25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis

TIME via CNN.com ^ | February 13, 2009

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Angelo Mozilo

The son of a butcher, Mozilo co-founded Countrywide in 1969 and built it into the largest mortgage lender in the U.S. Countrywide wasn't the first to offer exotic mortgages to borrowers with a questionable ability to repay them. In its all-out embrace of such sales, however, it did legitimize the notion that practically any adult could handle a big fat mortgage. In the wake of the housing bust, which toppled Countrywide and IndyMac Bank (another company Mozilo started), the executive's lavish pay package was criticized by many, including Congress. Mozilo left Countrywide last summer after its rescue-sale to Bank of America. A few months later, BofA said it would spend up to $8.7 billion to settle predatory lending charges against Countrywide filed by 11 state attorneys general.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Funny; Chris Dodd and Barney Frank aren't on the list.

[Dapper 26]

Countrywide would not have offered subprime loans if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac didn’t buy them. The problem isn’t the lenders as many in Washington want us to believe.

[Mrs. Don-o]

bttt

[BlueCat]

And Time wonders why they’re losing customers.

[smokingfrog]

Here is the flawed Time list:

1. Angelo Mozilo – Co-founder and former head of Countrywide
2. Phil Gramm – Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee from 1995 through 2000
3. Alan Greenspan – Former chairman, Federal Reserve
4. Chris Cox – Former chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission
5. American Consumers
6. Hank Paulson – Former Secretary of the Treasury
7. Joe Cassano – Founding member, AIG’s financial-products unit
8. Ian McCarthy – CEO, Beazer Homes
9. Frank Raines - Former chairman and CEO, Fannie Mae
10. Kathleen Corbet – Former CEO, Standard & Poor’s
11. Dick Fuld – Former CEO, Lehman Brothers
12. Marion and Herb Sandler – Former heads, World Savings Bank
13. Bill Clinton – Former U.S. President
14. George W. Bush – Former U.S. President
15. Stan O’Neal – Former CEO, Merrill Lynch
16. Wen Jiabao – Premier, China
17. David Lereah – Former chief economist, National Association of Realtors
18. John Devaney – Hedge fund manager
19. Bernie Madoff – Ponzi scheme orchestrator
20. Lew Ranieri – Father of mortgage-backed securities
21. Burton Jablin – Programmer at Scripps Networks, which owns HGTV
22. Fred Goodwin – Former chairman and CEO, Royal Bank of Scotland
23. Sandy Weill – Former chairman and CEO, Citigroup
24. David Oddsson – Former Prime Minister, Iceland
25. Jimmy Cayne – Former chairman and CEO, Bear Stearns

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Some I agree with - some not.

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see what you think of this one

[Mad Dawgg]

Where is Barney Frank on that list? Or Chris Dodd?

[Psycho_Bunny]

Is it just me or are there no "currently in power" Democrats on that list.

Also, "Consumers" like me? I don't think so. Screw you, Time.

PS, hope you have fun on your inevitable bankruptcy.

[dragnet2]

Here's Bush in his speech pushing home loans for millions of unqualified minorities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW9viaJatpo

[dragnet2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW9viaJatpo

[jonrick46]

I agree with Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. I also agree with the blame going to Phil Gramm. Don't forget Chuck E. Schumer.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

hope you have fun on your inevitable bankruptcy

Do you mean me, or Time Magazine?

[Cheetahcat]

“Where is Barney Frank on that list? Or Chris Dodd?”

And Hussein!!

[Azzurri]

No Robert Rubin???

[Rocky]

What about ACORN, who pressured individual banks and mortgage lenders to extend these risky mortgages?

And Barney Frank didn’t make either list?

And George W Bush is listed, yet he tried to stop the practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, only to be denied by Congress?

[LomanBill]

Yep.

Very interesting that Ambassador Roland Arnall didn’t make the list too.

Lots of hands tied behind their owners backs, it seems.

[Bookwoman]

And Obama, who represented ACORN when they sued to force the banks to make bad loans.

[LomanBill]

>>And George W Bush is listed,

 

I strongly suspect that, even though he is today a moral and honorable man, W's hands were tied by strings going back to his wilder days.

 

Such blackmail and coercion seems, sadly, to be SOP - and is symptomatic of the systemic moral corruption of our society.

[Don@VB]

Not a person, but how about ACORN??

[UCFRoadWarrior]

American consumers to blame?

That is nutty....especially we are always told that Consumer spending is 70% of the economy....

Some of the names definitely deserve to be on here...and they even included a Communist Chinese (which is actually reason #1 why the economy is slipping...that multi-trillion $$$ trade deficit...and the ChiComs thinking the US can continue to make good on it)

[Uncle Miltie]

If Alan Greenspan or Ben Bernanke are not at the top of the list, then it is wrong.

The initiation of the housing bubble was caused by excessive money supply in 2003 - 2005.

The other attendant structural problems contributed to, but did not initiate, the bubble.

[proud2beconservativeinNJ]

Funny...wish they would lose more and at faster pace.

[Alberta's Child]

Why the hell is Lew Ranieri on that list?

The establishment and early growth of mortgage-backed securities (Ranieri was a pioneer in this business) wasn't a problem at all. In fact, the original CMOs (collateralized mortgage obligations) helped address a serious fundamental weakness in the banking industry by allowing banks with a lot of deposits and few new mortgages to underwrite to effectively lend money to banks with few deposits and a lot of demand for mortgages.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Time, of course.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Time, of course.

[kenavi]

Fannie's and Freddie's mortgage loan portfolio and guaranteed debt was always better than the industry as a whole.

The private sector drove this business, and many of us were quite willing to ride the gravy train.

[Chode]

i don't see the peanut farmer on there either...

[Dapper 26]

If the private sector was willing to ride on their own, why did Fannie and Freddie get involved? Are you saying that President Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act had nothing to do with loosening the qualifying criteria for lenders? Are you saying that Fannie’s CEO Reines, a former Clinton staffer had nothing to do with Fannie buying and guaranteeing and thereby encouraging the private sector to get more aggressive with subprimes? Who re-wrote Fannie and Freddie’s automated underwriting criteria to accept heretofor unacceptable qualifying debt ratios?
The private sector alone could not have done as much damage to the home buying loan business without exceptional encouragement from Fannie and Freddie who could not have done so much without the tacit approval the Congressional oversight committees - Barney Franks and Cris Dodds. The buck stops with Democrats.

[org.whodat]

Stupid is as stupid does!!

[kenavi]

Look at Wachovia's mortgage loan portfolio right before they went under before you go yelling at me: "Pick your Pay".

[ThomasThomas]

We need two lists.

First The Enabler / Persuader

Barney Frank and other elected to government offices and their appointees. These people set up the rules and system that were and still are very coercive to bad these loans.

Second The executioners (those did the deeds)

While most bank were forced into doing some of these loans there were some who took advantage of the system for their own personal enrichment. Angelo Mozilo is a good example of the second group.

There should be many more on each list with each ranging from useful dupes to criminal conspirators.

[ChurtleDawg]

agreed. Alan Greenspan and his fed policy are probably more responsible than anyone else.

but most of the people on this list are spot on. Some moreso than others.

[SuziQ]

Bump for Monday reading