Stonewalling on Countrywide's Loans to Congress

WHY ISNT THIS ON THE NEWS MORE IF IT WAS A REPUBLICAN IT WOULD BE A HEAD LINE PAUL

Thank you Liz, People such as you keep us informed that these liberals who push for more laws against the free market and push for more class warfare, are the biggest hypocrites. They feed off of the dying carcass of what's left of our economic freedoms - all the capital built up over centuries of the results of people who made their American dreams come true. As a renter during the last 12 years and a believer in market cycles, I knew there was something grotesquely wrong that real estate prices have more than doubled in many places in four years. Crooked companies such as Countrywide, along with the liberal politicians pushing for subprimes and no downs for minorities are part of what got this country into this mess. We probably won't see this scandal become known in the MSM until after Obama becomes president this Fall. But the liberals don't care. They will have the power to cast this scandal aside.

Interesting point of view. I'll consider changing my mind about this but for now I still don't see things the same way you do.

Joel Watson, Great Comment! It sounds like you are a middle-aged working professional. I am the same. There are millions of us out here with absolutely no representation. Worse, those that we have entrusted to do our bidding in Washington are getting rich by stealing our dreams. Unfortunately, most of us working professionals are very busy lately trying to keep the wolf away from the door while out elected officials are poaching our savings, our investments, our childrens' hopes of college and our dreams of retirement. Today, in our country, if a starving man breaks into you home and steals food, when that man is caught he stands a good chance of spending a very long time in a filthy prison. In contrast, a man can steal your entire savings, the savings of all your neighbors, in fact, the entire country's future and when this man is "brought to jsutice" he may go to "club fed" for a few months. If he has spent our money wisely on good lawyers, he likely will never have to repay the money he took. (Michael Millken, WorldComm and Enron are just a few of the many names that come to mind ). Have we become so disillusioned that we accept Government corruption as the norm, instead of the rare exception? Ultimately, I hold myself responsible for letting this happen. I simply did not pay enough attention to what my elected officals were doing, or hold them accountable for their actions. That day has past. I recently read that less than 18 percent of those polled approve of the job that our Congress is doing, yet we let them remain. Have we become that complacent? Our forefathers would have already been in Washington demanding answers. In every crisis of our past, it has been the great resolve of the American people that has seen us through the difficult times. As much as both political parties like to take the credit, it is my belief that it has never been, nor will it ever be our government that has kept us solid, safe and solvent. One America, full of Americans in pursuit of a common dream is what has saved us, time and again. Not African-Americans, Asia-Americans, Native-Americans, Latin-Americans, just Americans, looking for life, liberty and happiness. At no time since the Civil War has our country ever been so devided. The Democrats (I'll call them the lawyer partry) act as if they are representing a client. This client is the liberal American and in order for thier client to win, all other Americans must lose. The Republicans (the Preacher party) feel that we are all on a fast track to hell because of the liberals and if we let the liberals lead, we are all doomed. My observation is that with a few exceptions, most Americans are somewhere near the middle of the spectrum between liberal and conservative and are not truly represented by either the "lawyers" or the "Preachers". Meanwhile, our elected officals, both Democrats and Republicans are doing the work of thier respective parties, making themselves rich in the process and sending the bill to the hard-working people of America. The only time there is true bipartisanship in our Government is when they vote themselves a nice big raise or let us pay for their lush retirement program. American workers soon will have no retirement because our elected leaders have squandered our Social Security. America's next enemy is not the Russians, or the Iranians or even the North Koreans. Our new enemy is our Government. It will take the full resolve of our great people to defeat this enemy. Until every American screams "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" , our current situation will reamin unchanged. It is time to hold our elected leaders responsible for their actions. It is long past time to remove the self-serving, the drunks, the racists, the perverts and the criminals. Until we return to "one nation (under God, I'll say it but you don't have to) with liberty and justice for all" we are all destined for failure. This is a giagantic task, but we have a powerful tool in the internet. We have the technology to predict hurricanes, earthquakes, send rockets to the Moon and Mars. We are certainly smart enough to get the "sleaze" out of Washington. America is in great need of Great Americans - NOT more empty-suited politicians. It is time for Americans to reunite, reconcile and get back to the businesof being the greatest, most productive nation on earth. In other words, it is time to quit paying ransom and rescue our country from the politicans that kidnapped her. We need to pursuade those among us who have been forced into early retirement, downsized, laid off and those who were lucky enough to retire and now must live on what is left of their investments to organize non-partisan watch groups and report via e-amil, without interference of the media, what our leaders are doing for our country. Then together us must take action to keep our public servants working for America.

As a child asks his mother "what does it mean when the president signs off on a law ?" Mother rambles... "oh, because he just signed off again making it 1,000 + now mom" Mother says "Honey schmumkins, the president done shown us the law don't mean jack, now you just git yerself out there and do what's right, ya here now ? " "but mommmmmmmm, if the president doesn't have to follow the laws then what does any of it mean ? " mom ? darn - mom's back at the bottle. If liquor ads were legal, Fox would be promoting em ! Opium of the peoples in reverse if you can't sell em opiates, sell em fear and panic then ? run ads for 400k homes they can move into and not pay for FIVE years ! wow - you'd really have to think the world was coming to an end to do that deal eh ?

Who would have thought that Hoover's paranoia about communists and people seeing him cross-dress would lead to the creation of the FBI, further to lead to the jailing of Rover boy.

Well Liz MacDonald, if you ask me, you have more integrity than the entire FBN setup. I'm surprised the 'people upstairs' don't take issue with your choice to express your mind freely, in some cases that do not agree with the 'people upstairs'. That's a plus for FBN I suppose - that they at least don't not let you go. I suggest you change the last letter - and move over to the FBI. Forget the FDIC hiring to handle the expected higher rate of bank failures this year, the FBI has years of SEC dissection coming, and it's going to take forever to clean out the DOJ of the cultists who - I don't know, some Jesus deal, just one more of the over 3,000 cults in the US (that's an FBI stat btw heh). Really, forget pandering to the crowd trying to use you to make them more money from - why does FBN get for advertisers again ? oh yeah, 'Head On' the 'Paid for TV ads at night' - real top clients ! ? Drop that Liz Get a real life, do something that is in your blood - move into investigative practices - you might not get paid as much, but you could bust some of the people you work under down the road. That's worth more than money isn't it ? Things are not as they seem at Fox Ms MacDonald, whatever level you're connected at. SEC and CIA are NOT to be trusted. nor is Fox.

Either way, seems over 1 trillion USD is missing Hey, we had this with that other Neil Bush guy too ! Good for you foxers - promoting bush helped - hmm - let's see where Schwartz was last week - prior CEO of BS. hmm anyone ? Let's see - he wasn't at the grocery - hmm anyone happen to note ? things don't look good folks we've all been had- BAD. would you leave the kids with Rove ? let alone your nation state ? I've never seen him with a woman btw - isn't that a problem to acquire conservative votes ?

I see Fox cleaned up their networking outfit a bit - good for you. It's hard to find good, honest, trustworthy employees! Looks like a job fair though over at FBN jobs available. Every job is listed except ? What ? is it time to flush out and bring in a new group ? My understanding is - if you join the Fox team, your soul is more worthy that a starving liberal child who died of hunger last evening. Hey, it's those 'liberal' kids - ya know ? they had it comin ! prolly ? Liz MacDonald, what ARE you doing at FBN ? really - you don't belong there, lest you're holding some back pocket personalized afterlife protection plan by belief in christ and football ? I don't know I think Alexis should come on and talk about football more, and perhaps other serious financial inquiries. Gee, how hard is it to call someone up and say - hey CEO #234, want to be on national TV ? I'll ask a few softball questions, you get us some ratings, it'll be a fun time. If I catch FBN on the retina passing through channels, I'm considering of suing for detraction of life quality. It's like a black hole, it just sucks you in if you come too near. How responsible is it ? Sure the SEC is corrupt as all can be at the moment, not for long so I hear on the grapevine, but how responsible has FBN been ? in all the stocks they're 'recommended' or 'promoted' It is highly suspect that Murdoch puts up FBN and acquires the WSJ in times where the danger in 'getting things wrong' from one major media source far outweigh the gains. It's all good though over at Fox isn't it though, Jesus saves, and screw anyone who sees it different. There are more Regent graduates spread around DC it's probably a good idea to just kiss America goodbye and start anew. Somehow, someone has confused ideals with reals.

This article is a distraction. The losses passed on to the tax payers far far far outweighs chump change saved on a few mortgage products. Now, just because there are 9 murders to solve down the street doesn't mean the one murder here is any less of a crime. The bottom line though is, these institutions knew there would be light at the end of the tunnel, and as far as I'm concerned, they knowingly racked up as many dead loan products as they could, all to write it off in the end and pass the debt to the tax payer. You know, the less education people who haven't quite realized that inside the beltway exist millions of ways to acquire billions of dollars for a lucky few who forget the money they think they hold isn't backed by the common shared belief the money is actually even worth anything by everyone participating in the society, including the peasants. For example, is Sean Hannity any closer to god by driving a black SUV or wearing black on Sundays ? Rove, like the man who kept young girls in a bunker in Atlanta - who said 'Why, I didn't do anything wrong, I was protecting them !' won't understand the charges when he hears them, even after found guilty far far far beyond reasonable doubt. Fox employees won't understand either. But go Team - football - ra ra ra - You tell'em Alexis - why - I think god will consider you to be one of the special ones !

Reuters has just broke this news story: California AG,at the request of four employees is mulling over in investigating Senator Schumer D-NY over the issue of IndyMac. Four employees made the request and the story broke over the Drudge Report. Just thought I pass this forward. Trouble for Democrats in the fall over the inside info on the financial sector?

Joel Watson, very interesting take. I don't believe the American people actually want the bums out of office because they continue to re-elect them. I will be voting for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr this election, but I will probably be in the minority.

I thought America was @ the "Forefront" of "Freedom of Information"? From the "Outside" it look's like "Liz" is on a "Strike"" The best of "Luck against perceived orruption"

RIGHT ON LIZ!! KEEP IT UP!!!

The fox has been taking care of the hen house for too long. People need to get off their couch and show up when any banking or mortgage bill comes through their state. These guys have attorneys that can hide their intentions and that, no doubt, will get in the way of grassroots movements. One more thing, why have the two leading presidential contenders that have not picked out a VP that is committed to a financial clean-up with the banking and mortgage industry? It is clearly a way we must go if we want to be a free country and not a bunch of debt driven drones(I mean citizens).

I wish you would post more often...this is my "coffee drinking" blog:) Edgar Allen

In 2005, we purchased our newly built home, the money broker we were introduced to by the builder said our credit was only good enough to secure one of these ARM loans, 2years @ 9.9%, 12% after and .5% hike each year after (21% max.), for the 30 year term. He explained we could 'repair' our credit and after the first 2 years we could refinance... Oh, we did that, of course, but we did nothing to 'repair' our credit over those 2 years, because we always paid our bills in a timely manner and could not see what the problem was. We found out later. BTW, our loan originated with a 'soft lender' who immediately 'sold' it to a Bear/Stearns subsidiary. When we refinanced, our new financial broker was excellent. He explained everything to us, got us a 6.25 fixed long term with a reputable source, but he was puzzled as to why we were not able to do this deal in the first place. Since we had done nothing more to develop our credit, we did not need to have the ARM in the first place. We paid an additional 12K in closing costs to refinace, and my wife and I decided we would have to eat it as a lesson as buyer beware. We felt we were the lucky ones, but just not so sure about that. Our loss does not include the 2 years of principal we paid during the original loan, the extra 'FHA insurance fee' raise started 2 months ago (adding $200 a year to our mortgage), nor does it take into consideration the loss of property market value, now estimated nationally at -17% or more... on a 200K house, it value now is $166K, less than what our principle balance is today. Instead of rewarding the robber barons of the mortgage industry and the used car salesmen of the brokerage firms, how about fixing the property valuation and reimbursing us who fulfilled our commitments, kept up our payments and are the ones who actually pay taxes? I personally would like to see any government employee who recieved these loans or even voted on the flawed ARM legislation fired, or impeached, or in some way made available for litigation by injured parties to this debacle. The have exploited the American dream, and stole from the very people who put them in thier jobs.

I am in the mortgage business and have been since 2003. I hold two BA s, MBA and JD of which I am very proud of considering the time and hard work it took to acquire these degrees. So I feel that I can comment on the business shedding a different light then most of my colleagues would. I would like to point out two facts that will support my opinion that Congress especially the boys and girls on the banking and other financial committees set up the housing market to fall. Their intentions were to kick start the market by generating cash in the consumers pockets at a time when family savings either did not exist or were at a low level. Salaries were being spent on credit card debt with cards charging 22% to 34%, student loans, car loans and sending kids to private schools because public schools were not educating anymore but baby sitting and brainwashing the little ones. I will not mention the city, county, property tax, state and federal taxes we all have to pay that strips the flesh from our bones. Sorry Libs but if you want money then donate your own or organize a community charity. We salaried people are really very generous when we see a point to the charity and believe in it. For those of you who never paid attention to a 1003 form which is the form you fill out for your house loan, on page four at the bottom of the page below the signature is the Ethnicity section. Please note that the borrower can decline to furnish this information but the Loan Officer must in order to get the application accepted by any bank. [ this point can be argued but the majority of loan officers I know always filled this out back at the office.] We start the section off with letting the borrower and co-borrower know that they do not have to furnish any information requested in the Ethnicity section. But as I mentioned the Loan Officer often fills this out later. The next question which is crucial to my point which reads as follows: “ Mark one section or the other ‘ Hispanic or Latino or Not Hispanic or Latino “ Then the next section asks for Race, then Sex, followed by a section to be filled out by the Loan Officer. So what is the importance of this question you may be wondering. Well lets couple it with bits of speeches I heard from a number of banks such as WAMU, CountryWide, New Century ect. In the meetings and seminars, the bankers could not stress the point that this question above needed to be answered because it was important to them. As a loan processor I determined what they were saying was, if it is marked Hispanic or Latino, we the bank will process this loan ASAP and will not look at the supporting documentation closely. Even mattress money ( under the table money ) will work. The speaker would also emphasize that the current Federal administration wanted banks to make loans possible to the Hispanic and Latino population at all means. So what started out as a good idea, to build wealth in the Hispanic and Latino community, to make refinancing for home owners easier then ever before so they could use their homes as equity banks every 15 months and pay off credit cards and other bills or buy new appliances, furniture or automobiles turned out to be a disaster five years latter. It was a good idea on how to build the economy but had a flaw. How long can you build a market on debt? I believe that we went through this same problem in the late eighties in a similar fashion. The loans the banks created and sold were far to complicated for most loan officers never mind the borrower to understand. What I mean is that people saw a chance to get into a home for the first time, or refinance with loans that had fixed interest rates for the first six months, a year or two years. This made their monthly payments workable with their present finances but they would have to pay the Piper in the future. How were borrowers going to pay the piper in the future. They simply refinanced. They were told to keep their credit scores up and try to pay down your credit cards two or three months before you apply for refinancing then you can get a similar low rate frozen for another six months, a year or two. Within this period of time the object is to get a raise at work or a better paying job so you can afford to pay the interest rates once they become unfrozen and you face paying higher rates as the Libor or Treasury bonds move up and the margin part of the loan comes into play. Confused are we? Well don’t worry, the idea is simple, the banks start collecting all that interest you did not pay them when the interest rates were frozen and they will continue to edge the monthly interest payments up in most economic times. So that you will be forced to refinance and start fresh with the same bank or new one in either case you probably will have to fight for the old rate. But does this matter to the bank, HEAVENS NO. They will sell your new loan to an investor making a nice profit or service the loan for the investor making a nice profit and on top of that they make a profit up front ( your closing loan fees) so the banks have become traders of home loans. They create them, sell them for a profit, and hope you come on down again to refinance so they can charge you a closing fee, and turn around and sell your loan again to some investor for a profit. A great revolving door business the banks set up with congresses’ help. Because these are not traditional 30 year fixed loans. They are money makers for the banks. Borrowers either continue to pay the higher interest rates as they come on line through the terms of the contract or the borrower goes to the bank for help to refinance into a similar loan with low fixed interest rates for a short time. When the rates become unfrozen again and move up, then come and see us at the bank and we will handle the problem. If you have not gotten the picture yet, think of GM and Ford and the other crooks in Detroit who built in obsolescent into their cars starting in the mid 60’s. We old men remember those days, three days off the show floor and you have a problem and the problems kept rolling on. The idea of course was to create business for the parts suppliers and repair bays of the dealerships. This was justified with this reasoning; “ We are insuring that our dealerships have repair business to supplement their auto sales revenue with.”. I called it a license to steal because the Government, state or federal, had no intentions of protecting the consumer with higher standards for automobiles but the consumer fought back by purchasing autos from makers that felt selling a solid car was part of their business. Hello Japan. Well the banks used the same idea of putting obsolescence into their loans so the borrower would be refinancing every one to two years down the road to keep the interest rates low and the banks would have a fat portfolio to sell each month to Wall Street Investors. Hurrah, Hurrah. We’re in theeeee money !! It sounds better if you sing this line several times and do a little jig. So you see the banks had a great interest in selling mortgages to everybody. There was a lot of money to be made, Detroit did not have a strangle hold on robbery ideas. ( take a moment and think about credit card fees, misc. fees and interest rates banks charge us. Well this was not enough.) The banks wanted more. So the US economy started to sputter into life and it went on and on until the summer of 2007. During that whole period our market was built on debt. Consumers used their credit cards, and home equity to purchase items and take vacations. The American consumer had no money in savings, or set aside from his or her salary because it was already spoken for by the TAXMAN. God Bless California’s proposition 13. I was there when ( 70’s ) whole elderly communities were being forced out of their homes in which they had spent most of their adult lives because the property taxes were eating into their discretionary income and they no longer could afford to live in their neighborhoods. But did the city and state government care. Oooo Pleeeassse!! They wanted tax dollars to please the EDUCRATES who wanted more power and money. Let me conclude by stressing the need the banks had of having the US Government stand behind the loans the banks were creating. In comes Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. The banks spoke to our wonderful Congress people and asked that these two organizations open their doors and buy every loan a bank had to offer and please do not look too closely at the supporting documentation. This way we can create more wealth by getting more Immigrants and then American Families into their own homes. This is a great idea and by the way, the after effect is a ballooning economy. So the banks go to congress and say: ”What a shell game we have and it will go on and on so please write some legislation that will protect us banks. “ And so the Pied Piper was called to town and now there is no money to pay him for his wonderful services. We all not only know the rest of the story and we are living it. Thanks to all of our government representative who think their pockets are in need of use rather then conserving what we the great unwashed have in ours. Markets build on debt and not real earnings can only come crashing down because the money maker or printing press of the great unwashed does have a limit unlike the Federal Government’s printing press. If you have gotten this far then I guess I can call you a reader. So I pose a question for you. As most of us want to Throw The Bums OUT, and why not? We or at least I am asking the following questions. When we were having all the trouble with oil and prices going up over the last year or so, where was Congress??? I do not care whether you are a junior congressman or senator or a senior congressman or senator. You have not done your due diligence for your constituents. None what so ever as far as addressing the oil crises which has been around since the early 70’s. Just what do you think you are in office for?? Oh I am sorry , to take vacations when this country has issues that need to be addressed in common sense ways. I would have to ask you good people to come back and take care of the people’s business when you are on vacation this week but I would not dream of it. Where are the real leaders in Congress. And I do not want to hear Obama, Hillary or McCain say they are leaders. Instead of going to the states that suffered flooding and storm damage a few months ago, where any potential leader should have been because all three of you are senators and your primary duty is to your citizens. Yet not one of you visited the damaged areas to see what you could do for the citizens. Oh no you were out stomping the ground for voters. Serving your selves and not your country. And where have the three of you been lately when your should have been on the floor of the congress addressing the oil issue and taking care of the people’s other business. Instead you are stomping the trails for votes and in Hillary’s case she is trying to gather up money to pay for her bills. All three of you are taking care of yourselves and not the people you wish to represent in the highest office of this land. What about the high – sky high interest rates credit card companies and banks charge. I think Hillary said in public that she thought they were too high but 30% was okay. No wonder she did not get the votes. What was the phrase that Mr. Kennedy said that the three TV networks made a big deal of: “ Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country!” I was not impressed by that compound sentence. Why, because I was taught to care about the family and community before myself. Where in the dickens did Mr. Kennedy learned that people only thought about themselves and not their family, community and country, I asked myself after hearing him speak. He must have been looking into the future and thought it was a good line to leave in the past. Are any politicians listening out there, Earth to Moon, Earth to Moon.

I would like to believe these were isolated cases. However, our elected officials in both houses have been abusing their power for too many years. Their unethical and sometimes illegal conduct is a strong case for congressional term limits. If most of them didn't worry about re-election, perhaps they would actually represent their constituancy. The congress had better start cleaning up their act. We the people are tired of their questionable activities.

enjoy watching you early in the morning! this whole VIP loans issue is sickening, i am in the mortgage business and it is hard. We struggle to help people refi out of subprime loans, in the mean time, fannie and freddie will now buy more loans to help bail out americans. Remember congress passed the bill to do this, same guys who got VIP loans. a lot of these loans will now be temporary modified loans( bailed out subprime loans) which will now be held by fannie and freddie, and the banks lenders are covered for anything over 80%, leaving taxpayers to cover the losses, so who cares if house prices decline, tax payers will cover it. in the meantime Banks will downsize, cut job, not lend money, and post profits, and CEO's and execs. will get bonuses. If i was a congressman and i allowed banks to pass it on to taxpayers, then i too would want my VIP loan, and occasional round of golf.

The old saying "follow the money" is absolutely appropriate here. Let's see..Pelosi won't allow a vote on drilling? Waxman is "in the tank" on the Countrywide scandal? I am patiently waiting for someone to "follow the money" and start connecting the dots on the refusal of Pelosi and Reid to allow a vote on drilling. Who has the most to gain by keeping the USA dependent on foreign "America haters" for our energy lifeblood? Does anyone really think the Saudi's (for example) would hesitate for a moment at throwing out "big payola" to our "leaders" who would stifle energy independence for the USA. This stonewalling by the Dems on energy has been going on for decades and is slowly "bleeding" our economy. Do we need more proof of the decadence of our leaders in Congress? FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!

What other preferential treatment are our political leaders getting without telling us? Already, we know that they are preferred people. To add preferential treatment as an added bonus to other perks is unconscionable. Perhaps that's the problem: a tinge of conscience to right what is blatantly wrong in the world of politics and politicians. Shame on those who perpetuate the practice and shame on us for not parading in the streets demonstrating our disgust for these elected officials voted by us into office for disgracing us and the nation. No wonder no foreigners respect us for what we once were, for that is no more.

not surprised that those who are in power get to keep their posts and all the perks that come with the job. we are not worthy enough to get the benefits that are afforded to our (so called) representatives get. this should be a wakeup call for all citizens. we are powerless & those that have the power will continue to keep us that way. this is just another "ha ha catch me if you can". i am sick of trying to be honest & playing by the rules, when those elected to ensure we are all on a level playing field decide to tip the scales in their favor. i dare any private citizen to do what our reps do. see how long it takes before you are sitting in jail. todd

NOT SURPRISED BY MR. WAXMAN'S TACTICS; IT'S JUST AMAZING HOW BOLD AND HYPOCRITICAL HE IS. HE REALLY BELIEVES WE'RE JUST A BUNCH OF POWERLESS DUMB HICKS! KEEP ON PUBLISHING THE DETAILS; GREAT ARTICLE ELIZABETH!

Special Interest Owns our Govt. Its time for the people to wake up and start rooting out the corruption!