Families, couples and children found a great way to enjoy Sunday's
sunshine with an afternoon of live music in San Lorenzo Park.It was the
fourth and final Summer Fair, which featured jam rock, reggae and other
live music on the Duck Pond Stage each Sunday in August.He saw the
bracelet at a indoortracking
store while we were on a trip. Spectators sat on a grassy knoll to
watch the musicians, and vendors sold organic food and coffee, handmade
jewelry, clothing and guitars.
A couple with dreadlocks chatted
with friends near a shirtless man who spun a hula hoop on his waist. A
woman at a table offered massages for free or by donation."I think it's
really wonderful," said Bruce Abt, a 73-year-old who sat on the grass
and watched the music in the warm sun.
"It's a good way to
connect and get together with friends," he said of the fair.The master
of ceremonies, who goes by Smiles A Lot, filled time between bands by
reminding the languid crowd of a few dozen that it was OK to dance.
"If
you're stressed, have a free massage. She's very giving," he said on
stage.Jahred Namaste, 32, organized the Summer Fair events as well as
the larger Rujevenation Festival -- also at San Lorenzo Park in May. The
Sunday Fair series was an extension of the Rejuvenation Festival, he
explained.
Three bands played free shows Sunday: Sol Horizon,
Old Velour and The Mystic Truebudoors. Sunday's turnout of about 150
people was "all right," Namaste said.Namaste mentioned that he also
played with his reggae and jam-rock band, Love Eternal, at two of the
Summer Fair dates this month.
His 12-year-old daughter, Zion
Namaste, also has her own music group. She said she liked the bands at
the Rejuvenation Festival, and chimed in about how much she liked Love
Eternal, too.
First, the mega banks are just fine. In the second
quarter of 2013, Bank of America saw a 63% increase in net income,
Citigroup posted a 42% increase, JPMorgan Chase recorded a 32% increase,
and Wells Fargo "only" logged a 19% increase. Headlines boast of the
"record profits" enjoyed by the mega banks.
Second, community
banks are definitely not fine. Even before the Financial Crisis, smaller
banks saddled with a growing regulatory burden found it difficult to
compete with more efficient mega banks. The result was a greater
consolidation of assets in the hands of a few companies. The number of
banks with assets of less than $100 million decreased by more than 80%
from 1985 to 2010 while the number of banks with assets greater than $10
billion nearly tripled over the same period. A mere 7.6% of banks
currently hold about 86% of all banking assets in the United States. The
regulatory burden imposed by Dodd-Frank, the well-intentioned but
flawed response to the Financial Crisis, has exacerbated the problem.
Brokers who arrange bank mergers are already experiencing a significant
uptick in business.
Third,You benefit from buying oilpaintingreproduction
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American are only worth the time of a mega bank if they involve a
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You either fit in the box or you don't.This is a universal black magic bestgranitecountertops. As a result,We are professional wholesale best parkingsensor,large
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farmers, and people transitioning to work are generally unattractive to
the mega banks but have been served by community banks. When community
banks fail and merge, what is the result?
According to the FDIC,
one in four American households are either "unbanked" or "underbanked."
They tend to rely on services like payday loan operations and,
increasingly, by pawnshops. These non-traditional lenders impose far
higher interest rates and fees than banks -- interest rates range from
2.5% to 25% per month -- that's 30% to 300% per year! In addition, these
lenders are not currently subject to the same consumer protection
regulations as traditional financial institutions.
A new report
by the New York Times reveals that the pawnshop industry grew from
approximately 6,400 locations in 2007 to 10,000 in early 2012. Pawnshops
are clearly filling a void left by receding community banks. Robbie
Whitten, chief executive of Money Mizer Pawn and Jewelry of Columbus,
Georgia told the New York Times: "The way the banks have tightened up so
much on making small loans and making equity loans, we've kind of
evolved into, I like to call it the poor man's bank." Cash America
International, a publicly traded pawnshop company, explains that its
growth was due to "traditional consumer lenders .You must not use the stonecarving
without being trained... exiting the market." Jerry Whitehead of
Pawnshop Consulting Group notes that pawnshops are focused on consumers
who are "getting forgotten in the banking system."
Accordingly,
the areas in Bangkok where OE-ers congregate tend to feel like
playgrounds for manic, overgrown children every shade of the
sunburn-rainbow. Tuk tuks lurch about like decrepit toys, their drivers
pleading you to visit their uncle's jewelry store; roadside pubs and
bars leak half-pissed foreigners and elegant Thai women (the latter so
much more sophisticated than the former it's almost painful to watch);
and market stalls with fresh heaps of counterfeit crop up at every
corner.
If your own personal idea of hell looks suspiciously
like the above, you'd be forgiven for avoiding South East Asia in the
high season altogether. Let alone Bangkok, whose huge traveler
population is partly thanks to its being the springboard to South East
Asia as a whole.
But underneath the tawdry tack lapped up by
Gazza from the Gold Coast (there he is, vomiting in the gutter while his
friends enjoy a Sangsom Bucket) is an intelligent and stylish city
that's world-class in its contemporary cultural and aesthetic offerings.
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