HousingPANIC - The Housing Bubble Blog with an Attitude Problem, 2005 - 2008: FLASH - COUNTRYWIDE TOXIC MORTGAGE'S ANGELO MOZILO TESTIFYING TO CONGRESS

March 07, 2008

FLASH - COUNTRYWIDE TOXIC MORTGAGE'S ANGELO MOZILO TESTIFYING TO CONGRESS - LIVE RIGHT NOW ON C-SPAN

25 comments:

Anonymous said...: Cut him some slack he works hard for his money; March 07, 2008 5:25 PM
blogger said...: Tangelo hasn't taken the fifth - yet...

Just tried to explain why it was cool for CFC to be borrowing billions to buy back shares at the same time he was dumping them fast and furious; March 07, 2008 5:42 PM
Forkhead Box Inc. said...: Yeah, he's like "I wanted to stay with the shareholders at that time". Guy is slicker than a greased rattlesnake...; March 07, 2008 5:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Also on Bloomberg Radio: 1130 AM in NYC area; March 07, 2008 5:53 PM
Anonymous said...: Keith you called for this this a long time ago.. Glad to see it finally happen but it will turn out to be a love fest.; March 07, 2008 5:53 PM
Malcolm said...: I'll be posting video from this throughout the afternoon.

Here's a nice bit of talk from earlier today....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM6GMau0F0E; March 07, 2008 5:54 PM
blogger said...: It's surreal to watch congressmen who have received massive contributions from these very companies pretend to "investigate" these companies' CEO's

Fox guarding the hen house; March 07, 2008 5:56 PM
Anonymous said...: This is very scary.
They're so busy throwing roses to each other, that I fear constantly they might just throw their clothes away and turn this into a gay orgy anytime. Just look at their eyes! They love themselves so much!; March 07, 2008 6:23 PM
Anonymous said...: if he hasn't taken the fiiiif at this point, then he won't. and that's b/c he knows he owns all the neutered swine in Congress.; March 07, 2008 7:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Holy Jesus!!!!

According to one of the congressmen, one of Countrywide's pools of mortgages from 2006 had a default rate of 18% on the very first payment!!! Meaning that of that investment grade rated pool of assets sold to insurance companies, 1 in 5 borrowers failed to even make the very first payment!!!

How in the world wasn't this front page news?

If nothing else, it makes it extremely easy to understand why the market for these pools dried up before the media caught on. It also makes it easy to believe that the banks are in FAR WORSE SHAPE than the market understands.

I've been thinking that Bernake was seriously panicked, but now I don't think there's a word strong enough to describe what Bernake's feeling. He's only got one choice now - destroy the dollar and cross his fingers. It's either that or watch the economy collapse.; March 07, 2008 7:29 PM
GT said...: that was laughable! wow. i love the congressman that was saying: 'i hope the young are watching this' and learning that they too can become a ceo and screw the world and make tons or $$$!

i also love prez bush: 'we recognized the problem EARLY'?!?; March 07, 2008 7:32 PM
Anonymous said...: It's surreal to watch congressmen who have received massive contributions from these very companies pretend to "investigate" these companies' CEO's

Fox guarding the hen house

________

Precisely, that's why this "investigation" is just a staged circus to try to pacify the outraged public.; March 07, 2008 7:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Slap a few RICO charges on that pinstriped Goombah; March 07, 2008 7:45 PM
Anonymous said...: 1 in 5 borrowers failed to even make the very first payment!!!

Now Congress wants US taxpayers to buy up these mortgages.

We subsidize student loans and now college is more expensive than ever. We subsidize housing, and now it's become unaffordable. What else can government screw up?; March 07, 2008 7:48 PM
edd browne said...: I won't say that the robber barrons
make too much money, but I will
say that compensation formulas
appear to incentivize corrupt behavior.; March 07, 2008 8:11 PM
Malcolm said...: Here is Mozilo's opening statement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYMmVHVHqRs; March 07, 2008 8:32 PM
Malcolm said...: Here is Rep. Cummings calling on the SEC to investigate the mortgage industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRYBdGJcvRc; March 07, 2008 8:39 PM
Malcolm said...: Here is Mozila blaming “speculators” and (if you can believe it), the people who bought the packaged securities for the problem of an 18% first-payment-default crisis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bZYZqggdU8; March 07, 2008 8:59 PM
Anonymous said...: "We subsidize student loans and now college is more expensive than ever. We subsidize housing, and now it's become unaffordable. What else can government screw up?"

It's almost like some form of limited government might be a good idea...; March 07, 2008 9:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Well, after watching I now believe he had everyone interests at heart.

Thanks! Angie!; March 07, 2008 9:36 PM
Anonymous said...: They are approaching these hearings all wrong . They aren't going to be able to nail Mozillo on his compensation package and stock dump because he did it within the letter of the law .

As I see it Congress is taking the wrong approach . The question is how a CEO can pump up his stock and than dump it at a high before the shit hits the fan .The question is how can a CEO make those kind of loans when all evidence was that they were junk ,liar loans ,fraudulent ,etc. If a CEO of a car company was just about to retire and he sold a bunch of junk cars that broke down in order to get short term sales and he dumped the stock and ran ,than what kind of a hearing would you have ?

Mozillo single handedly pumped up his faulty lending (just around the time he wanted to start his dump stock program ). Mozillo beefs up his faulty lending for short term fee profits to enhance the short term profits of the company so he could dump stock at a high .

The rest of the do do lenders followed suite in faulty lending (because everybody does what Countrywide does).

Does anyone accept the notion that CountryWides lending practices went downhill from 2005 onward because Mozillo was looking out for the stockholders or enhancing the American Dream . The dream was Mozillos Dream of getting out while the stock prices were high before this baby took a mighty crash .Just keep those bad loan fees coming until I can get mine was Mozillo's dream .

Lets have Senate hearing on Mozillo's contribution to infesting the market with defective faulty fraudulent loans (that he would pass on to the secondary market ). Maybe we should have a defective product lawsuit against Mozillo .

Lets face it ,Mozillo has been in the business for 40 years and he knew ,or he should of know ,that the product that he was peddling was not within any acceptable lending guidelines .Can he get off the rap because he has no liability just because he passed the junk to the secondary market ?
One of the problems Mozillo ran into is the market crashed faster than he thought and he was left holding the bag on a bunch of loans he couldn't pass on to the up till then conned secondary market .

Mozillo's sole objective from meltdown point has been to find a way of getting his junk loans passed on to the government backed programs. Darn ,Mozillo even had to try to re-write some of his crap loans .Darn, he could of gotten away with another 100 million had the darn crash just took 1 year longer to happen .Darn, Mozillo had to sell his loans to Countrywide Bank so they could get a loan from the Feds .; March 07, 2008 11:09 PM
Anonymous said...: It all started out so innocent! But then, the bonuses got bigger, the stock options became more valuable, the power became uncontrollable and then, greed turned his face orange! And this is where we are!

Now we deal with the sad result that always happens when greed begins to rule one's life.

You could have been a hero Tangello!; March 08, 2008 12:07 AM
Anonymous said...: Hugs and kisses to the most corrupt congress ever. I thought they were going to start having sex with the CEOs right there at the hearing.; March 08, 2008 1:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Housing picture turns much darker
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 7, 2008

NEW YORK — Nervous homeowners and economic analysts have been wondering how much worse the housing market could get. On Thursday they got an answer: Plenty.

Foreclosures are at a record high. Home equity is at a record low. The housing market is spiraling down with no end in sight — and taking people's sense of economic security with it.

For the first time since the Federal Reserve started tracking the data in 1945, the amount of debt tied up in American homes now exceeds the equity homeowners have built.

The Fed reported Thursday that homeowner equity actually slipped below 50 percent in the second quarter of last year, and fell to just below 48 percent in the fourth quarter.

And that was just one example in a day of dismal housing reports.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said foreclosures hit an all-time high in the final quarter of last year. And pending U.S. home sales — those in the gap between when a buyer signs a contract and when the deal closes — came in below analyst expectations for January and remained at the second-lowest reading on record.

"There is no sign that we're near the bottom in the housing market," said Douglas Elmendorf, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Fed economist. "Housing prices will probably fall for a year, two or three to come."

The trifecta of reports illustrates a housing market caught up in a "very negative, reinforcing downward spiral," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

Home equity, the percentage of a home's market value minus mortgage-related debt, has steadily decreased even as home prices and homeownership rates jumped earlier this decade. That was due to a surge in cash-out refinancings, home equity loans and lines of credit and an increase in no-down-payment mortgages.

Now declining home prices are eating into equity, and economists expect the figure to drop even more.

Economy.com estimates 8.8 million homeowners, or about 10 percent of homes, will have zero or negative equity by the end of the month. Even more disturbing, about 13.8 million households will be "upside down'' if prices fall 20 percent from their peak. The latest Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index showed U.S. home prices plunging 8.9 percent in the final quarter of 2007 compared with a year earlier.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080307/BUSINESS/803070467/1003; March 08, 2008 4:44 AM
Anonymous said...: Does anybody think that Mozilo cared about the quality of loans he was making when he was trying to pump up the earnings so he could dump his stock at a high .

How can you explain the fact that almost 20% of loan borrowers didn't even make the first payment.What,was Countrywide the known outlet for the really crummy stuff,like cash back fraud .

Yeah ,right ,Mozila was trying to help borrowers get the American Dream .; March 08, 2008 4:59 AM