Shift on Iran? 05/31/2006 04:31:00 pm by Dan Krohn

	It appears that there has just occured a major shift of the U.S. position concerning the Iranian nuclear effort. It was announced that the U.S. would be willing to join European nations in discussions with Iran concerning its nuclear program. However, there are strings attached. Apparently as a condition for U.S. participation in talks, the Iranians must first halt their nuclear efforts. It remains to be seen whether or not the offer is viewed as real. However, it is at least apparent movement, which is a good thing.

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Compassion in the Courtroom 05/13/2006 01:24:44 pm by Dan Krohn

	Yesterday I was in court, and the courtroom was packed. The judge was not yet present, and we all waited our turns with varying degrees of patience. A middle aged woman, accompanied by her teenage daughter, was in the front of the courtroom talking with a court clerk. Suddenly she threw back her head and wailed beginning a grande mal seizure. All other activity froze. With a combination of calm and speed, another woman from the back of the courtroom appeared at her side. An experienced nurse, she knew what was happening and maneuvered the stricken woman into a safe position while calming her panicked daughter. A bailiff called 911, and a constable who was present rushed to the woman’s side. While the nurse worked, the constable held the woman in place with gentle firmness and stroked her head - reminding her to breathe. In a few moments the seizure had passed and the paramedics were on the scene. As they checked vital signs, the nurse wrote her name and cell phone on a slip of paper. She handed it to the daughter telling her to call if she needed help - just before the girl went to the ambulance with her mom. One could not avoid being struck by not only the nurse’s skill, but by the extraordinary compassion shown by both the nurse and that constable. The woman and her daughter were black, the nurse white, and the constable Latino. No one seemed to notice. May it soon be thus for everyone, everywhere, all the time.

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Mortgage fraud 05/10/2006 03:49:49 pm by Dan Krohn

	Recently I was speaking on how NOT to finance a business and was surprised by the reaction I received to one of the topics. My mistake, I should not have been surprised - but it was a bit shocking how many were unfamiliar with the scam. So here's an alert for the unwary. Whenever there is a real estate boom, a substantial period of generally rising prices, this old scam returns. It works with new home purchases, and occasionally refinancings, and home equity loans in the same way. It takes a borrower who really needs/wants a substantial chunk of cash and either cannot get a loan otherwise or wants the lower rates that come with home financing. The scam is usually worked by a shady mortgage broker working in tandem with an equally dishonest appraiser. The drill is simple. A loan application is submitted with an appraisal for far more than the real estate is worth. Then the borrower gets a big chunk of cash at closing (or under the table just after closing) in excess of the amount paid to the seller (or in a refinance, the amount needed to pay off the old loan). The mortgage broker gets a substantial fee, often in five figures, and the broker pays his appraiser friend . An example may help clarify this scam. Let’s say Mr. And Mrs. John Doe have found the home of their dreams, which is priced at $260,000. However, after a down payment they will have no money left for furnishings and some other projects they have in mind. “Creative” mortgage broker tells them this is no problem. Dishonest appraiser values the home at $400,000, and the Doe family takes out a 90% mortgage. So after the down payment there is $364,000, and once the sellers are paid, there remains $104,000 in cash - let’s round off to $100,000 to cover closing costs. Now a fee of say $30,000 goes to the mortgage broker and $70,000 goes to the Doe family for whatever purposes they have in mind. Easy, but .... The Doe family now has to make payments on a $364,000 mortgage, which might be tough. If both Mr. And Mrs. Doe are working and one gets laid off, this could be very tough. And what if fate strikes in the form of a job transfer or family crisis, which requires the Doe family to move. Unless years have passed and the market has continued to rise ( which is the wager that the Doe’s made with this deal), the Doe’s are looking at bringing a substantial chunk of change to their closing when they sell the house, and they might not be able to. Oh well, people have defaulted on loans before - it’s not the end of the world. But in this case it might come close. At some point the economy cools and these defaults are happening too often, which inspires the lenders to take a close look. When that happens, such borrowers are going to learn about Title 18 Section 1014 of the United States Code, which states: “whoever knowingly makes any false statement or report, or willfully overvalues any land, property or security for the purpose of influencing in any way ...” The statute goes on to describe just about any federally regulated or insured lender; that is, just about every institution that would have made the loan, then concludes, “shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.” The borrowers who lose their homes to foreclosure now get room and board at taxpayer expense.

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Introduction 05/03/2006 06:43:14 pm by Dan Krohn

	Welcome to my blog. At the outset in this first entry, I want to alert the reader to the purpose and scope of this effort. First, this blog will be personal - not in the sense that you will be given a bite by bite description of my meals throughout the day, but rather in that this blog will undoubtedly reflect my interests and opinions on various issues. As an attorney, this blog will deal often with legal issues. Yet, as a philosopher, I will from time to time attempt to look at issues from a different perspective and a bit more deeply than much of what is available. You, readers, will be the judge of my success in that regard. And, lastly, as one who is quite involved in volunteer work for the arts, especially classical music, from time to time there will be entries on topics not related to law, current events, and philosophy. In this introduction, I should like to openly alert readers to a couple of major concerns of mine. These are likely to be recurring themes, openly or underlying. First, I consider myself (and the others living in the United States) very lucky to be living in a democracy. However, for a government of the people to survive, the people must do their work. Over the last few decades I've discerned a trend towards the populace in general not doing the work. People are simply not reading enough, having substituted television. Television is a wonderful medium, but it is ill suited to providing the in depth analysis of issues which people in a democracy need in order to preserve that democracy. Second, our society has become one increasingly focused on the short term. There are many possible reasons for this, but it is undoubtedly true. From time to time this blog will explore why this might be so, and the dangers in an exclusively short term outlook. So with this introduction, I welcome you to my blog effort, hoping to provide food for thought. In the final analysis, that is my purpose. I do not need people to agree with me, but I do need people with whom to carry on conversation reflecting thought. So if I provoke thought, I will have succeeded.

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