Just last Wednesday, Countrywide Shareholders approved a merger with Bank of America just as California & Illinois filed suits against Countrywide claiming that Countrywide steered consumers into loans that were risky and costly.

This taken from an article that appeared today, June 25, 2008 on MSNBC who has done a piece on this story.

“Lawsuits
The California lawsuit, announced by state Attorney General Jerry Brown, accuses Countrywide of deceptive advertising and unfair competition for emphasizing low introductory loan rates while hiding risky or costly terms, and of routinely pushing borrowers to refinance quickly.

It also said the company ignored complaints from consumers who did not understand the terms of their loans or believed they were conned by brokers trying to meet unrealistic sales targets.

The Illinois case demands that Countrywide fix or rescind unfair mortgages, and make restitution to foreclosed homeowners. Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the state wants to "hold Countrywide accountable for its conduct."

California filed its lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, while Illinois filed its case in Cook County Circuit Court. Mozilo is a defendant in both cases.”

My question is how did we get to this?  How did this all happen?  Where was the regulation in all this? Countrywide did 1 out of every 6 loans over the last 5 years. Just seems to me that economists and professional lenders had to have known this mortgage crises was inevitably coming, snowballing,  yet they did not stop it.  Right? Or am I missing something?

Ginny McGonigle

westsidehomefinders.com

ginnymcgonigle@westsidehomefinders.com