FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!!!
The Secretary of the Treasury Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson Jr (the former CEO Goldman Sachs) puts together a meeting with his pal Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide, and the folks over at Wells Fargo, CitiMortgage and JP Morgan Chase. Shortly after that meeting Countrywide announces it has lined up $12 billion in additional financing. Could it be anything other than a coincidence?

Speaking of coincidences.
In 2006 industry insiders were pointing out that subprime was beginning to show signs of serious problems. One of the big losers in the subprime mess is none other than Goldman Sachs. Is it just a coincident that around the same time this administration appointed Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson Jr the CEO of Goldman Sachs to the position of Secretary of the Treasury? FYI Goldman Sachs Global Equity fund, with $7.5 billion in assets, fell 23 percent in August

Show me the money.
This liquidity fairy tale could be short lived. Countrywide claims they have raised over $23 billion. Given Countrywide’s lack of disclosure about this latest 12 billion in new found credit, one must wonder about the lenders, the costs, and the level of collateral. What if the “additional funding” and liquidity is less about outside credit sources and more about migration of funding its originations through the (Countrywide Bank) thrift and the increased pressure on regulators to allow further easing of the rules on what is and what is not a non performing loan and the corresponding treatment of reserves.Countrywide claims they have already done some type of restructuring for over 35,000 borrowers. Given that Countrywide is no longer under the more rigorous scrutiny of the Comptroller of the Currency but rather under the somewhat more liberal OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION I wonder what percent of borrowers in trouble are actually accounted for in their loan loss reserves. And what are the accounting methods being used for the projected losses on the more than 12,000 houses that Countrywide acquired through foreclosure that are currently for sale?

What's Countrywide going to do with all that bailout credit?
Rumor has it that Countrywide has been forced to buy back some devalued mortgage-backed securities (MBS) from hedge funds, investment banks at full price, According to Fitch Rating Services up to 80% of all option ARM borrowers make only the minimum payment each month so the worst could be yet to come as housing prices further deteriorate and borrowers with negative equity quit paying and walk away! Those ARM loans originated in 2006 won’t begin to reset until 2008. Countrywide was the nation’s No. 3 subprime mortgage lender in 2006, making $40.6 billion of those loans, and the No. 2 Alt-A lender with $68 billion. I do not pretend to know what their buy back agreements were when they securitized and sold these mortgages, but with these potentially larger losses looming on the horizon you have to wonder what kind of financial condition they will be in 12 months from now.

Countrywide spent over $700,000 in the first six months of 2007 on lobbying.
It is no surprise that Countrywide has their lobbyists out in front of the story. And to be fair it is a bipartisan effort. Guess that is why Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) of the Senate Banking Committee is calling on Countrywide to refinance the bad mortgages they made. Schumer is in effect suggesting that we put the borrower in a government insured loan which in effect means that when the mortgage finally goes belly up we all end up paying for it all over again. What a great idea…. Countrywide already sold the loan and made a fat profit and now they want to double up at our expense. Countrywide redeems itself in the investment community by helping the investors get rid of their non performing loans by refinancing the defaulting borrowers into government insured mortgages. Best of all Countrywide earns huge fees all over again. Countrywide Mortgage,

Prediction: 12 Months from now Congress holds hearings on the role Countrywide, Wells Fargo, CitiMortgage and JP Morgan Chase had in the biggest loss of equity the world has ever seen. A key witness will take the fifth. Will that witness be Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson Jr. ??

I believe Countrywide is going to sell/or already has spun a deal with it's 3 divisions. Buffett's bail out guaranteed him the retail side, B of A the servicing side, and the unknown investors get the wholesale side. I believe after the dust settles the 3 entities will become seperate companies and the main Countrywide name will go BK. Can anyone think of a better way to avoid a law suit from the employees?

you nailed it--and the US public is nail--this will be bigger than the savings and loan bail out of the 80s--the country reeled under that for a decade after and there was plenty of gov't collusion there as well--including the wholesale coverup of Mr. Neil Bush's involvement...
so it would not surprise me to see the development that the OP predicts--
just get out and go to foreign stocks....

You got it! "Mislead" the public with a bold .50% rate cut for media attention. The underlying problems are still there. Pain is coming all the way through 2008.