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Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 Raquel M. Gaspar (Portugal), Hugo Sousa (Portugal) Liquidity risk and Solvency II Abstract This paper discusses the importance of liquidity risk when evaluating the risk of portfolios of financial assets that in- surance companies hold. Until very recently and within the scope of Solvency II, liquidity risk was only considered under Pillar II, i.e., the proposal was that insurance companies should perform a mere qualitative evaluation of it. Nowadays the possible quantitative evaluation of liquidity risk is under debate but it is still unclear if it will apply only to liabilities or to portfolio holdings as well. The authors argue that liquidity is an important source of market risk and that it should be measured quantitatively when accessing the overall market risk of portfolio holdings. Based upon the financial liquidity literature, they propose a way to measure liquidity risk quantitatively. The proposed method is simple, relies on publicly available data, and is consistent with the VaR approach underlying Solvency II. This paper implements the proposed method on the Portuguese insurance sector, using actual portfolio holdings. The main empirical findings confirm that liquidity risk is an important risk representing, on average, more than 10% of the overall market risk insurance companies are exposed to. Keywords: liquidity risk, value-at-risk, Solvency II, insurance regulation. Introduction about by its investment in credit default swaps and the huge number of policy holders wishing to surrender The recent financial crisis and subsequent turmoil in policies that involved financial insurance due to financial markets have sparked new questions about their loss of confidence in the financial capacity of the perception and evaluation of liquidity risk. This the company. discussion has taken place in the context of a new regime that aims to supervise and regulate insurance In such a context, with the world struggling to get out and reinsurance in the European Union, the Sol- of the recent credit and liquidity crisis it is puzzling vency II Directive, which will come into force by the debate on how to evaluate risks insurance compa- the end of 2012. nies are exposed to, seemed to overlook the impor- The period preceding the economic and financial tance of a proper evaluation of liquidity risk. In fact, crisis witnessed extraordinary economic perform- it was not until very recently, in its March 2010 re- ance worldwide, with never before seen growth port, that the Committee of European Insurance and rates and strong gains in the stock markets. Record Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) first low interest rates led to a boom in the residential recognized the importance, at least for liabilities, of a housing markets, and this coincided with the devel- quantitative evaluation of liquidity risk (under Pilar I). opment and proliferation of new, innovative struc- Before that report, liquidity risk was considered only tured credit products. When several credit institu- under Pilar II and the recommendation was a mere tions in the US holding subprime mortgages went qualitative evaluation. In which way – qualitative or bankrupt, it was rumoured that there could be sig- quantitative – liquidity risk embedded in portfolio nificant losses in hedge funds which had invested in holdings should be taken into account is currently products that were based on subprime mortgages. under debate. It is our opinion that liquidity is an As a result, investors became concerned about the important source of market risk that should be meas- evaluation of all financial credit instruments, and ured quantitatively, when accessing the overall mar- ratings agencies began to downgrade the ratings of ket risk of portfolio holdings. some companies and structured financial products. In this study we, therefore, focus in measuring liquid- The problems in the credit markets spread to other ity risk of portfolio holdings and propose a concrete markets, leading to generalized lack of confidence way to take liquidity risk into account when access- and consequent lack of liquidity in financial mar- ing the market risk insurance companies are exposed kets, the banks raise their spread rates signifi- to, in the context of Pilar I of Solvency II. cantly, and this in turn led to the collapse of some major investment banks. This credit and liquidity 1. Liquidity risk in the insurance sector crisis in the banking sector quickly spread to the Liquidity risk is one of the most important risks to insurance sector, to the extent that the largest in- affect the solvency of insurance companies. Simply surance company in the world at the time faced se- put, it reflects the available resources and capacity of vere liquidity problems. The situation was brought the insurer to manage the financial flows to ensure that the company is able to meets its responsibilities when Raquel M. Gaspar, Hugo Sousa, 2010. they fall due. 87 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 Most of the recent cases of insolvency occurred in the ier to calculate and they are sufficient for the small life insurance branch, as policy holders lost confidence investor. However, for institutional investors, who in the company and surrendered policies that had a carry out high volumes of trading, spread measures guaranteed interest rate. The sheer volume of policies underestimate liquidity risk because they do not take surrendered left insurance companies with no means of into account the impact of trading volume on prices. making the payments due. In general, this was because Using impact measures, on the other hand, suffers the assets backing the policies were non-liquid in the from the disadvantage that most of the impact meas- short term, giving rise to high losses when they were ures can only be calculated a posteriori or they de- converted. In the remaining cases, resorting to short pend on information that is hard to obtain. term loans – often because non-liquid assets could not The most common spread measures are: (1) conven- be converted without incurring considerable losses – tional bid/ask spread, which measures the difference meant paying high interest rates, and when it was no between the sell price (ask) and the buy price (bid); longer possible to pay creditors, the insurance com- (2) percentage quoted spread (Qspread), which is the pany went bankrupt. There are other, albeit less com- ratio of the difference between the sell price and mon, cases that can affect the liquidity of an insurer the buy price to the bid/ask price midpoint of the and place the company at risk of insolvency. These asset; (3) effective percentage half-spread or Espread include having to pay out for large indemnity claims, (Korajczyk and Sadka, 2008), which measures the operational problems in collecting policy holder pre- ratio of the absolute difference between the transaction miums, and bankruptcy of the banks where securities price and the bid/ask price midpoint of the asset to the are deposited and margin calls on derivatives. bid/ask price midpoint; (4) Effective spreadTAQ, which Regardless of the reasons for which an insurance is calculated by the New York Stock Exchange Trades company may be called upon to pay out, the simple and Automated Quotes Database (TAQ) and measures fact that much of its equity is invested in securities, the bid/ask spread as twice the absolute difference which cannot be readily or without costs converted between the transaction price and the midpoint of the into cash, constitutes a risk. Further, because this bid/ask spread; (5) c-Roll indicator (Roll, 1984), which kind of liquidity risk is directly associated with the measures the effective bid/ask spread in terms of co- holding of investment portfolios by insurance com- variance of changes in price; (6) effective tick (Hol- panies, it should be seen as an integral part of the den, 2009; Goyenko et al., 2009), which represents the market risk of portfolio holdings. ratio of a probability-weighted average of effective Shamroukh (2000) looks at liquidity risk as a compo- spreads to the average price in a time interval; (7) H- nent of market risk. He defines it as the risk of loss spread (Holden, 2009), which consists of a weighted average of the possible spreads; (8) LOT (Lesmond et associated with the costs of liquidation of a position al., 1999), which measures the difference between the for a particular asset, especially those stemming from percentage of transaction costs from a sell and the the difference between the sell price and the buy price percentage of transaction costs associated with a buy; (exogenous liquidity risk) and those brought about by and (9) zero indicators (Lesmond et al., 1999), which the impact of the number of transactions on prices measure the proportion of days with zero returns (endogenous liquidity risk). According to Bervas and/or nil volume in a month. (2006), market liquidity can be described in terms of the magnitude of the bid/ask spread, market depth, i.e., The most popular impact measures are: (1) quote the volume of assets that can be traded without distort- size, which measures the quantity supplied and the ing the current market prices, and market resilience, quantity ordered using realized sell and buy prices; i.e., the time taken for the price of a certain asset to (2) trade size, which measures the quantities traded; return to its initial pre-traded value. While the first (3) trading volume, which measures the volume feature is understood as a direct measure for evaluating traded; (4) trading frequency, which measures the transaction costs, the latter two are indicators for the number of transactions within a certain price range; market's ability to absorb significant volumes of trade (5) illiquidity and extended illiquidity (Amihud et al., without substantially affecting asset prices. Bangia et 2002; Goyenko et al., 2009), which measure the rela- al. (1999) consider that the price of an asset includes tionship between the volume and returns of an asset not only the risk stemming from fluctuations in price, and the relationship between the bid/ask spread and interest rates and exchange rates, but also liquidity risk the volume; and (6) Kyle's ( ) (Kyle, 1985), which – exogenous and endogenous. measures asset price sensitivity to quantities traded. 1.1. Measuring liquidity risk. Studies that aim to Because we seek a way to measure liquidity risk that is measure financial market liquidity risk can be broadly compatible with market risk as set out in Pillar I of classified into two groups: those that measure exoge- Solvency II, it is important to understand how to adapt nous risk, by means of what are often called spread the above measures in terms of value-at-risk (VaR). In measures, and those that measure endogenous risk by financial mathematics and financial risk management, means of impact measures. Spread measures are eas- VaR is a widely used risk measure of the risk of loss 88 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 on a specific portfolio of financial assets. For a given though this model is theoretically more complete, it is portfolio, probability level and time horizon, VaR is difficult to apply due to the difficulty of obtaining defined as a threshold value such that the probability information on the depth of buy and sell prices. This that the mark-to-market loss on the portfolio over the difficulty has prompted some studies on endogenous given time horizon exceeds this value (assuming nor- liquidity risk to focus on liquidation strategies as a mal markets and no trading in the portfolio) is the mitigating factor of the risk rather than using them to given probability level. Although one can find some quantify it. A good example of this kind of study is VaR-like concepts in history, VaR did not emerge as a that by Shamroukh (2000), who considers a trade-off distinct concept until the late 1980s. The triggering between the average of and the variance in the assets' event was the stock market crash in 1987. Since then sell prices. In fact the quicklier the investor's position academics have witnessed constant debated about the is liquidated, the greater the liquidation costs, but the appropriateness of such a simple measure when evalu- lesser the volatility in prices. Hence, the optimal strat- ating risk. Nowadays the consensus seems to be that egy is that which minimizes the theoretical VaR, and evaluating VaR is clearly not enough (see, for instance, this depends on the sensitivity of the volatility and the Artzner et al. (1999), Acerbi and Tasche (2002), assets' endogenous liquidity to the time needed to Fritelli and Gianin (2002), or Dow and Blake (2006)). liquidate the position. The author concludes that assets Despite its problems, VaR has become a reference whose liquidity costs are low should be liquidated measure in the evaluation of market risk and invest- earlier since the effect of the average on VaR is greater ment risk management. In the framework of Solvency than that of the variance in speedy liquidations. II, VaR estimates are used for all market risk evalua- 1.2. A concrete proposal in the context of Sol- tion. Of course one could criticize the adoption of such vency II. For the purpose of quantifying VaR market a simple measure when a wider and less problematic risk with Solvency II, we find Bangia et al.'s (1999) class of risk measures is available in the management model the most appropriate in light of its simplicity literature. In this paper, however, we go along with the and the information it requires. Its main drawback is accepted practice, adopt VaR as the risk measure, and that it does not include endogenous liquidity risk; focus only on liquidity issues. hence, it underestimates the true liquidity risk. How- VaR is traditionally calculated on the assumption that ever, this miscalculation is not as drastic as that ob- liquidation of an asset has no impact on market prices. tained by the current model used to quantify market Such an assumption is reductionist for illiquid assets, risk, in which liquidity risk is simply ignored. so some authors have proposed a means by which Bangia et al.'s (1999) model is also appealing because liquidity risk can be incorporated in the calculation of of the way it breaks down into three steps. First, VaR VaR. Lawrence and Robinson (1995) first proposed a simple rule that adds the time estimated to liquidate the is determined conventionally without liquidity risk. investor's position to the time frame calculation. How- Then, liquidity risk (VaRL) is determined, and last, ever, this approach does not take into account volatility VaR is corrected for liquidity risk. The final adjusted in the asset's bid/ask spread; it assumes that the inves- VaR, designated LVaR, can be expressed as: tor's entire position is liquidated in a single transac- LVaR VaR VaRL . (1) tion, and for a portfolio of assets, the same time incre- ment is held for all assets, disregarding the individual The third step implies that VaR and VaRL are perfectly features of each asset. A second simple rule that is correlated. This means in words, it assumes simultane- often used adds half of the average bid/ask spread to ous occurrence of extreme events, which can lead to conventional VaR. This approach similarly ignores overestimating the risk. An alternative is to consider bid/ask spread volatility over time. In order to over- the correlation between the two components in the come these limitations Bangia et al. (1999) developed model. Considering the orientation of Solvency II of a model to quantify VaR using exogenous liquidity adopting a cautious approach, we do not reject the risk. They argue that using the average price does not assumption of perfect correlation as exaggerated. It adequately reflect the level of risk; it is also necessary must not be forgotten that the endogenous component to include the magnitude of the difference between the average price and the possible sell price by means of of liquidity risk is not being measured, which in itself the bid/ask spread and the respective volatility. This results in underestimating the liquidity risk. Moreover, approach takes into account both uncertainty in the the use of simple addition in equation (1) means that profitability of the assets as well as uncertainty deriv- all the computations currently accepted for measuring ing from liquidity risk. Le Saout (2002) extends Ban- market risk need no modification; the component of gia et al.'s (1999) model to more adequately capture liquidity risk is simply added. Bangia et al. (1999) both the exogenous and the endogenous component of measure liquidity risk (VaRL) as: liquidity risk. He replaces the bid/ask spread with a weighted average bid/ask spread. This is weighted by 1 1 VaRL Pt S N , (2) the depth of the respective buy and sell prices. Al- 2 89 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 where S is the average of the percentage quoted As set out by the Solvency II regime, portfolios of spread, computed as: assets where the investment risk is borne by the policy holder were excluded from analysis. We n 1 PAsk PBid considered a confidence interval of 99,5% and a S , time frame of one year. Computation of conven- n i 1 PMid tional VaR follows a parametric approach based on Pt is the average price of the asset at time t, and is assumptions similar to those in the latest quantita- the volatility of the percentage quoted spread and tive impact study (QIS 5) for the evaluation of is the factor that ensures the preferred confidence different market risks and global risk. LVaR is de- level for VaR. Equation (2) assumes that the per- termined by the mean and standard deviations of centage quoted spread follows a normal distribution. the percentage quoted spread. Historic information on asset prices – the bid price, mid price and ask 2. Liquidity risk in the Portuguese insurance price – were obtained from Bloomberg's financial industry information terminal for the period of January 1, In this Section we apply the model proposed by Ban- 2000 – March 15, 2010, making a total of 2661 gia et al (1999) to evaluate liquidity risk in portfolio observation days. The risk evaluation date was the holdings of Portuguese insurance companies. All March 15, 2010. computations were performed based the portfolio 2.1. Portfolio holdings of the Portuguese insur- holdings of 45 Portuguese insurance companies as ance sector. We define the "market portfolio" of the published in their annual reports at the end of 2009. Of insurance sector as all the assets held in the portfo- these companies, 15 dealt in life insurance (V), 23 in lios of the 45 insurance companies. Figure 1 shows non-life, i.e. general, insurance (N), and seven of them the proportion of different assets in the market port- in mixed, i.e. in both life and general, insurance (M). folio at the end of 2009. Fig. 1. Market portfolio allocation Bonds and structured products account for 79,9% N14 (15%); and (4) companies in which the real- of the market portfolio. Corporate bonds make up estate sector accounts for a significant share – N8 the greatest share (45,5%), followed by govern- (49%), N3 (35%), N7 (27%), and N5 (24%). In- ment bonds (26,7%). An analysis by insurance vestments in structured products, which overall company reveals distinct investment profiles co- make up only 7,7% of the market portfolio, account exist in the insurance sector (Figure 2), there are: for a significant share of the portfolio in some com- (1) companies that invest almost exclusively or panies, namely M1 (36%), V5 (20%), N9 (20%), predominantly in government bonds – M6 (92%), V10 (18%), and N21 (16%). Although investment in V11 (79%), N2 (74%), and V1 (72%); (2) compa- equity funds is not significant overall, two compa- nies that invest heavily in corporate bonds, as well as nies – N17 and M7 – hold investments of 25% and structured products – N22 (77%), N17 (73%), N9 18% respectively in their portfolios. Finally, there is (73%), M1 (73%), N20 (72%), M2 (71%), and V4 a significant concentration level in the insurance (70%); (3) companies with some or significant expo- market, which naturally impacts the composition of sure in the stock market – N6 (25%), N5 (16%) and the market portfolio. 90 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 Fig. 2. Insurance undertakings asset portfolio allocation Given the aims of this study and the relative share of of this procedure, 2.725 assets were subject to analy- each asset type, only the government and corporate sis, with a total of 3.110.931 observations, corre- bonds, structured products and equities were se- sponding to an average of 1.142 (4,5 years) observa- lected for analysis. This reduced set of assets will be tions for each asset. The average for an asset, given referred to the "selected portfolio", and it made up as the ratio of observations to the number of days in 83,4% of the market portfolio holdings at the close which observation was possible in the period under of 2009. Furthermore, in order to ensure reliability study, is 93,2%. The 2.725 assets, which we shall call and robustness for the results of the study, we used the "analysed portfolio", make up 81,2% of the se- only assets for which there were a minimum of 10% lected portfolio, and 67,8% of the market portfolio. of total possible observations for the period under Figure 5 compares the market, selected and analysed analysis, or for which there were more than 100 portfolios. 53,6% of the analysed portfolio are corpo- observations from January 1, 2007. Figures 3 and 4 rate bonds (45,4% is in the financial sector) and show the distribution of the observations. As a result 37,1% are government bonds. Fig. 3. Number of observations (years by asset) 91 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 Fig. 4. Number of observations as a function of number of days (%) Fig. 5. Analysed portfolio asset distribution The relative share of the analysed portfolio in the rating similar to the average, government bonds have selected portfolio is, for the vast majority of the in- a rating closer to AA, and structured products ranged surance companies, greater than 75%. Only six insur- between A and BBB. The average rating was deter- ance companies are below this level, and of these, mined on the basis of grades by Standard & Poor's, only three have an analysed portfolio of less than two Moody's and Fitch, and their evaluations were aver- thirds of the selected portfolio: M1 (66,7%), N5 aged. Ratings grades were rounded to the nearest (66,4%), V10 (66%), V7 (62%), N6 (43,9%), and tenth if necessary. The following numeric scale is used N20 (33,4%) (see Figure 6). At the analysis date, the for the grades: AAA-1, AA-2, A-3, BBB-4, NR-5, and bond component has an average age of 4,3 years lower than BBB-6. Fixed coupon bonds make up from the date of issue and an average maturity of 6,5 73,8% of the total fixed term assets, and the average years. By contrast, the structured products have a coupon is 3,8% (see Table 1). Table A in the Appen- high maturity date (17,4 years on average). The aver- dix shows the same indicators for each insurance age bond rating is A. While corporate bonds show a company's analysed portfolio. 92 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 Fig. 6. Insurance undertakings' analysed portfolio risk allocation Table 1. Analysed portfolio risk indicators Average % Financial Indicators Number of assets Average years Maturidade media Average rating % Fixed coupon coupon sector Corporate bonds 1.760 3,8 5,1 2,8 4,0% 73,3% 69,0% Goverment bonds 468 6,0 7,4 2,4 3,6% n.a. 98,9% Structured products 196 4,8 17,4 3,5 2,8% 95,4% 2,1% Equities 301 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 18,9% n.a. Total 2.725 4,3 6,5 2,8 3,8% 45,4% 73,8% 2.2. Liquidity risk analysis. 2.2.1. Market portfolio the median (7,4%). This positive asymmetry is con- liquidity risk. Table 2 shows results for the distribu- firmed by the asymmetry coefficient (1,0). The kurto- tion of individual observations of VaR, VaRL, LVaR, sis measure (0,9) suggests a platykurtic distribution. and the relation between VaRL and LVaR. The distri- The high values for the standard deviation (38,5%) bution of VaRL, given as a percentage, shows an av- and variance (14,9%) corroborate the highly dis- erage of 0,6 percent above the mean (0,3%), indicat- persed distribution: 60,6% of the assets show a ratio ing positive asymmetry. This is confirmed by the below 10%, and at the other tail, 20,1% of the assets coefficient for asymmetry (9,3). The positive excess have a ratio above 90% (see Figure 9). kurtosis measure (117,2) indicates a leptokurtic dis- Table 2. Descriptive statistics: liquidity risk tribution. Standard deviation and variance show high and market risk concentration in their distributions, with figures of 1,7% and 0,03%, respectively. Analysis of the rela- Descrip. st. VaRL% VaR% LVAR% VaRL/LVaR tive frequency of VaRL by asset (see Figure 7) shows Mean 0,59% 8,37% 8,96% 30,33% that 85% of the assets have a liquidity risk of less Standard error 0,03% 0,29% 0,30% 0,74% than 0,5%, and only 7,2% have a liquidity risk of Median 0,29% 3,63% 3,98% 7,40% Standard more than 1%. The distributions of VaR and LVaR, deviation 1,67% 15,32% 15,55% 38,48% given as percentages, are very similar; both show Variance 0,03% 2,35% 2,42% 14,80% averages greater than the median. They also show Kurtosis 117,19 8,13 7,89 -0,90 positive asymmetry and the positive excess kurtosis Skewness 9,28 2,88 2,83 0,97 measure indicates a leptokurtic distribution. Analysis Interval 34,5% 100,0% 100,6% 99,9% of the distribution of the standard deviation and vari- Minimum 0,0% 0,0% 0,0% 0,1% ance shows some dispersion, although 61,0% of the Maximum 34,5% 100,0% 100,6% 100,0% assets have a VaR and LVaR of less than 5%, and Sum 16 228 244 826 only 16,8% above 10% (see Figure 8). The distribu- Count 2.725 2.725 2.725 2.725 tion of the relation between VaRL and LVaR shows an Confidence 0,06% 0,58% 0,58% 1,45% average of 30,3%, which is significantly greater than interval (95,0%) 93 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 Fig. 7. Histogram of VaRL% by asset Fig. 8. Histogram of VaR% and of LVaR% by asset Fig. 9. Histogram of VaRL/LVaR by asset 94 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 An analysis of the liquidity risk according to asset ucts have a lower average VaR and LVaR than the class reveals that government bonds tend to have a other assets. Equities, as expected, show the highest lower risk (0,26%). This is to be expected. Struc- average LVaR, and government bonds, which have tured products with an average VaRL of 1,66% show recently shown volatility in their prices, also show a the highest risk, surpassing equities, whose average higher LVaR. This is a result of the possibility of value was 1,09%. Nonetheless, given that fluctua- some European Union countries defaulting on their tions in prices are only slight, the structured prod- bonds (see Table 3). Table 3. Liquidity risk and market risk: asset class type Average Standard deviation Assets class type Number of assets % Analysed portfolio VaR% VaRL% LVaR% VaR% VaRL% LVaR% Corporate bonds 1.760 53,6% 3,11% 0,47% 3,57% 3,11% 1,45% 3,50% Government bonds 468 37,1% 6,60% 0,26% 6,86% 6,79% 0,68% 6,91% Structered products 196 5,7% 1,79% 1,66% 3,45% 3,36% 3,67% 4,55% Equities 301 3,6% 46,19% 1,09% 47,28% 19,07% 1,51% 19,09% Total 2725 100% 8,37% 0,59% 8,96% 15,32% 1,67% 15,55% Table 4. Liquidity risk and market risk: bond characteristics Number of % Analysed Average Standard deviation Measures assets portfolio VaR% VaRL% LVaR% VaR% VaRL% LVaR% Maturity interval [0-1[ 345 11,9% 0,09% 0,28% 0,37% 0,22% 0,55% 0,59% [1-3[ 625 24,9% 1,58% 0,31% 1,89% 1,43% 0,46% 1,47% [3-5[ 521 22,8% 3,64% 0,45% 4,09% 2,14% 1,92% 2,86% [5-7[ 359 13,4% 3,96% 0,55% 4,52% 2,48% 1,46% 2,68% [7-10[ 262 11,6% 6,07% 0,65% 6,72% 3,81% 1,71% 3,77% >10 312 11,9% 9,55% 1,20% 10,76% 7,34% 3,06% 7,27% Rating AAA 486 18,3% 4,72% 0,25% 4,97% 4,45% 0,47% 4,45% AA 409 17,6% 3,31% 0,52% 3,84% 3,85% 2,21% 4,43% A 953 42,5% 2,92% 0,46% 3,38% 3,10% 1,24% 3,30% BBB 395 12,4% 3,70% 0,73% 4,42% 4,49% 2,00% 4,88% <BBB 60 0,5% 6,33% 1,89% 8,22% 9,98% 4,31% 100,5% NR 121 5,2% 5,25% 0,80% 6,04% 6,81% 1,82% 7,10% Coupon type Fixed 1.664 68,2% 4,47% 0,36% 4,83% 3,94% 1,25% 4,16% Floating 522 18,7% 0,11% 0,86% 0,97% 0,80% 2,30% 2,50% Variable 147 3,9% 4,88% 1,12% 6,00% 3,51% 2,83% 4,08% Zero coupon 78 5,4% 6,81% 0,50% 7,31% 7,67% 0,98% 8,24% Step coupon 7 0,2% 15,45% 1,62% 17,07% 22,30% 1,75% 23,83% Flat trading 6 0,0% 9,30% 0,48% 9,77% 4,41% 0,13% 4,89% Sector Financial 1.362 44,7% 2,51% 0,68% 3,19% 3,08% 2,15% 3,72% Government 439 36,8% 6,67% 0,20% 6,88% 6,92% 0,57% 7,05% Utilities 151 4,5% 4,64% 0,31% 4,94% 3,04% 0,34% 3,07% Communications 117 3,0% 3,63% 0,33% 3,96% 3,48% 0,50% 3,52% Consumer, 101 2,5% 3,99% 0,40% 4,39% 2,37% 0,74% 2,47% non-cyclical Industrial 93 1,7% 4,88% 0,50% 5,38% 3,41% 1,18% 3,91% Energetic 46 1,1% 4,37% 0,40% 4,76% 2,86% 0,45% 2,87% Basic materials 49 1,0% 3,06% 0,37% 3,42% 1,97% 0,42% 1,90% Consumer, 43 0,7% 2,91% 0,38% 3,29% 4,13% 0,32% 4,10% cyclical Diversified 11 0,1% 4,83% 0,30% 5,13% 3,83% 0,09% 3,83% activities Mortgages 10 0,0% 4,27% 2,45% 6,72% 3,82% 1,68% 4,67% Technology 2 0,0% 0,80% 0,39% 1,18% 1,11% 0,07% 1,05% Debt type Unsubordinated 2.052 87,3% 3,75% 0,36% 4,11% 4,44% 1,18% 4,62% Subordinated 372 9,2% 3,24% 1,42% 4,66% 3,83% 3,12% 4,69% 95 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 In view of relative share of the bonds and struc- regard to VaR, however, apart from the government tured products within the insurance companies' sector previously described, the utilities show an portfolios, we sought to identify the determinants increase in market risk. Finally, subordinated debt of liquidity risk for the portfolios. To this end we products show above average liquidity risk although analysed liquidity risk in terms of maturity, rat- their VaR is slightly lower in comparison with the ing, volatility, number of years since issue, cou- other bonds. pon type, coupon value, activity sector, and the 2.2.2. Liquidity risk by insurance company. The re- type of debt (see Table 4). Analysis of liquidity sults of the analysis by insurance company show that risk by maturity intervals revealed that the aver- on average liquidity risk accounts for around 10,28% age VaRL increased as maturity lengthened, and of total adjusted market risk (see Table 5). The mean the value was significantly higher for bonds values for LVaR and VaRL for a time interval of one whose capital payment was longer than 10 years. year at a confidence level of 99,5% are 4,34% and VaR showed similar behavior. In terms of ratings, 0,38% respectively. the average values show that liquidity risk grows as the credit quality declines, with steeper growth Table 5. Liquidity risk and market risk: for below investment grade status bonds. The descriptive statistics average VaR is also higher for these bonds, as is Value-at-risk Mean Median Minimum Maximum Std. dev. the case for non-rated bonds. However, contrary VaR% 3,96% 4,11% 1,32% 7,21% 1,53% to what is expected, the average VaR value for the VaRL% 0,38% 0,32% 0,12% 1,46% 0,25% highest rated bonds is above the mean. This is due LVaR% 4,34% 4,34% 1,80% 7,33% 1,47% to the impact of recent volatility on government VaRL/LVaR 10,28% 7,46% 1,69% 38,49% 8,26% bonds, which have higher credit ratings. Analysis Table 6 shows an interval analysis for the compa- by coupon type shows that fixed coupon bonds nies. There is greater dispersion amongst the opera- have below average liquidity risk, followed by zero tors for VaR despite greater concentrations in the coupon bonds. However, when both risk compo- interval 3%-4,5%. Two companies stand out at the nents are considered, floating coupon bonds show outer edges: a life insurance company (V7) with a the lowest adjusted market risk due to their low minimum of 1,3%, and a mixed insurance company VaR average. The other bonds show higher liquid- (M6) with a maximum of 7,2%. In view of the high ity risk as they are less attractive from the point of relative share of VaR in LVaR, we note that 68,9% view of return on the investment. Analysis by sec- of the insurance companies have an adjusted market tor reveals that exposure to financial and industrial risk between 3,0% and 6,0%. Further, in 40% of the areas increases liquidity risk while exposure to the companies, liquidity risk accounts for more than utilities and communications sectors mitigates it. With 10% of total market risk. Table 6. Insurance undertakings: interval analysis for VaR%, VaRL%, LVaR% and VaRL/LVaR Life and Life and VaR% General Life Total VaRL% General Life Total general general [0,00% - 1,50%[ - - 1 1 [0,00% - 0,25%[ 1 8 5 14 [1,50% - 3,00%[ 3 5 4 12 [0,25% - 0,50%[ 6 11 7 24 [3,00% - 4,50%[ 1 10 5 16 [0,50% - 0,75%[ - 1 2 3 [4,50% - 6,00%[ 1 7 4 12 [0,75% - 1,00%[ - 1 1 2 [6,00% - 7,50%] 2 1 1 4 [1,00% - 1,50%] - 2 - 2 Life and Life and LVaR% General Life Total VaRL/LVaR General Life Total general general [0,00% - 1,50%[ - - - - [0,00% - 5,00%[ 1 5 3 9 [1,50% - 3,00%[ 1 4 4 9 [5,00% - 10,0%[ 3 10 7 20 [3,00% - 4,50%[ 3 9 5 17 [10,0% - 20,0%[ 3 5 4 12 [4,50% - 6,00%[ - 9 5 14 [20,0% - 30,0%[ - 2 - 2 [6,00% - 7,50%] 3 1 1 5 [30,0% - 40,0%] - 1 1 2 Figure 10 shows the relation between liquidity risk risk where both components are above 4%: N5, N21 and market risk for each insurance company. Of the and V10 have a LVaR of 5,6%, 4,03% and 4,02% companies for whom the relative share of liquidity respectively. Thus, it can be concluded that liquidity risk in the adjusted market risk is greater than 10%, risk is an important component in the adjusted market only five have VaR greater than 3%. Of these, N5 risk of the insurance companies' analysed portfolios, shows the highest figure (4,4%). On the other hand, despite the fact that most companies' VaR, and con- only three of these operators have an adjusted market sequently LVaR, are below the market average. 96 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 Fig. 10. Liquidity risk vs. market risk (by insurance company) Conclusion nies liquidity risk was greater than 10% of the total adjusted market risk, even though most of these insur- The purpose of this study was to use liquidity risk to ance companies showed a below market average VaR. quantify market risk and to help to determine the consequent capital requirements in accordance with The results of this study are limited by the fact that the Solvency II Directive. To do so we wanted to only quoted financial assets for which information use a simple method that would make use of easily was available and consistent were used. As a result, available information and that would require no it is highly likely that both liquidity risk and market alterations to the methodologies already used to risk have been underestimated. It is possible to ad- quantify conventional market risks. The method just the liquidity of these assets by applying linear proposed by Bangia et al. (1999) provided us with regression models, which are estimated in function such a tool as it uses bid/ask spread information and of the characteristics and indicators of a group of makes use of simple addition. bonds and financial instruments – market bench- We applied the method to the portfolio holdings of 45 marks – that are defined for each class of asset. Portuguese insurance companies, which are subject to Even though underestimated, the values found by supervision by the Instituto de Seguros de Portugal means of this empirical analysis of the Portuguese (Portuguese Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory insurance sector clearly indicate that it is worth- Authority) using data from the close of the 2009 finan- while to include liquidity risk in the measurement of cial year. From the results obtained for a time interval market risk. of one year and a confidence level of 99,5%, it was Acknowledgement found that on average, liquidity risk per operator was around 0,4%, and it accounted for 10,3% of the total Financial support of FCT under grant UTAustin/MAT/ adjusted market risk. In 40% of the insurance compa- 0057/2008 is gratefully acknowledged. References 1. Amihud Y. (2002). Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects, Journal of Financial Markets, 5, pp. 31-56. 2. Amihud Y., Mendelson H., Pedersen L. (2005). Liquidity and asset prices, Foundations and Trends in Finance, 1, pp. 269-364. 3. Acerbi, C. and Tasche, D. (2002). Expected Shortfall: a Natural Coherent Alternative to Value-at-Risk, Economic Notes, 31, pp. 379-388. 4. Bangia A., Diebold F., Schuermann T., Stroughair J. (1999). Modeling liquidity risk, with implications for tradi- tional market risk measurement and management, Working Paper, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. 5. Bervas A. (2006). Market liquidity and its incorporation into risk management, Financial Stability Review, Banque de France, No. 8. 6. Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (2010). Task force report on the liquid- ity premium, Working Document, CEIOPS-SEC-34/10. 97 Insurance Markets and Companies: Analyses and Actuarial Computations, Volume 1, Issue 3, 2010 7. Artzner, P., Delbaen, F., Eber, J.M. and Heath, D. (1999). Coherent Measures of Risk, Mathematical Finance, 9, pp. 203-228 8. Dowd, K. and Blake, D. (2006). After VaR: the Theory, Estimation, and Insurance Applications of Quantile-Based Risk Measures, Journal of Risk and Insurance, 73, pp. 193-229. 9. Fritelli M. and E.R. Gianin (2002). Putting Order in Risk measures, Journal of Banking & Finance, 26 (7), pp. 1473-1486 10. Goyenko R., Holden C., Trzcinka C. (2009). Do liquidity measures measure liquidity? Journal of Financial Eco- nomics, 92, pp. 153-181. 11. Holden C. (2009). New low-frequency liquidity measures, Working Paper, Indiana University. 12. Kyle A. (1985). Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading, Econometrica, 53, pp. 1315-35. 13. Korajczyk R., Sadka R. (2008). Pricing the commonality across alternative measures of liquidity, Journal of Fi- nancial Economics, 87, pp. 45-72. 14. Lawrence C., Robinson G. (1995). Liquidity Measures, Risk, 8, pp. 52-55. 15. Le Saout E. (2002). Incorporating liquidity risk in VaR models, Working Paper, Paris University. 16. Lesmond D., Ogden J., Trzcinka C. (1999). A new estimate of transaction costs, Review of Financial Studies, 12, pp. 1113-1141. 17. Roll R. (1984). A simple implicit measure of the effective bid-ask spread in an efficient market, Journal of Finance, 39, pp. 1127-1139 18. Shamroukh N. (2000). Modeling liquidity risk in VaR models, Working Paper, Algorithmics UK. Appendix Table A. Analysed portfolio indicators by insurance company Insurance Number of Benchmark Average Average Average % Fixed % Financial Average years company assets portfolio (%) maturity rating coupon coupon sector M1 181 1,6% 1,3 6,8 1,3 1,8% 59,8% 50,1% M2 271 2,4% 3,6 5,1 1,8 3,2% 95,3% 27,0% M3 753 29,1% 6,6 6,5 4,2 5,0% 61,7% 59,4% M4 403 4,7% 3,0 3,3 2,1 2,7% 58,3% 59,2% M5 195 2,9% 1,9 3,3 1,2 2,0% 89,5% 32,6% M6 19 1,3% 0,3 0,3 0,1 0,2% 100,0% 1,1% M7 103 1,5% 1,7 1,4 0,9 0,8% 78,2% 27,4% N1 91 0,6% 1,5 1,3 0,5 0,9% 94,6% 15,1% N2 109 1,9% 1,3 1,0 0,6 1,0% 95,4% 9,0% N3 65 0,0% 0,5 0,9 0,4 0,4% 69,2% 26,8% N4 92 0,4% 1,1 1,3 0,6 0,8% 79,0% 40,2% N5 333 0,6% 2,5 3,6 1,9 1,4% 53,5% 50,5% N6 97 1,1% 0,6 1,3 0,7 0,7% 48,2% 54,7% N7 61 0,1% 0,7 1,1 0,4 0,5% 67,5% 30,9% N8 51 0,1% 0,7 1,5 0,3 0,6% 90,7% 35,1% N9 69 0,1% 0,4 0,9 0,4 0,4% 48,1% 57,4% N10 12 0,3% 0,1 0,2 0,1 0,1% 100,0% 0,0% N11 120 0,1% 1,2 1,4 0,9 0,8% 54,6% 54,6% N12 180 1,7% 1,8 2,2 1,0 1,7% 88,8% 30,1% N13 58 0,1% 0,7 0,8 0,3 0,5% 71,0% 56,4% N14 72 0,1% 0,3 0,3 0,2 0,3% 77,6% 37,9% N15 37 0,3% 0,2 0,4 0,2 0,3% 55,4% 40,2% N16 92 0,2% 0,8 0,9 0,4 0,7% 91,9% 36,5% N17 212 0,2% 1,6 1,7 1,1 1,3% 49,3% 63,5% N18 168 0,5% 0,9 1,8 0,9 1,6% 84,1% 43,4% N19 34 0,3% 0,4 0,2 0,2 0,3% 94,1% 26,0% N20 10 0,0% 0,2 0,2 0,1 0,1% 74,6% 79,3% N21 144 0,1% 0,8 1,1 0,6 0,8% 46,4% 59,1% N22 20 0,0% 0,1 0,2 0,2 0,2% 100,0% 35,5% N23 56 0,0% 0,3 0,5 0,4 0,5% 70,3% 39,1% V1 134 0,9% 2,4 2,1 0,7 1,4% 93,3% 15,5% V2 113 0,4% 0,9 1,5 0,5 1,0% 93,5% 34,4% V3 311 16,7% 3,3 5,0 2,1 3,0% 87,9% 36,2% V4 186 1,6% 2,1 3,7 1,1 1,9% 92,4% 43,6% V5 132 0,7% 0,6 1,5 0,9 0,9% 77,3% 67,6% V6 532 4,1% 5,6 6,8 2,7 5,3% 94,3% 34,9% V7 193 3,8% 1,9 3,3 1,5 1,2% 44,6% 66,0% V8 114 0,8% 1,3 1,2 0,6 0,9% 69,0% 44,1% V9 256 1,3% 2,8 5,3 1,7 2,8% 80,1% 41,3% V10 555 11,1% 3,9 9,0 3,5 4,5% 68,4% 51,1% V11 123 1,5% 1,3 1,8 0,6 1,0% 93,2% 3,2% V12 399 2,9% 2,2 2,8 2,0 3,0% 82,1% 25,4% V13 270 0,9% 3,3 2,2 2,0 3,1% 86,0% 54,6% V14 99 0,9% 0,6 1,4 0,7 0,8% 52,3% 47,1% V15 87 0,2% 0,3 0,8 0,4 0,8% 90,7% 42,9% Average 169 2,2% 1,6 2,2 1,0 1,4% 76,7% 40,6% Stand. Dev. 156 5,1% 1,4 2,1 0,9 1,3% 17,3% 18,0% 98
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For someone with a cheese fetish, all of Sicily was heaven, but I found the the holy grail one morning in Syracuse while wandering through the fresh market. Tucked behind the temporary vendors at the very end of the market was Caseificio Borderi (Borderi Dairy), a small family-run shop specializing in traditional hand-made Sicilian cheese.
I was staying in a hostel, where I could cook my own meals. Since there is nothing better than a breakfast of fresh baked bread drizzled in rich olive oil and topped with a tasty chunk of local cheese, I wedged my way through the throng and into the shop to peruse the mind-boggling array of cheeses in the glass case and on the counter top. Fortunately, one of the owners was happy to educate me about Ragusano, a type of stretched-curd cheese made with whole milk from modicana breed cows, raised exclusively of fresh grass or hay in the provinces of Ragusa and Siracusa, Sicily (see video below). Read More
I had no plans to visit the city of Syracuse when I headed for Sicily. I wanted to experience the Good Friday Procession in Taormina, and perhaps take a tour to the top of Mount Etna, but as for other destinations, I'd figure it out along the way, as usual. Sure enough, on the train from Naples to Sicily I met a couple of women who were on their way to Siracusa, as they called it. Both had emigrated to the United States many years ago and spoke perfect English, but they had been born and raised in Syracuse and were traveling back home to visit family. For half an hour they spun tales about the gorgeous Baroque churches, ancient Greek and Roman ruins, fresh markets, and mouthwatering food in their home town. I was hooked!
Two weeks later I stepped off the train and walked half a block to LOL Hostel, a warm and welcoming hostel in Syracuse that was ideally located midway between the city's two most important attractions, the Archeological Park and Ortygia Island. The next morning I crossed the harbor bridge leading to the island and stopped in front of the Temple of Apollo, Sicily's most ancient Greek temple and the second oldest in the world. Constructed in the 6th century B.C., at the point when Greek architecture was transitioning from wood to stone, its narrowly spaced Doric columns were revolutionary, if not experimental. Indeed, an inscription on the top step on the eastern facade lauds the temple's unique construction:
"Kleomenes, the son of Knidieides built it for Apollo. And he put his hand to the columns; beautiful accomplishments they are."
There could hardly be a better symbol for Syracuse than the Temple of Apollo. Syracuse was founded in 734 B.C. on the island of Ortygia by the Greek city/state of Corinth, at a time when the Greeks were colonizing locations around the Mediterranean. For more than 400 years, during periods of democracy as well as rule by a series of Greek tyrants, Syracuse prospered and gradually extended its influence over much of Sicily and southern Italy. Read More
Though I wasn't lucky enough to witness a live eruption of Mount Etna, a visit to the Alcàntara Gorge provided a striking example of the effects of such a catastrophic event. Around 4,500 years ago, Mt. Moio, a minor cone of Mount Etna, erupted violently and sent waves of molten lava rushing down toward the Ionian Sea. The magma crossed the chilly Alcàntara River, which had already carved a deep canyon through the surrounding limestone, and gradually cooled into a dense layer of black basalt. For at least a thousand years the river, which was much larger and more forceful than it is today, carved through the basaltic rock, leaving a 164-foot high gorge faced with tortured formations and basaltic stone columns.
Theories about how the formations occurred abound. One says that an earthquake occurred during the eruption, allowing the lava to spread out and cool quickly. Another theory is that the lava split into two branches, reuniting at the gorge, where a mass of cold clay soil caused the magma to crystallize instantly. I find both theories unacceptable. As a long-time rockhound and student of geology, I know that rock crystals result when cooling occurs slowly, not rapidly. The eruption most likely deposited a deep layer of magma that would have allowed the basaltic material to cool very gradually, allowing formation of distinctive hexagonal (six-sided) columnar prisms that produced "columnar basalt." Similar formations are found at Devils Postpile National Monument in California and Hegyestu Geological-Interpretive Site in the Kali Basin in Hungary. Read More
My fascination with volcanoes began more than three decades ago, with the eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. As the only major volcanic eruption in the contiguous U.S. in 65 years, it was a huge TV event. Before our eyes, mudslides turned hundreds of square miles of forest into piles of pick-up sticks in split seconds. Fifty-seven people and thousands of animals lost their lives. In the aftermath of the blast, which was equivalent to 1,600 times the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, images revealed a desolate landscape that resembled the surface of the moon. The enormity of it was so inconceivable that when Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument opened in 1983, I hopped in the car to see for myself.
In person, the destruction was even more staggering. The newly paved road snaked through miles of giant splintered tree stumps protruding from a deep carpet of ash. Mammoth tree trunks lay like thousands of naked cadavers, lined up in painfully neat rows pointing away from the mountain, as if awaiting proper burial. Aside from the crystal blue sky, everything was endlessly and shockingly monochromatic gray. The inconceivable power of the volcano held me in its spell.
Fast forward to the Big Island of Hawai'i in 2002, where the volcano gods once again beckoned. On the Kilauea Iki trail, I descended 400 feet from the rim to the still steaming floor of the Kilauea crater. Signs stuck in fissures warned not to stray off the trail, as still-cooling magma lurked beneath areas of thin, unstable crust, yet the way was marked only by cairns of black rocks, set so far apart that they were difficult to locate. I picked my way across carefully, stopping at each rock pyramid to scan the horizon for the next one, before taking a step that might plunge through to super-heated material. Four miles later I climbed the opposite rim, elated that I had just walked across an active volcano. Later that same night I stood on a jagged field of razor sharp lava on a moonless night, watching a fiery red stream of molten lava pitch over the end of land into the ocean far below. Read More
The women began gathering at Varo Church late in the afternoon on Good Friday. Dressed in black from head to toe, with a medallion of the Madonna hanging from royal purple ribbons around their necks, they began final preparations for a Christian ritual that has been performed for centuries in the town of Taormina, Sicily.
In the center of the nave, a large icon of Mother Mary surrounded by white roses and lilies stood affixed to a gold leaf wooden table. At twilight, twelve female bearers would squat beneath long wooden poles attached to the blessed statue and rise as one. Down treacherous steps and cobblestone streets to the doors of the cathedral – the Duomo – they would bear her, where twelve fresh women would step in for the next leg to Santa Caterina church. And so it would go, from church to church, until the sorrowful Mother returned to Varo, where she would repose until the following year's Good Friday procession.
One of the bearers, Vera Bambara, explained the symbolism of the procession, which attempts to recreate conditions as they would have been in the time of Christ. "Our black apparel is a symbol of the grief of Mother Mary as she accompanied Christ during his agonizing walk to his crucifixion. We carry lanterns lit only by candles because there were no lamps in those days, and only women are allowed to carry the Madonna, because only women can truly know her tears." Read More
Years ago, when I was living in Puerto Rico, someone asked me if I drove there or flew. I laughed, assuming the comment was meant as a joke, but as I soon learned, this person was dead serious – he had no idea that Puerto Rico was an island. I was reminded of this incident while making plans to move on from Italy's Sorrentine peninsula to Sicily. When I told my Dad I was taking the train to Sicily he said, "You can't do that, Sicily is an island." In this case, I was not exhibiting geographic ignorance. From Naples, I boarded a train that took me to Villa San Giovanni, a small town at the tip of Italy's boot. Here, after a brief wait, my train was loaded onto a ferry, which carried us across the narrow strait to the Sicilian town of Messina.
The journey is a little tricky, because the 'official' destination of the train is Palermo, which is on the complete opposite side of the island from where I was going. In actuality, when the train arrives in San Giovanni the individual coaches are separated as they are loaded onto the ferry. Upon arrival in Messina the cars are reassembled into two separate trains, one destined for Palermo on the northwest coast, the other bound for Siracusa on the southeast corner of the island. So when boarding in Naples it is extremely important to get on the right carriage, or you might end up somewhere you don't intend to be.
It was a lovely ride through lush green countryside, punctuated by rolling hills and rocky escarpments, but the most fascinating part was at the ferry dock. I stood at the rear of my car and watched as it was uncoupled from the train and rolled onto tracks in the lower level of the ferry. Soon, we were pulling away from the docks for the short trip to Sicily. At this point, passengers are free to leave the train and go up on deck, but here again I need to offer a warning.
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Although we didn't stay at this hotel, we completed our open water diving certification with Diani Marine. My 13 year old daughter and I worked with Suileman (King Solomon as he is better known) and he was fantastic. He was clear, thorough and intuitive. He knew when to push my daughter and was supportive at the same time. The diving... More
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Samantha's love for cooking and baking is homegrown. Her mother and grandmother taught her the basics. But she also gets creative inspiration from her sister, a chef at a French café. Samantha's overall philosophy on food is simple: it should taste good, and make people happy.
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Casserole recipe perfect to make-ahead for your next dinner party or buffet. It's a great way to use leftover cooked turkey or chicken.
Heat oven to 350°F.
Layer wild rice, turkey, green beans and red pepper in 8-inch square ungreased baking dish; top with sauce.
Combine bread crumbs and butter in bowl. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake 45-50 minutes or until edges are bubbly and mixture is heated through.
*Substitute 1 (2-ounce) jar chopped pimiento, undrained.
**Substitute refrigerated Alfredo sauce.
Calories: 370
Fat: 19g
Cholesterol: 85mg
Sodium: 650mg
Carbohydrates: 26g
Dietary Fiber: 2g
Protein: 22g
great mix of flavors
This was really easy to make and delicious. My mother-in-law and husband enjoyed it a lot and have told me "this one is a keeper".Thank you for all the good recipe ideas. I check your site all the time.
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We are flying into Singapore and want to visit both the Indonesian and Malaysian sides of the island (Borneo). We don't care which area we go to first, but would like to visit Tanjung Puting NP, Kuching and Bako NP, and the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Sabah. How best to fly this route, and with who? We will have about 3-4 days in each area but find trying to find internal flight info confusing!!!! Any suggestions appreciated? (Sept trip)We would prefer to book flights before arrival due to limited time frame. Thanks!
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I don't know that much about flying into Kalimantan, flights are sparse and are usually from Indonesia. There may now (my info is about 5 years old) be a small airline between Kalimantan and Sabah/Sarawak.
Between and Sabah and Sarawak you fly Malaysian Air. To get to Tabin, you have to fly from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu. You'll find that your air connections may determine your itinerary. It will likely mean that you lose some time overnighting in KK. Look at the Malaysian Air website, and you can see the flights. We had to overnight in KK before flying to Lahad Datu, then had to overnight again after flying back from Lahad Datu before flying to Kuching. So take a look at the flights, you may find it isn't possible to visit all the places you want in your allotted time.
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I'm guessing the object of your trip is to see orangutans. If so, take a look that this (very long) thread from Thorntree.
It has superb info which has been updated regularly.
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From Singapore to Balikpapan there are flights on Silk Air & Singapore Airlines I believe. Air Asia does flights from Kuala Lumpur to Balikpapan.
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this is a question for Kathie: Your LP reference has apparently been deleted from Thorntree secondary to their cleaning up their site recently. Do you have a copy of this thread you could pass on to us?
Also wondering when you made your trip. Can't seem to find dates in body of TR.
Thank you.
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We were in Borneo in 2005. A long time ago now. It was a remarkable trip.
I'm sorry to see the Thorntree message is not accessible right now. It was writen by a very knowledgeable poster who has lot of experience in Borneo. I do not have a copy, unfortunately.
He contends that the place in Borneo where you are most likely to see oragnutans is the Danum Valley. He also talked about the difficulties accessing Kalimantin.
If I can be of further assistance, let me know.
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Generally speaking it's more complicated to travel across Indonesia than across Malaysia. If I were you I'd limit myself to Malaysia, also given your limited time.
You can then base yourself in Kuching (to visit Kuching and Bako) and Sandakan (for Sepilok, Labuk Bay, Kinabatangan river area). From Kuching to Sandakan it's two flights (Kuching-KK and KK-Sandakan). If you want to visit Tabin, take a bus to Lahad Datu.
To book the flights you can use Airasia: http://www.airasia.com/ . Airasia is cheaper than Malaysian Airlines (it's a discount airline).
FYI, the Tabin reserve is very expensive. But if you want to see wildlife, there is a much better place, which is also much more affordable. This is the Kinabatangan river area:
This is the best place where to spot wildlife in Malaysia.
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The Thorntree discussion is active again, going back to 2003 beginning.
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Thanks, susiean, I expected they would get that back online.
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Badger Basket Bunk Beds: For dolls that measure up to 20 inches high Measures: 11.5"W x 22.25"L x 15"H. All paints and finishes are non-toxic Badger Basket doll bunk beds are made with wood and wood composites Fabric parts are poly/cotton Wipe wood parts clean with a damp cloth and mild detergent as needed Adult assembly required Illustrated instructions included with the Badger Basket bunk beds Approximate assembly time: 15 minutes Warning: choking hazard - small parts. Not for children under three years old.. Price: $23.89
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Installation for generating superheated steam from raw water containing salt using preheaters for heating the raw water. The last preheater, as seen in the flow direction of the raw water, is followed via a control valve by a decompression cylinder. Part of the raw water evaporates and the vapor is withdrawn from the dome of the decomposition cylinder by a compressor which compresses and heats it and discharges it as superheated steam.
1. Apparatus for generating superheated process steam from raw water containing salt, using preheaters for heating comprising
(a) preheaters to impart sufficient heat to raw water containing salt flowing therethrough under pressure to permit subsequent evaporation of said water,
(b) a decompression chamber for collecting a body of unevaporated water and salt above which is a vapor space containing steam, said decompression chamber being free of cooling means to condense the steam therein and at a lower pressure than the raw water containing salt flowing through the preheaters to promote evaporation of water from the raw water
(c) said decompression chamber connected to said last preheater in the flow direction of the raw water flowing through the preheaters,
(d) a control interposed in the flow of raw water between said last preheater and said decompression chamber to regulate the flow of raw water to the decompression chamber, said water partially evaporating with the unevaporated water and salt collecting as said body in the decompression chamber and the evaporated water collecting in said vapor space above said body,
(e) a compressor with its suction side connected to the vapor space of the decompression chamber for withdrawal of steam therefrom and compression and heating of the withdrawn steam to produce superheated steam,
(f) a gas turbine coupled to the steam compressor,
(g) conduit means to flow hot exhaust gases from said gas turbine to said preheaters, the heat of the hot exhaust gases heating the raw water in the preheaters,
(h) a generator also coupled to said gas turbine for generating electricity,
(i) a blow-down line connected to the decompression chamber for passage therefrom of the unvaporized raw water containing salt, and
(j) a heat exchanger inserted into the blow-down line for preheating the flowing stream of raw water before the raw water is further heated by said hot exhaust gases.
2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the preheaters are provided with burners to which fuel and air are fed to generate hot combustion gases which heat the preheaters.
3. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a transport line for transporting the superheated steam is connected from the steam compressor to an injection cooler at the site of use of the steam for generating saturated steam.
4. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein condensers are connected to the blow-down line which conducts the heated unvaporized raw water into and out of said condensers cooled by raw water passing through cooling tubes with stepwise reduced pressure to effect evaporation of part of the unvaporized raw water and condensation of such vapor, and wherein the condensers have collecting tanks for the condensate forming at the cooling tubes.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 265,627 filed May 20, 1981.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an installation for generating superheated process steam from salt-containing raw water, using preheaters for heating the raw water.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For generating superheated steam for steam turbine installations there is employed, as a rule, a high-pressure steam generator (German Published Non-Prosecuted Application 22 43 380) in which a closed water-steam circuit is provided. In this water-steam circuit, high-quality feedwater is used which is kept free of salt and other impurities by processing and filter equipment. Contrary thereto, in chemical operations for coal gasification, in raw-oil pumping or in the processing of oil sand or oil shale, process steam is required which is not fed back into the installation. This means that, for generating superheated process steam for such purposes, large quantities of feedwater must be processed and desalinated, because otherwise salt deposits must be expected, particularly in the evaporation zone, which degrade the heat transfer and cause corrosion of the evaporator tubes.
An object of the present invention is to provide an arrangement in which salt-containing water can be converted into superheated steam without the formation of salt deposits.
With the foregoing and other objects in view, there is provided in accordance with the invention an apparatus for generating superheated process steam from raw water containing salt, using preheaters for heating, comprising preheaters to impart sufficient heat to raw water containing salt flowing therethrough to permit subsequent evaporation of said water, a decompression chamber for collecting a body of unevaporated water and salt above which is a vapor space containing steam connected to said last preheater in the flow direction of the raw water flowing through the preheaters, a control valve interposed in the flow of raw water between said last preheater and said decompression chamber to regulate the flow of raw water to the decompression chamber, said water partially evaporating with the unevaporated water and salt collecting as said body in the decompression chamber and the evaporated water collecting in said vapor space above said body, and a compressor with its suction side connected to the vapor space of the decompression chamber for withdrawal of steam therefrom and compression and heating of the withdrawn steam.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in an installation for generating superheated process steam from salt-containing raw water, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawing in which is diagrammatically illustrated apparatus for carrying out the invention. The principal components and their relationship as seen from the drawing, are preheaters for heating raw water containing salts, followed by a control valve and then a decompression chamber. Water and salt separate from steam resulting from vaporization of part of the raw water. A steam compressor withdraws steam from the decompression chamber, compresses and heats the steam, and discharges the compressed heated steam through a transport line to the site of steam consumption. A gas turbine for driving the compressor may be coupled to a generator. Unevaporated raw water containing salt discharged from the decompression chamber is subjected to stepwise reduction in pressure to vaporize part of the water and condense and recover the condensate as well as treating incoming raw water and cooling the unevaporated water.
In accordance with the invention, the last preheater, as seen in the flow direction of the raw water, is followed via a control valve by a decompression cylinder. The preheaters are designed to impart sufficient heat so that part of the raw water fed-in by the control valve is evaporated in the decompression cylinder; and that the part of the decompression cylinder filled with steam is followed by a steam compressor for superheating and compressing the steam.
An embodiment example is shown in the drawing. Here, a steam compressor which is driven by a gas turbine 2 is provided for superheating the steam. The steam compressor 1 draws vapor from the dome 3 of a decompression cylinder 4, into which heated, salt-containing raw water is fed through an expansion nozzle 5. Through the decompression of the water in the expansion nozzle 5, part of the fed-in raw water evaporates in the decompression cylinder 4, while the rest of the fed-in raw water and the salts contained in the raw water accumulate at the bottom of the decompression cylinder 4. A separator 6 which separates the dome 3 from the remaining content of the decompression cylinder 4 is arranged inside the decompression cylinder 4 to remove drops entrained in the uprising steam. The salt-containing water accumulating at the bottom of the decompression cylinder 4 is withdrawn through drain line 7 and a major part forced by pump 8 through lines 9 and 10, into preheater 11. There, the water is heated to near the boiling point at high pressure and then flows via control valve 12 to the expansion nozzle 5.
Part of the unevaporated water and salt leaving the decompression cylinder 4 through the line 7 flows via a blow-down line 13 and heat exchanger 14 inserted in line 13, to the condensers 15 where the water is further decompressed in steps until it leaves the installation via line 16 through which it is directed to a blow-down tank.
Water which is taken from a supply tank 18 and is brought to an intermediate pressure by a pump 19 serves to cool the individual condensers 15. The water from pump 19 flows through heat exchanging tubes 20, which are arranged in the individual condensers 15 as well as through a water softener 21 arranged between the condensers 15 in the line of the heat exchanging tubes 20. Part of the water pumped by the pump 19 is branched off ahead of the water softener 21 and is returned to the outside. Below the heat exchanging tubes 20, each condenser 15 contains collecting tanks 22 in which the water condensed at the heat exchanging tubes 20 is collected. The water collecting in the collecting tanks 20, i.e. the condensate then flows off to a condensate or distillate tank via a line 23.
The raw water heated in the heat exchanging tubes 20 is collected in a feed-water tank 25 and is forced from there by pump 26 through heat exchanger 14 and preheater 28 with a control valve interposed between them. Exhaust gas from gas turbine 2 heats prehater 11. Preheater 28 is heated by the exhaust gas of the gas turbine 2, which leaves the preheater 11. The preheated salt-containing raw water from preheater 28, flows through line 29; is mixed with the water from the line 9 at the feed-point 30 and the mixture then flows through line 10, preheater 11, control valve 12, nozzle 5 into the preheater 11.
The steam compressor 1 compresses and superheats the saturated steam drawn from the dome 3 of the decompression cylinder 4, without the need for hot, heat-exchanging surfaces for steam superheating, such as, for instance, in a superheater in a steam power generating station. The superheated and compressed steam then passes into a transport line 31, through which it is conducted to the site of the steam consumption. In case superheated steam is not required but only saturated steam is needed there, which latter is normally difficult to transport in a longer transport pipe, an injection cooler 32 with a throttling valve 42 is provided at the location of the consumption. Injection water from a line 33, branched off ahead of the softener 21, is forced by pump 34 through control valve 35 inserted in line 33 into injection cooler 32. Saturated steam is discharged from injection cooler 32.
The gas turbine 2 is coupled to the steam compressor 1, and in addition to a compressor 36 and a generator 37 which can provide, for instance, the electric power for the entire installation. The combustion chamber 38 inserted between the compressor 36 and the gas turbine 2 is supplied from a tank 39 with fuel (gas, oil, etc.) This tank 39 may also be connected to burners 40 and 41 by means of which the preheaters 11 and 28 may be heated.
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text: We've been to the Canton MI Outback at least 60 times in recent years and figured it was time to write a review. Obviously we wouldn't come here that often unless this place offered a consistently good meal at a reasonable price. Their steaks are very good although, in our opinion, not quite as... read more


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The most talented and sexiest man ever. He has had very succesful movies and show. He is in That 70's show, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, Traffic, P.s., Mona Lisa Smile, In good Company, and Oceans 11 & 12. His real name is Christopher, but he changed it to Topher because he hated people calling him Chris.
I want to have my way with Topher Grace.
by Devon King March 19, 2005
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Justin Long is such a Topher Grace.
by Panda Amry September 10, 2009


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Ibis Styles Katherine
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TripAdvisor Reviews Ibis Styles Katherine
Travel Blogs from Katherine
Arrived in Katherine to find we were lucky to be able to get a spot in the caravan park. Grey Nomad season has hit and things have been getting increasingly busy. Luckily we are driving the other direction to most people, so not causing too much trouble on the roads, but we have now had to sit down and plan the next part of our trip so we can book some things in - we have so far had the luxury of being able to do whatever we pleased at the last ...
Mountain goat experience.
Katherine the town and Katherine our daughter- love them both! It may even start me calling Katherine our daughter Katherine instead of Katie - maybe. Decided to visit the Edith Falls today which are at the northern edge of Nitmiluk National park. This was a nice camping and picnic area with waterholes for swimming at a lower level and upper level both fed by waterfalls. Having read the the tourist information about this area we had been attracted to the idea of doing at ...
... like a nice place. Lots of trees and well presented and obviously a popular spot for people to stop. Arrived in Katherine about 3.00 pm to a motel that did not make a good first impression but has got better as the day went on. Facilities in the room very limited such as no crockery or cutlery, flat batteries in the a/con remote, a door that looks automatically if you go out of it and because the key is needed to stay in a special lock under the air con to ...
... we visit, Litchfield, Darwin and Kakadu we are driving back through Katherine again and we now know to book our cruise well in advance. Thursday saw as go for a morning dip in the Thermal Pools in Katherine. The water is once again crystal clear which makes it easy to spot any crocs that may be lurking around. The water was cooler than Mataranka and not as popular. We checked out Knotts Crossing and then ...
Day 120, 121, 122, 123 Katherine Gorge
... but we will be working extra hard to find vegetable oil and do some more woofing cutting back our expenses. We have decided to ditch the second woofing family or rather they have postponed us and the new dates do not really fit with our plans so we'll be on the road again tomorrow for a short drive to see more rock formations at Edith Falls, as we make our way north towards Darwin, via ...


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Richard Beels
Hi there, new user. 2.1.4 on Windows 7.
Using the classic view, sorting by date. i wanted to keep the unread articles at the top of the list so i turned on "Grouped by State". After I did so, Mark as Read doesn't work to toggle a read article back to unread - tried the right click, toolbar button, even ctrl-z. If I change the grouping to ungrouped, it works just fine.
The only way to get an article marked as unread in this view/grouping is clicking on the icon in front of the news title (small text symbol). Everything else (Context menu, Ctrl+z, menu, …) does not work for me either. Seems to be a bug.
Richard Beels
Hi there, thanks for the reply.
Thanks for the workaround. I never knew about clicking the icon. In my defense :-) I've been using rssowl for 2 days now and I'm more of a keyboard guy - much quicker that way and since the point of rss is speed....
If different groupings are in use, it will change the status, just seems to (not) happen when grouping by state is on.
It also works fine if no grouping is used.


text: YOU WILL WAY HOLY SHIT PT 2 Flag By: beastsy (More by author: Most viewed, Newest, Most Thumbs) previous next random - Fav + Fav Comment found this and thought it was funny, thumbs up if you said holy **** <br /> Thank you guys for all the support, you guys got me from 2 to 11 in 1 pic, i had over 2000 thumbs in pt. 1; mind = blown, i will post pt 3 soon Things that will want tn make mu say My **** ! ... Recommend tagsx +1193 Views: 60681 Favorited: 145 Submitted: 08/15/2010 Share On Facebook Remove from favorites Add to favorites Unsubscribe from beastsy Subscribe to beastsy


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Matchup: No. 9 George Washington (24-8, 11-5 Atlantic 10) vs. No. 8 Memphis (23-9, 12-6 AAC)
When: Friday, 6:55 p.m.
Where: Raleigh
What: NCAA Tournament, East Region, Round of 64
Broadcast: TV - TBS
What's new: Tied for third place in the A-10, GW lost 74-55 to VCU in the A-10 semifinals, ending a four-game winning streak. Memphis fell 72-53 to Connecticut in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament, extending a six-game of alternating losses and wins.
History: The Colonials and Tigers have only one prior meeting. GW downed Memphis 69-60 in the 1994 Preseason NIT consolation game at Madison Square Garden.
KenPom: George Washington 41 Memphis 42
RPI: George Washington 29 Memphis 33
Coaches: George Washington - Mike Lonergan; Memphis - Josh Pastner
Leaders: GW - Scoring (Maurice Creek, 14.3), Rebounding (Isaiah Armwood, 8.5), Assists (Joe McDonald, 4.1); Memphis - Scoring (Joe Jackson, 14.3), Rebounding (Shaq Goodwin, 6.6), Assists (Jackson,4.5)
Links: George Washington NCAA Tournament preview
Foggy Bottom 411: Lonergan uses Cal Ripken Jr. for motivation, loves Go-go
Savage: During his press conference on Thursday, Lonergan repeated his recent statements that he's not counting on sophomore Kethan Savage to play in Raleigh. The sophomore guard returned against VCU after sitting out since Jan. 18 with a fractured foot. However, GW's second-leading scorer came out after one minute last Saturday due to soreness.
Key player stat: Over the last eight games, the Colonials are 5-0 when Creek, GW's top 3-point shooter, makes at least three 3's. They're 0-3 when he sinks two or less.
Key team stat: Per KenPom, GW ranks 64th nationally with 34.7 offensive rebounding percentage (a measure of the possible rebounds that are gathered by the offense). Memphis, which doesn't have much of beef inside outside of 6-foot-9 sophomore Shaq Goodwin, struggles to keep teams off the glass.
Tigers: The preview posted just above serves as GW primer, so the goal here is to focus on Memphis, a squad that defeated Louisville twice this season, but can play a maddening brand of basketball for stretches. I caught up with Rob Dauster from NBC Sports' College Basketball Talk website this to talk about the teams facing out local programs in the NCAA's, including Memphis
Attacking the Tigers on defense: "They don't run a ton of offensive sets. Joe Jackson, Mike Dixon (11.8 ppg)and Geron Johnson (8.9) can beat guys off the dribble and Pastner kind of lets them go. It doesn't always work because they don't always make the best decisions. [CSN - Though GW can get a little wild with turnovers, the team's collective smarts and instincts have been key to their success]
"What will throw [Memphis] off is that 1-3-1 zone that GW plays. That gets to everybody. Remember the VCU game [at Smith Center*]. They completely shut down what VCU wanted to do offensively. That's the same kind of team on the offensive end, lots of guards, lots of guys driving to the basket. I think that will work. That's why I'm picking GW to win, because of the 1-3-1. [CSN - Lonergan turned to the "gimmic" defense earlier in the season as a way to keep his starters somewhat rested and out of foul trouble. As Rob said, often teams struggle against the odd formation especially with All-10 defensive performers Armwood and Patricio Garino on the court. However UMass, George Mason and others found openings as those games progressed. Some made shots, some didn't. Memphis struggles from beyond the arc outside of guards Michael Dixon Jr. and Chris Crawford.]
(*) GW won 76-66, but lost the next two games to VCU
GW's depth concerns: "With a healthy Kethan Savage, that top six is good. They can compete with anybody. You were tweeting this out the other day: Whey they're getting shooting from [wing forward] Nemanja Mikic and some kind of rebounding or even five fouls from [power forward] John Kopriva, that's really all they need. Get 10 minutes out of those two guys, make sure people get some rest, stretch the floor, commit some fouls. [CSN - Lonergan will often sub in five reserves early in the game to give them a feel for the action, but overall the group watches most of all. Mikic struggled over the second half of the season, but made 7 of 12 3's in two A-10 Tournament games]


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Woodhaven Townhouses - 13
From $199 / night
Description from the manager
Description from the manager
Bedrooms: 3/
Bathrooms: 2/
Sleeps: 9/
Type: House
This 2 bedroom plus den multi level Woodhaven townhouse backs onto the 15th hole of the golf course and has a view of Mt. Morrisey. It is ski-in/ski-out and features a full kitchen, 2.5 baths, washer/dryer, 4TV/1DVD, complimentary Wireless Internet Access, gas fireplace, BBQ, private garage, and a private hot tub. The dining room table seats 6 people and there is 3 stools at the breakfast bar. This townhouse is 1200 sq ft. It sleeps a maximum of 9 people.
No pets. No smoking
Additional amenities include: sofabed, fireplace, wood/gas gas, bed size 2nd rm queen & TV, TVs/VCR/DVD 4TV's/1DVD, games table x-box in den, number of bathrooms 2.5, ...Read more
About the manager
About the manager
Bear Country Property Management
Bear Country Property Management
- Response rate: 5%
- Response time: A few hours
- Calendar updated: 6 months ago
Overall rating:
4.1 / 5.0
Woodhaven Townhouses - 13 Sun Peaks, British Columbia, Canada
Additional Location Information
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Collide News & Updates
It's a new year, and although we've been quiet on the musical front, we've still been very busy.
As you can see, we now have a brand new Collide website, and online store. We've added lots of new products on the store, and it works much better on mobile devices. In case you're bored, there is news all of the way back to 1998, so feel free to poke around the pictures, or check out the updated discography.
We have a new interview in deVour Magazine. It's a great magazine (200+ pages), with great photography, devoted to Beauty, Art, & Fashion. It's available online, or as a hard copy.
Check it out!!
Here is a pdf of our little interview. Thanks to Toi Green (Lasha) for the interview!
We just wanted everyone to know that even though we haven't posted any news here, we're still alive...working on a few things here and there.
...so don't count us out. We aren't dead.
It's probably best to follow us on Facebook to make sure we don't pop a clog.
Here's a 35 minute video trailer for the "Absolute Grrrls Manifesto [chapter 1] 4 CD Box.
We're track 3 on the first CD! Full information is here on the Alfa Matrix website:
We're offering it for sale from our site also. We're signing all copies from our store for free.
We are happy to announce that one of our songs, "Chaotic" (Oxidized) - Remixed by DJO2, from "Bent and Broken" will be appearing on the upcoming compilation "Absolute Grrrls Manifesto". It's a 4 CD set. There's so much to this release that it's best to see their mini-site dedicated to this release
Side Line reviews Bent and Boken. Thanks to Elise Din for the review. Check it out here.
...Over now to the remixes on the 1st disc. There are several remarkable and even outstanding pieces. The remix of "Mind Games" by Skinny Puppy's cEvin Key and Ken Marshall is a slow opener, but with deep resonating vibes and again the essential, sensual vocals of kaRIN. The "Great Apes Mix" of "In The Frequency" is more into solid guitar riffs, sho
We've been working on something rather exciting lately. We've been going back through all of our computer back-ups, tape back-ups, DATs, old files, and old computers.
We've compiled instrumental versions of our entire album collection. This also includes our Secret Meeting album and singles. On most of the albums, we have also included an unreleased song, or remix. As far as we know, this isn't anything that any band has ever done, as far as an entire catalog of music goes.
We are not George Lucas.
Check out the full review here. Thanks Mike Bax for the review!
"This is a get on your blasters and outer space suits and fire up this release kind of goodness that Collide keeps evolving with each release!"
Thanks Jules!! We really appreciate your review!!
Read the full review here.
Is it just me or does time go way too fast?
It is really important for us to make great things...whether it is music, or design. Thanks Lane for letting us... http://t.co/JybJ4R5WJ3
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Our awesome friend Shikhee from Android Lust is having a Kickstarter. Check it out here... http://t.co/AQbTP4smAj
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Busy making lots of plant earrings!! Yes, we really do make each and every one. The first batch of orders just... http://t.co/qky3FpfqmJ
It's an earring with a plant. Please share!!! http://t.co/rV6Cj1A2Rp http://t.co/i8FBlWxLB5
We noticed a lot of people were still asking where they could get thsese...so here's a direct link.
Our friend Wade Alin of Christ Analogue is in a tough situation trying to raise his family with a daughter who... http://t.co/SRywyIpYIy