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We passed Sarbanes/Oxley that in a nut shell said that the CEO was criminally responsible if he signed off on bogus books whether he personally knew they were bogus or not. Countrywide's books were as bogus as they come and the Obama administration refused to criminally charge Mozillo. Why was that? He got a slap on the wrist and retired with his stolen millions.
Why was that? Because the government itself was complicit. FAR more crimes were committed by the GSEs, who bought Affordable Lending goal loans from MANY more loan originators than just Countrywide and repackaged and sold them as MBS to banks, investors, and countries worldwide. Trillions of dollars worth.
That's where we ran into a problem...
Quote:
Who Issues Mortgage-Backed Securities?
MBS are issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government or a government-sponsored enterprise, or by a private entity. Three major GSEs are responsible for the majority of MBS issuance: the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), known as Ginnie Mae; the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), known as Fannie Mae; and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), known as Freddie Mac.
While the mortgage-backed securities issued by all three GSEs are highly rated AAA, Ginnie Mae is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and has always been owned and operated by the U.S. government. The interest and capital on the MBS it guarantees have always been explicitly backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, making the credit quality of those bonds the same as Treasury securities.
"HUD is the mission regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a major aspect of this regulation involves setting minimum percentage-of-business goals for the GSEs’ mortgagepurchases."
(From the HUD document)
Why was that? Because the government itself was complicit. FAR more crimes were committed by the GSEs, who bought Affordable Lending goal loans from MANY more loan originators than just Countrywide and repackaged and sold them as MBS to banks, investors, and countries worldwide. Trillions of dollars worth.
What Countrywide did caused far more damage than anything Madoff could have ever dreamed up. Their books if printed and binded would have to be sold in the fiction section of Barnes and Noble.
Basically they were Enron. The arguments were that prosecuting Ken Lay would be tough because it was going to be difficult to prove that he knew the books were being cooked. It didn't matter though the government still went after him. As we know, others in Enron went to prison.
We passed Sarbanes/Oxley that in a nut shell said that the CEO was criminally responsible if he signed off on bogus books whether he personally knew they were bogus or not. Countrywide's books were as bogus as they come and the Obama administration refused to criminally charge Mozillo. Why was that? He got a slap on the wrist and retired with his stolen millions.
i completely agree. countrywide was a key piece of an extremely destructive system.
it was not, however, ever forced to loan anything by the government, which is what "InformedConsent" believes.
Basically it was Democrat's ****-poor policies of throwing money at constituents to get them to vote Democrat which is their number 1 priority... that way, they can have easy access to raiding taxpayer money to enrich themselves... which is basically what the Democratic party is and why it is so attractive to the MAJORITY... the majority is too stupid to realize it...
I'm not the one trying to defend one side or the other.
What were loan originators supposed to do when HUD had them all by the short hairs, by Fannie Mae's own admission?...
Quote:
"Because it is not a federally insured depository, Countrywide is not subject to the federal regulation for fair housing performance, although HUD has the ability to examine any apparent fair lending violation that it might suspect."
Basically it was Democrat's ****-poor policies of throwing money at constituents to get them to vote Democrat which is their number 1 priority... that way, they can have easy access to raiding taxpayer money to enrich themselves... which is basically what the Democratic party is and why it is so attractive to the MAJORITY... the majority is too stupid to realize it...
Oh please. Money "thrown at constituents" is a mere pittance compared to the amount of money and subsidies thrown at monied corporate and business interests in this country. So much of "red" America literally exists only because of government largesse - from defense contractors to banks, oil and energy companies, farm subsidies, the prison industrial complex, retired tea partiers sucking on the senior citizen socialism teat.
The only reason why Republicans even exist is because once in power they funnel enough money to the wealthy sliver of the party constituency that wields influence at a 100:1 ratio compared to an average citizen.
Oh please. Money "thrown at constituents" is a mere pittance compared to the amount of money and subsidies thrown at monied corporate and business interests in this country. So much of "red" America literally exists only because of government largesse - from defense contractors to banks, oil and energy companies, farm subsidies, the prison industrial complex, retired tea partiers sucking on the senior citizen socialism teat.
The only reason why Republicans even exist is because once in power they funnel enough money to the wealthy sliver of the party constituency that wields influence at a 100:1 ratio compared to an average citizen.
Who says I am defending them? Enriching yourself at the expense of others is the Democrat motto... but at least the Republicans don't try to hide behind propaganda and deceit...
i completely agree. countrywide was a key piece of an extremely destructive system.
it was not, however, ever forced to loan anything by the government, which is what "InformedConsent" believes.
You've seen my argument to him. The government did indeed look the other way (under Bush) and did nothing (under Obama) once it all collapsed. To note that the government was a co-conspirator is factual.
Was it all either parties fault? No, it was both of them screwing the country over for different reasons. Why are we still supporting them?
Essentially, he did. HUD forced him to. Read my post. It's all documented.
This is why the country is in such poor condition. It's absolutely amazing that someone would argue that the government forced someone to be a crook like they have no freewill of their own.
When you believe that you can excuse away anything you want.
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