Image is from that GREAT NYT expose of Countrywide.
You would be very wise to read it, people ! Also, watch that video. Snicker.
Posted on 08/25/2007 5:59:22 AM PDT by Hydroshock
Edited on 08/25/2007 11:43:24 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
I know.
The loan giant took advantage of the public for years ! ! !
Excerpt:
ON its way to becoming the nation’s largest mortgage lender, the Countrywide Financial Corporation encouraged its sales force to court customers over the telephone with a seductive pitch that seldom varied.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/business/yourmoney/26country.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin“I want to be sure you are getting the best loan possible,” the sales representatives would say.
But providing “the best loan possible” to customers wasn’t always the bank’s main goal, say some former employees.
Instead, potential borrowers were often led to high-cost and sometimes unfavorable loans that resulted in richer commissions for Countrywide’s smooth-talking sales force, outsize fees to company affiliates providing services on the loans, and a roaring stock price that made Countrywide executives among the highest paid in America.
Countrywide’s entire operation, from its computer system to its incentive pay structure and financing arrangements, is intended to wring maximum profits out of the mortgage lending boom no matter what it costs borrowers, according to interviews with former employees and brokers who worked in different units of the company and internal documents they provided. One document, for instance, shows that until last September the computer system in the company’s subprime unit excluded borrowers’ cash reserves, which had the effect of steering them away from lower-cost loans to those that were more expensive to homeowners and more profitable to Countrywide.
In effect, this was tantamount to engaging in organized criminal activity. Why is that so hard to for some people here to grasp ?
If Mozilo's crew was engaged fraud on the font end dealing with customers and hiding obvious underwriting scams -- why would they not commit fraud on the back end in selling mortgage paper on Wall Street. ? ? ? ? ?
R.I.P. Countrywide
Soon to be Bank of America
Isn't that the point of a business, to "wring" maximum profits? Should it be illegal?
Mortgage broker or realtor ?
You were complaining because they took too much risk. Now you complain because they calculate in a way that reduces risk?
which had the effect of steering them away from lower-cost loans to those that were more expensive to homeowners and more profitable to Countrywide.... In effect, this was tantamount to engaging in organized criminal activity
Last time I bought a car, the salesman tried to up-sell me. Didn't realize this was tantamount to "organized crime."
Lawyer or Blog-Pimp?
You obviously did not read the NYT article. Closed minded or don’t like to read?
Sorry, I failed to see anything in the story that links Countrywide to organized crime. Maybe you could point it out to me.
Image is from that GREAT NYT expose of Countrywide.
You would be very wise to read it, people ! Also, watch that video. Snicker.
He probably will be to busy at his lawyers office for years to come to file. The trial lawyers smell blood in the water on this whole mess.
JMPO. Mozillo is a public figure. Has been for years and years. Countrywide is in the news. < / snicker>
He every well could be the first one to taste the tar and feathers, but I figure not the last.
The taxpayers shouldn’t bail out Countrywide, or any other loan company that makes loans to people who want big, fine houses and the lavish lifestyles that go with them, and then can’t, or won’t, pay the loans back, because they are so deeply in debt from borrowing money for things they want, but probably don’t need, and then going out to buy them. Nor should the taxpayers bail out homeowners who keep borrowing money to buy all the finer things in life. Let loan companies and homeowners who make stupid decisions suffer the consequences. Let them go under. They deserve it.
Better yet, why do we have loan companies anyway? Banks offer loans, and have been doing so for many years. We don’t need loan companies. Let all the loan companies go under. If you need a loan, go to the banks, just as everybody who needed loans used to do before loan companies got started.
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