For all of you law school students out there who are probably studying for your final exams and for everyone else who just wants a good laugh; here is an interesting fact pattern that I could envision appearing on any criminal law or real property exam. You own a building, the Empire State Building, which is worth 2 billion Dollars has about 86 stories and is illuminated in cool colors all the time. What crimes were committed if another party: creates fake documents, fake notary seal, files the documents in the city clerk’s office, who actually believes in the authenticity of these documents, and transfers the deed to the Empire State Building to such party? More importantly, all this happens in 90 minutes.

For all of you who think that I just came up with this fact pattern on my own, I did not. This actually happened: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,460866,00.html

In today’s troubled economy, I am surprised that there are still people out there who are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on ridiculous gifts. I honestly think that when people are giving something to someone they should first think if they would want something like that in their house.
Although I have to say that the underwear repair kit may be useful today.
Please read on: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081202/od_nm/us_stupid;_ylt=AvsCvFnHerDpsKafgPUDjAntiBIF

Ford’s and GM’s CEOs are no longer flying to Washington in private jets to beg Congress for 25 billion dollars; they are taking a long leisurely drive. Each CEO is driving a midsize hybrid to show how environmentally conscious they are. This publicity stunt is intended to show that Ford’s and GM’s CEOs really are desperate and they will not waste taxpayer’s money (Ford’s CEO even agreed to earn one dollar for three years, at least without any undisclosed bonuses). More importantly, this stunt is intended to show that Ford’s and GM’s CEOs are confident in the cars that their companies make and they are not below them.

Personally, I think that GM, Ford, and Chrysler should have been at the forefront of innovation decades ago and should have made better and more advanced cars then any other automaker in the world so that they would still be the most dominant and profitable automakers in the world. However, that is not that case. Notwithstanding this fact, America cannot afford to loose its entire industrial base, as automakers make up a large majority of it, and we already lost most of it to China and India, because if we are ever involved in any war, America needs the capability to produce its own weaponry. Additionally, America cannot become the nation of accountants, lawyers, doctors, and other service personnel.

In this end, I think having GM’s and Ford’s CEOs drive regular cars to Washington is a great idea. Having driven these same cars not so long ago, I can honestly attest that they are not as good as comparable Japanese cars. Since this is probably the first time in a really long time that any of these CEOs have gotten out of a private limousine or a private jet, this stunt will finally show to them that their companies have to do a lot more to improve their cars before American consumer will want to buy them again.

For further information, please read the following articles:
http://www.bloomberg.com/
http://www.nydailynews.com/

As many of you know, during the past week 10 gunmen attacked several institution in the Indian city of Mumbai.  Notwithstanding the fact that the Indian authorities completely screwed up the rescue and had to wait 10 hours before any SWAT team arrived (Mumbai, a city of 14 million people, has no SWAT team and its police is armed with nothing but sticks and WWI rifles) and that close to 200 people died, there is another story which was not covered as well by many media organizations.  The story is of a Lubavich Chabad house in Mumbai, which is a Jewish religion center of the ultra orthodox Jewish sect.  The whole purpose of these centers, and there are thousands of them throughout the world, is to provide outreach to the Jewish community in that particular area.  They provide religious services, kosher food, etc. These gunmen singled out this center among all other religious institutions in Mumbai specifically because its members are Jewish and massacred and tortured most of its inhabitants (except for a an Indian nanny who hid in a laundry room and a two year old boy).

I generally am a moderate, who does not discuss my opinions on Islamic extremism and on the Arab/Israeli conflict, but I think that this event shows exactly what the militant Islam extremists want to do (this includes Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah).  No matter how much Israel or the United States appease the Arabs, what concessions are made, or how much oil we buy, Islamic extremists will always want one thing: the destruction of Israel.  They will never allow Israel or any Jew in Israel to survive and anyone who thinks otherwise is deceiving himself.

For more information please read  the following articles:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081201/ap_on_re_mi_ea/india_moshe_6

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5750

By: Dmitry Chelnitsky

One of the biggest stories of 2008 is the state of the global economy.  Lately, it seems, every day brings another peace of gloomy economic news.  Nevertheless, prior to delving into the current conditions of the economy it is important briefly to describe how we got into this mess.

We need to begin in the 1980s and even 1970s.  At that time, the only way that people could get a loan was to go to their local bank and ask for one (it is true that some companies could sell bonds or use other methods).  Ones the bank gave the person a loan, the bank would keep the loan on its balance sheet for the life of the loan, and, unless the bank went out of business or merged with another bank, the person would be paying money to the same bank for the life of the loan.  However, during the S and L scandal, the government was saddled with the loans and mortgages of hundreds of banks and it simply did not know what to do with them.  As a result, the government put the loans on an auction market and sold them to many Wall Street investment banks.  These banks were not traditional lenders, they were not in business of giving loans, and as such, they needed to get rid of these loans as quickly as possible.

Although the investment banks really did not know what to do with mortgages and other loans they knew how to sell securities, like stocks and bonds.  As a result, these investment banks packaged these loans together and sold them off in bundles to other individuals, like insurance companies, mutual funds, hedge funds, pension plans, etc.  Quickly, many investment bankers realized that they could make a fortune by simply buying loans from banks and than reselling them to others.  The banks were happy to agree to sell the loans because they would have no risk of loss and have a small profit for originating the loans (giving the money to the debtors).  Eventually, these investment banks started to securitize everything (made into securities and sold) including car loans, insurance payouts, lottery winnings, even anticipated payouts from aged whiskey, etc.

Some of the buyers of these loans wanted some protection from the risk that the loans they are bought will devaluate in value.  As a result, insurance companies agreed to pay these purchasers a certain amount if the underlying loans started to default.  As the time went on these loans, investment banks started to package these loan securities into other securities and this created CDOs, which are like mutual funds for debt.

In the late 1990s, the Federal Government started an initiative which called for everyone have a house (these initiatives were primarily the result of lobbying by groups like ACORN and liberal Democrats).  As a result, the Government forced many banks to lend to people who should not have received a loan and not bought a house.  The banks were not faultless.  They were happy to issue these loans, because they knew that that they will be able to turn around and sell them the next day.

In the 2000s, the house prices started sharply to increase, partially because anyone could get a loan and partially because everyone thought that investing in real estate guaranteed profits and you could make triple your money in less than four years, at least in some areas.

Eventually, when the oil prices started to go up and many adjustable loans reset, many individuals realized that they could not pay their mortgages.  As a result, foreclosures started to rise and the prices for real estate started to fall.  What many people do not realize today is that the housing bubble started in March of 2007 and maybe event at the end of 2006.  However, this did not affect the economy yet.  In addition, what many people do not know is that in September of 2007 something dramatic started to happen.  All of a sudden, many mortgages started to go into default and many securitized loan obligation started to be worthless.  Although much of the other securitized debt was completely fine and was not effected by sub-prime mortgages, all securities debt started to be unpopular and people simply stopped buying it.  This included both securitized debt secured by commercial real estate, car loans, and credit card receivables, etc.

Ultimately, since by this point in time the banks were dependant on securitization for lending, they stopped being able to lend.  Unlike the old days, when the banks kept all of the loans, the banks had no cash reserves to give loans.  In fact, by January 2008, the banks have run out of cash and could not lend anymore other than in some rare situations.  As a result, excess to capital for large purchases and refinancing of debt even by the most secure debtors became very scares.  In addition, the prices for real estate continued to fall and foreclosures rose even more.  This caused a spiral affect, which led to a never-ending loop that led straight down into an economic abyss.

Finally, the black September arrived.  Although several large companies were on the verge of collapse prior to September (Bear Stearns, being a good example), no one was prepared that Lehman Brothers would collapse due to inability to refinance its debt.  At the same time, AIG and other insurers, which insured the securitizations, started to be under severe pressure as well and needed to be bailed out by the Federal Government.  These events caused a severe market disruption that ultimately led to conditions we face today.  At one point, the situation became so bad that if something was not done the credit markets would have collapsed and the whole economy would have been ruined.

Although in September unemployment was already rising, it was primarily centered in areas that dealt with finance and real estate.  In September, the floodgates opened.  In the months of October, unemployment rose more in a single month than virtually in any month in history.  November promises to be as bad, if not worse.  In the end, consumers seeing their stock investments halved in a matter of months, their house prices collapse, and facing a severe risk of unemployment started to pull back on many purchases, especially big-ticket items, like cars and homes.  This led to the collapse of the auto industry and further cut the prices for housing.

Even though the government tried to improve financial conditions, its efforts were simply too small and too late.  The 700 billion dollar bailout plan came too late and was diverted to re-inject capital into the banks instead of buying toxic assets.  The plan did not do one basic thing; it did not reopen the credit markets and kept the securitization market closed.

The situation is deteriorating.  Today the markets are on a teetering of collapse.  They are very jittery and every peace of news sends the markets 5 to 10 percentage points in one direction or the other.  The jobs are still being lost at an unprecedented rate and no one seems to know how to fix this situation.

In recent days, President Elect Barak Obama introduced his economic team and the markets relied.  I hope that this team can restart the economy before it collapses.

In the next installment, I will discuss the worst-case scenario and the best-case scenario for the economy.

Dmitry Chelnitsky is an attorney licensed to practice in the state of New York. You can visit his website at: http://www.chelnitsky.com

A hospital in New York City is being sued for 100 million dollars by a woman who had her hands and legs cut off by hospital as a result of an infection from a kidney stone removal! Her lawyer claims that hospital didnt do necessary check on her bloodwork when she was was discharged initially which resulted in her losing both arms, legs, and vision in one eye as a result.

“[M]ullings’ lawyers say there was no blood test. She was sent home, and when her fiancé brought her back the next day, an infection was raging. It choked off the blood flow to her extremities. After gangrene set in, her hands turned black, her feet turned black, all four limbs had to be amputated.

Crazy! As a law student speaking, I definitly think the hospital will be liable to some extent here, if procedure for reasonable doctor in that specialty would have done the blood work. Check out the article here.

UPDATED: CBS has a better description of the incident, including a picture of the woman. See it here.

Today the government announced plans to bailout struggling CitiGroup, whose stock had taken a beating from the global economic crisis. The bailout promises to inject 20 Billion into Citi and guarantee over 300 Billion of Citi’s assets. On this news the stockmarket rallied from being down to about 7.3K in a figure we havent seen in a while. See article here

Meanwhile, President Bush is meeting with treasury department secretary Henry Paulson regarding the current crisis. He is hinting that more such bailouts are on the way. See article here

Opinion: I am personally very hesitant about bailing out these companies with taxpayer dollars. (See the Big 3 bailout article here) These corporations got themselves into this mess on their own, so why should we pay for the lavish “free-for-all” speding and stupid decisions of these companies executives? The problem is that its not so simple. Citibank is one of the largest banks in the world, and like AIG, its failture will cause monumental ripples through the economy. Like with the auto industry, such failture of Citi will result in a loss of thousands of jobs, further reduced lending, and a reduction in competition between large banks which is so important to our anti-monopolistic ideals. Like the auto industry, the banks made huge mistakes when times were good with sub-prime mortgages and now they are paying for it, and so are we.

Dear readers: Do you think we should continue this trend of bailing out struggling companies? We would love to hear your comments.

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent according to a test by the National Civic Literacy Board. “How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don’t understand the American experience? added the Boards chairman.

Some stupidity:

• Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to “supervise the first televised presidential debates.
• Forty percent of respondents, meanwhile, incorrectly believed that the US president has the power to declare war, while 54 percent correctly answered that that power rests with Congress.
• ONLY 16% answered correctly: Why do free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning?

This just goes to show the people elected cannot even pass exams we expect from people who are trying to become citizens of this country.  These leaders should be embarrased. The problem is that there is to much of a focus on reality tv, celeb gossip and other “stupid news” which takes away from many real issues.

Read the full article Here.

Updated: Take the test Here and let us know how you do in the comments if you wish! Thanks Dailykos!

Just yesterday we wrote an Article On Canada’s Supreme Court permitting obese people to get two seats for one price. Read it Here.

Today I stumbled upon an “unfortunate” consequence of a poor woman sitting next to one of these passengers on a Virgin Atlantic flight to Los Angeles. She was crushed when the obese woman lifted her armrest to sit next to her and had to go to the hospital with multiple injuries. Good thing most US airlines require such passengers to buy two seats to fly.  Read Article Here.

BullDog Coffee Shop

20% of Coffee shops in Amsterdam are set to close from legislation passed which limits shops being too close to schools. Coffee shops in Amsterdam are a major tourist attraction, with the government “tolerating” small amount of “soft drug” use.
Read Article on Yahoo Here.

Check out this old youtube video asking people about drug use.

Do you think the US should allow such coffee shops outside of residential areas and therefore allow for tolerance of “soft drugs”?