Report: Countrywide Financial won influence with discounts to gov’t officials

Report: Countrywide Financial won influence with discounts to gov’t officials. “The former Countrywide Financial Corp., whose subprime loans helped start the nation’s foreclosure crisis, made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, according to a House report.” This was all Bush’s fault so he musta made them take the money.

This post was last modified on July 21, 2021

Bonfire of the Absurdities: After 35 year career writing software for IBM mainframes, am now self-employed contractor thinking of joining a union and striking for higher wages. Cured morbid fear of heights when I learned to look at them as lengths standing on end. Uncompromising in refusal to accept browser cookies. Amateur investor who has accumulated a small fortune in the market after starting out years ago with a large one. For recreation, I run, hike, kayak and play tennis but will not consider synchronized swimming under any circumstances.

View Comments (16)

  • Its time for a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution to stop the rules for us and them. Congress shall make no law or enact no legislation that will be enforced upon the populace while exempting itself from such laws and legislation.

  • So, I was reading an article about this by Reuters this morning, and they don't name ANY of the thieves until about the 15th paragraph. None of the few they mentioned was identified by party, and in fact they were cryptically identified as "Friends of Angelo", rather than "suspected crooks" or something similar.

    None of this is news, anyway. This was pretty well known when the bubble burst. At least as far as Dodd and Townes and Frank - none of whom bothered to even try and hide their shenanigans. After all this time, of course, they have certainly managed to obfuscate the documents, and think up "logical" explanations, but they are crooks. They got richer by destroying the futures of the middle-class and the lives of poor people. And they are STILL in power today, thumbing their noses at all of us. And, as a cherry on top - they have somehow managed to convince large segments of the population that it's the republicans who are the greedy corporate bastards.

    • LOL! But I think you're thinking of Nationwide and that creepy dude who sings that song in the commercials.

      • Yea Yer right, when I thought about it it was Nationwide...And yer right, the commercials were creepy....That's for correcting me :) sometimes I just be outta control.....Must be the retirement thingy, too much time on my hands.....

        • Well, it was still funny, and I think now whenever I see that commercial, I am going to be thinking, "Countrywide is on your congressman's side...." :)

  • More proof that the swamp Pelosi claimed to drain exposed all the back door deals being cut by her friends. Those who exploited their positions need to face the consequences of doing so. It's time for Dodd and crew to explain how they are entitled to the sweetheart deals for them while screwing the regular folks.

  • Chris Dodd and Bwarny Frank both made some serious money from this, but as usual, the criminals in the Capital cover their own.
    Both of those fucking crooks should be wearing Orange Jumpsuits.

  • The best book I've seen on the issue is "Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon" Morgenson and Rosner. Way before Countrywide, James Johnson and his successor (both Democrats BTW. Johnson was Mondale's campaign manager) set up Fannie Mae mortgage lending as a social program - and defended it in congress - including the use of campaign contributions and even giving awards to Barney Frank's mother. This, of course, returned huge bonuses to them as lending increased while setting the stage for the bubble to follow. Countrywide just followed along later, rode the wave and wiped out. Johnson, so far as I know, got away scott free.