Post Number 3: Below the Zenith Bazaar

Sub-prime mortgages are killing America. That may be a bit drastic, but the US housing and loaning situation is not in a good place right now. Banks are foreclosing upon houses more than ever before. This trend could really mess up the economy. I was once told, by the best teacher ever, that this is a cyclical market. What it will lose, it will probably gain back, at some point. But what if it never does? MarketWatch (a financial information website that provides business news, analysis and stock market data) analyst firm Stifel Nicolaus (no relation to Steve Stifler) claims that "the rapidly increasing scope and depth of the problems in the mortgage market suggest that the entire sector has plunged into a downward spiral similar to the subprime woes whereby each negative development feeds further deterioration", he calls it a "vicious cycle" and adds that they "continue to believe conditions will get worse". If this company is correct, what is going to happen? Will the currently booming economy join the downward trend? Will the subprime market begin to affect more harshly the upper class in various ways? Will many factors cause the US to fall out of the ranks of world super powers? Most likely not, but anything is possible unless we fix the problem.

An article in the Wall Street Journal proposes a solution to the problem. When the sub-prime buyers signed their fixed-rate mortgages, that was the beginning of the end for them. They could afford the “starter loan rate, but then the rates reset higher, and they can no longer pay. The idea for a fix is the brainchild of Sheila Bair, the federal bank regulator. She preaches that banks should convert the subprime loans from their fixed rate status to the currently lower, variable rate. This, she says, would benefit both parties, leaving many sub-prime buyers living in their homes, and banks (although getting less of an income stream) foreclosing fewer houses. A few companies are already responding. Troubled Countrywide Financial announced this week that it will modify the terms of $16 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages through the end of next year. Countrywide has already allowed more than 30,000 customers to restructure their mortgages and will contact an additional 52,000 to offer refinancing options.

Another idea making its rounds in Washington is to ask lenders to take a small, 10%-15%, haircut on these subprime loans but then bring in the Federal Housing Administration to insure the rest. This could spell disaster, if the housing market continues to decline, so it would not be the best idea.

I believe that the government will not save America. America’s housing market, sub-prime market, and future overall economy lies in the hands of the evil corporations that plague our world. I hate corporations for many reasons: they don’t care about their customers; all they care about is money, money, money. They drive prices up through the roof just because they can. But now America is in their hands. If they choose to prove me wrong in my generalizations, America can be okay. If they can follow in the tracks of Country-Wide Financial, they can help our country revitalize itself. Hopefully Sheila Bair gets through to them; but even if she does I will still hate corporations.

Post Number 2: Chimps and Limps

Man 1: $3… COME ONE COME ALL TO SEE AN ACTUAL HUMAN LEG SEVERED FROM ITS BODY!
Man 2: Ummm… that’s mine… can I have that back?
Man 1: NO! I FOUND IT, IT IS MINE!

Did you ever think a conversation like this could happen? Well, turns out this did happen। A South Carolina man, John Wood, who stored his severed leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the North Carolina man, Shannon Whisnant, who found it. As farfetched as this sounds, it is a big issue. This could set a precedent for future cases of the same sort (as weird as that also sounds). No one can argue that the leg is not John Wood’s, but is it possible that since he lost the property where it was stored, the leg no longer belongs to him? Could this case be ruled by a kindergarten saying, “Finders keepers losers weepers?” Interestingly enough, I am learning about this in one of my Jewish studies class. According to Jewish sources, if a man does not specifically tell the fiduciary to take care of the valuable object, the fiduciary should morally take care of it, knowing it is important, but is not required by law to take care of it. The fiduciary should now steal the object he is safekeeping. If a fiduciary gives away the item he is looking after, and the man it was given to knows it was not the person’s to sell, he is at fault for accepting it. So according to Jewish law, Mr. Whisnant is at fault and must return the item! Case closed.
In a completely unrelated story, a chimp wants to become an Austrian citizen. Although chimpanzees may be smarter than many humans I know, they are not humans. This is just weird. Can dolphins be humans? Can spiders be humans too then? This would set a precedent that could open a can of worms. But in the end, this would never happen. (If it happens, I will go to Carolina and try to buy that leg off of John Wood.)
The tort of slander and libel are unclear to me. Where is the line of free speech and defamation? What if there is no way of proving the falsehood or truth of a statement? What if the line between opinion and fact is too blurry? The idea of qualified privilege seems to be too easily taken for granted. Who judges whether the public NEEDS to know a certain piece of information? Absolute privilege is completely hypocritical to the anti-defamation idea. Just because you are in court, does that mean that if the court allows you to say falsehoods, you can? Doesn’t make much sense. What about rumors? Is spreading rumors slander? Wouldn’t many of us be serving time in the pen at this point? West Bloomfield would probably be wiped off the map. Think about that. ‘Till next time… Fat Al