And when the "TRUTH" is finally documented, I think that this type of corporate "raider mentality" will be shown to have existed at MANY of the coroporations that got into major problems with the subprime mortgage loans. It became like a "pack mentality" of baiting the loan applicants, getting them on the hook for the "interest only" payments, and then piling on the fees/charges.

Those loan applicants should have known and be responsible for the mortgages that they took out. The Fed is responsible for not having issued basic, minimimum, "coomon sense" reglations requiring that all loan applicants be fully qualified for the loans that they were given.

It was a systemic breakdown of our financial and regulatory systems. However, those corporate management who knew and promoted fraudulent type mortgages to individuals who could not reasonably qualify for the loans, should be charged with criminal acts . . . that is the only deterrent to prevent this from happening on a large scale in the future.

Falsifying the paper work for the mortgage applicantions is fraud, palin and simple . . . anyone who participated in this practice should be charged and prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law.

The USA cannot afford a repetition of this type of massive fraud in the future. It's past time for people, especially corporate management to be held responsible for the consequences of their "criminal and fraudulent actions".

That is the only way to restore the integrity and the faith in the market . . . otherwise, it is all just a scam against the American people, and tacitly sanctioned by Congress.

Countrywide will suffer from it's own failures. Most of what is now upon the economy is the result of simple greed, which by the way, is also known as capitalism. It is our system, and not regulatory failure that caused our present mess. The Fed was given power back in the 1990's to prevent "predatory lending" Define that in it's intended sense and you have the answer as to why the Fed did not act. While there is a great deal of failure and certainly the complaints to go along, the majority of the default was created by cheap and loose lending standards. The mentality that the boom would last forever was the fuel that fed the fire - and now it has burned out. It is true that something should be in place to prevent future occurrences, but it will have to be rooted in the people themselves and not a regulator agency. A possible might be to tie the banker's created "credit score" to loan interest. In other words - a low score would get a higher rate with the best and lowest, reserved to those with the highest. The government could easily mandate a free accounting every 2-3 years. Such an idea would take polish as it would have to account for the young and starting out, but it could have the effect of getting people to pay attention to their spending and borrowing habits. The real way to prevent this happening in the future is to educate the general public on basic finance and there is no better way than to make credit functions and rates as a goal. It would be sort of like the old saying of "holding out the carrot".

Once they realized how much money could be made off these type of loans and Wall Street was actually able to sell this dreck it was "Hold her Newt,she's headed for the feed patch !" as my Oklahoma farm Dad would say. Any..Any CEO that tried to stem this torrent of money would have been ripped to shreds from above and below. With underwriting being taken out of human hands some years before a simple computer program tweak could qualify millions more for loans with accompaning profits. Pointing out that 5 years down the line this would prove to be maddness would got ya lynched and besides ..do you know how nice the Leather in a Bentley Turbo feels to your backside...That's how it all happend....