.Results.In total 25 (29.1%) of 86 completers transitioned to a psychotic disorder over the course of follow-up. Among the CHR sample, the mean time between attenuated symptom onset and professional help-seeking was about 4 months on average, and converters developed fully psychotic symptoms about 12 months after symptom onset. Compared with those CHR participants whose risk syndromes remitted over the course of the study, converters had significantly longer delays (p= 0.029) for their first visit to a professional in search of help. At baseline assessment, the conversion subgroup was younger, had poorer functioning, higher total SIPS positive symptom scores, longer duration of untreated prodromal symptoms, and were more often given psychosis-related diagnoses and subsequently prescribed antipsychotics in the clinic.Conclusions.Chinese CHR identified primarily by a novel clinical screening approach had a 2-year transition rate comparable with those of specialised help-seeking samples world-wide. Early clinical intervention with this functionally deteriorating clinical population who are suffering from attenuated psychotic symptoms, is a next step in applying the CHR construct in China.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to the article “Inflation Is Now Too Serious A Matter To Leave To The Economists” by David Warsh and Lawrence Minard in the November 15, 1976 issue.

I AM PLEASED to have an opportunity to appear before this committee to discuss deposit insurance reform. You have held a number of hearings where a great many views on [...]

Aims.Heterogeneity of schizophrenia is known to be reflected in neuropsychological functioning of patients, but its expression in relatives is understudied. This study aims at exploring relationship between executive functioning and clinical profiles of first-degree relatives of patients who are classified as having or not having the deficit subtype of schizophrenia (DSRELs v.non-DSRELs), with the prediction of greater executive impairment in DSRELs.Methods.DSRELs (n= 15) and non-DSRELs (n= 40) were compared with community controls (CCs, n= 55) on executive functioning measured by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the phonemic verbal fluency (PVF), and clinical measures. Effects of psychopathology and intelligence quotient (IQ) measures were investigated to determine their association with executive performance.Results.DSRELs showed more executive dysfunction on WCST and poorer social functioning than CCs and more severe negative symptoms than non-DSRELs. Differences on WCST-categories achieved (WCST-CA) remained significant after adjustment for clinical confounders and IQ. WCST-CA was associated with apathy and paranoid ideation only within the DSREL subgroup.Conclusions.Executive functioning and negative symptoms are severely impaired in first-degree relatives of deficit syndrome patients, thus suggesting that some neurocognitive deficits in patients may be transmitted within families according to the pathophysiology of the probands.

Banks that sell mutual funds face tremendous competition from the largest national and international mutual fund management companies. The smallest of the giant mutual fund companies are larger than most bank-sponsored funds. If banks wish to compete, they must offer a full line of products and be willing to outlay the necessary capital to pay commissions and advertise. Excellent customer service and sufficient staffing is also crucial., The mutual fund industry has been very profitable. In 1992 the 10 publicly traded mutual fund management companies averaged a 23% return on equity. But remember, these companies are well-established [...]

Most clinical symptoms of Huntington disease (HD) have been attributed to striatal degeneration, but extrastriatal degeneration may play an important role in the clinical symptoms because postmortem studies demonstrate that almost all brain structures atrophy.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease that results from the expansion of a trinucleotide (CAG) repeat on chromosome 4. Progressive degeneration of the striatum is the pathologic hallmark of the disease. Little is known about the regional selectivity of the neurodegeneration and its relationship to the genetic expansion.

Cytokines such as interleukin-1beta (Il-1) are produced in the brain during development and during inflammatory processes that result from lesions or disease. One function of Il-1 in the brain appears to be the stimulation of astrocytes to proliferate and produce a variety of cytokines and trophic factors, including nerve growth factor. The mechanisms by which Il-1 exerts its actions on astrocytes remain poorly defined. We present evidence that this cytokine elicits activation of the NFkappaB transcription factor and that this transcription factor mediates effects of Il-1 on nerve growth factor mRNA expression. Elucidation of the processes by which cytokines activate astrocytes and influence trophic factor expression may provide insight into mechanisms governing inflammatory processes within the central nervous system.

The distribution of a number of membrane proteins on plasmalemmal microdomains (microvilli, coated pits) and in endosomes and lysosomes of the proximal tubule epithelial cell was determined in normal rat kidneys by immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy. Two major brush border proteins, 130 and 94 kD, and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase were detected on the membranes of the microvilli but were not found on membranes of coated pits. Gp330, the Heymann nephritis antigen, and clathrin were localized in coated pits. The lysosomal membrane glycoprotein, lgp120 (Lewis, V., S. A. Green, M. Marsh, P. Vihko, A. Helenius, and I. Mellman, 1985, J. Cell Biol., 100: 1839-1847) was restricted to lysosomes where it co-localized with beta-glucuronidase. Endosomes, identified by preloading with HRP injected 5-15 min before rats were killed, did not contain detectable amounts of any antigen tested. The distribution of the same proteins was also determined in rats given sodium maleate, which is known to slow or reduce protein absorption by the proximal tubule and to cause vacuolation of the endocytic apparatus. After maleate treatment the distribution of microvillar and lysosomal markers was unchanged, but the coated pit markers were redistributed--gp330 was concentrated in newly formed apical vacuoles, and clathrin was diffusely distributed in the apical cytoplasm or on apical coated vesicles. These findings indicate that the membrane composition of microvilli, coated pits, endosomes, and lysosomes is distinctive in the proximal tubule cell; and that gp330, unlike other known coated pit membrane components, is not transferred to endosomes during endocytosis. After maleate treatment, the coated pits lose their clathrin coats, and the corresponding membrane is internalized.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles published in previous issues including the article "Welfare Needs Overhaul," in the August 25 issue, "Sauce for the Goose" in the August 25 issue and "The Silent World of Soaring" in the August 18 issue.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including "Cable TV: The race to plug in," which appeared in the December 8, 1980 issue, "What are they teaching in the B-schools," which appeared in the November 10, 1980 issue and "Wraparound annuities," which appeared in the November 24, 1980 issue.

FDIC Policy on Agriculture and Energy Banks THE FEDERAL DEPOSIT INsurance Corp. recognizes the severe economic problems currently being experienced by the agricultural and oil and gas sectors of the [...]

The article focuses on the views of L. William Seidman, chairman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the agency that regulates savings and loan associations (S&Ls), regarding the issue of possible disappearance of S&Ls as a separate industry. The nation is in the process of addressing the thrift problem this 1990. With this, Seidman believes that after a decade, S&Ls may disappear entirely, but there will still be financial institutions and fewer commercial banks.

Two letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in the December 1, 1972, and January 15, 1973, regarding U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)'s proposal for forecasting of corporate earnings.

Regulators' Letter to St Germain on Interstate Takeover Changes WE ARE WRITING TO express our joint request that the Congress extend and liberalize the emergency acquisition provisions of the Garn-St [...]