US Police Beat Shopper Unconscious

Courtesy Daily Mail. “The man body slammed to the ground at a Walmart outside Phoenix, Arizona, was trying to save his 8-year-old grandson from a being trampled after the boy was knocked down during an uncontrollable stampede at a video game display.

Police slammed Jerald Allen Newman, 54, face-first into the concrete floor when a security guard reported that he stuffed two video games in his pants. Mr Newman's wife says he was just trying to free his hands to help his grandson.”

Apparently the cop kicked Mr. Newman’s legs out from under him and slammed him so hard into the concrete floor that the man was bloodied and knocked unconscious.

Does anybody else believe that since Mr. Newman had not left the store he had not technically stolen anything yet?

Mr. Newman said he was trying to protect his 8-year old grandson, who was also treated in hospital for injuries sustained by the crowds and had intended to pay for the videos when he left the store.

Why would a thief stand for hours in line to steal a 50% off video game? Obviously he intended to purchase this and was trying to protect his grandson. The police acted too soon and too aggressively.

Read more here.

Happy Thanksgiving to our Usian friends

Goldman Sachs gets 2.9 billion from US taxpayers

Photo courtesy AP from Huffington Post Shahien Nasiripour.

Is it just me? I just don’t get these corporate bailouts.

AIG got 182 billion, and Goldman Sachs got 2.9 billion of that money. Add that to the bailout funds received by all the companies who contributed to the current recession/mortgage foreclosure crisis, and I cannot imagine how much money has been given to these companies. What a win-win situation for them – earn huge amounts of money by fleecing the American people, and when the deck of cards you have built collapses get the US Government to cover your losses. It is said they are “too big to fail”. If they are too big to fail, then they are too big. Why not let the free market work, let them fail, and have a fresh start here. Are these mega bailouts a precedent for future corporate recklessness?

Yet, so many American families are homeless due to the foreclosure crisis. As a real estate broker I’ve worked with many families who could afford their mortgage but had missed a few payments due to illness or some other one-time incident and could now pay. Sometimes all they need is a very small loan modification to get back on their feet and pay their mortgage regularly again. Often when they tried to get their mortgage back on track again the lenders didn’t want to modify even a small amount and forged ahead ruthlessly with the foreclosure.

A subsidiary owned by Goldman Sachs, Litton Loan, was one of the larger sub-prime lenders who profited from the housing boom. Mortgages were being made so carelessly, that someone on minimum wage was able to buy a substantial house due to the super low “teaser” mortgage payments that would increase so much over time the home would become unaffordable. This little fact was often not explained to the unsuspecting homebuyer when the loan was taken out.

So...let’s see if I understand this. The US Government has paid billions of dollars in bailout money to the large corporations who contributed to the recession by reckless lending practices.

Meanwhile more and more Americans are homeless, and without healthcare.

The irony here is that the American taxpayer is footing the bill.

Yeah, makes perfect sense to me now. Unfortunately.

States running out of home buyers

I read an interesting article today that states are running out of homebuyers. The article mentions the top 8 States that have this problem.

I was a real estate broker in Florida with my own brokerage for 20 years, I have never seen anything like the last few years. Home prices at least doubled, and some homes tripled in price. Little 2 bedroom starter homes with 600 square feet that used to be priced at $60,000 to $75,000 were within a few months selling for $150,000 to $175,000. The increase in prices were so sharp I likened it to the Space Shuttle launch.

Fuelling this increase were exotic mortgages. Mortgage lending requirements were loosened so much that people who could not afford these prices were approved anyway with an exotic package of “teaser” rates that homebuyers didn’t understand that allowed an artificially low mortgage payment for a few years.

When I left Florida in September most of the homes for sale were in foreclosure. The value of the homes had plummeted. If the sellers wanted to sell they had to offer their home as a “short sale”. This means offering your home for sale for less than the mortgage value. The little starter home that has a mortgage of $150,000 could sell for as little as $50,000. This means a $100,000 loss for the bank and ruined credit for the home seller.

I have read many articles as to why there is a shortage of home buyers. Most articles stop short at the real reason there is a home buyer shortage.

The Florida Association of Realtors recently concluded that the real estate market's problems were caused by buyers who were “sitting on the fence” who refused to buy. While that may be true, it's not the reason there is a widespread shortage of buyers.

Are buyers afraid to buy! Probably. Home prices are dropping and it’s hard to tell if they have reached bottom. I don’t think this is the reason, however, because the price drop is not as steep has it has been, and if you live in a home for the next 5 years home values should stabilize.

Here is the number 1 reason that the US is running out of homebuyers, and I have not seen this addressed anywhere yet.

1. Many home sellers are in foreclosure!

2. Home sellers usually become home buyers.

3. They are unable to get another mortgage because of their foreclosure and their ruined credit.

4. So.....they are unable to buy another home.

5. These previous home owners become renters instead of buyers.

It's that simple!

Americans and Canadians are similar - but different

Mary Kool holds a rose outside a church in Tucson, Ariz., Friday before the funeral of U.S. judge John Roll. Photo by Morry Gash, The Associated Press.

I read an interesting article in the Guelph Mercury: “Arizona shooting raises unsettling issues” which compares some differences between Canadians and Americans.

The shooting in Arizona highlights differences in attitude between the two countries in relation to guns, and whether an affordable health care program that would have addressed the gunman’s mental health problems would have prevented this tragedy.

Many Americans do not believe that health care should be made available for everyone. Most Canadians feel that everyone should have access to health care (including mental health care) and that we are all healthier if everyone has access.

Further, the current political rhetoric is full of “it’s not my fault, we are a nation who embrace individualism, therefore, we are only responsible for our own actions”. This does not seem to address that people with mental health issues may have difficulty understanding that a political opponent who says "Get on Target for Victory in November - Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly," does not mean go and shoot someone.

Tim D'Annunzio, House GOP candidate for North Carolina's 8th Congressional district, held an unusual fundraiser last year at Jim's Guns Indoor Shooting Range in Fayetteville, N.C. The $25 ticket got guests a plate of North Carolina barbecue, sweet tea, and a semi-automatic machine gun magazine, and a raffle ticket for a chance to win an AR-15 assault rifle. Guns are so engrained in the American psyche. This is very disturbing?

I believe if your political campaign remarks cause someone who is mentally unstable to get a gun and shoot and kill people, you are also responsible for the carnage.

It’s not good enough to dismiss the shooting as “just a random lunatic with a gun who shot some people at a grocery store”.