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To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (344617)	9/30/2007 12:52:10 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Respond to of 436258

Gretchen's asking the wrong question in that article. The title shouldn't be "Can these mortgages be saved", but "We the hell should these mortgages be saved". Or maybe "Why were these mortgages allowed in the first place"....<NG>

To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (344617)	9/30/2007 1:06:46 PM
From: Giordano Bruno	Respond to of 436258

Who are you kidding? Former Countrywide shills openly spell out their instructed ruthlessness. nytimes.com

To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (344617)	9/30/2007 1:08:56 PM
From: Giordano Bruno	Respond to of 436258

edit

To: Lee Lichterman III who wrote (344617)	9/30/2007 1:30:30 PM
From: stan_hughes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

I'm not saying that all borrowers are angels, and let's not get hung up on a worst-case example like you've cited either -- but I am saying that predatory lenders like Countrywide should not have been allowed to proliferate unabated and unchecked. IMO they are no better than the cheque-cashing usurers that also seem to have sprung up on the street corners around the nation to run similar scams on the financially challenged and the financially illiterate. I'm a believer in one of the basic tenets of contract law that confers fiduciary responsibility on the expert party to an agreement -- in the mortgage lending space, that would be the Countrywides et al and not the unsophisticated borrowers, notwithstanding that some homeowners did some stupid things. Not everybody is packing an MBA from Harvard. If I went to the bank and asked for a loan that can't be maintained within reason, I expect to be refused the loan -- but IMO Countrywide's modus operandi is to absolve itself of any such responsibility and effectively lie to people who are ill-equipped academically to discern how they will get screwed by what is put in front of them to sign. It's like pushing money instead of heroin. And before I get labelled a complete socialist, I'm not advocating that government look over everybody's shoulder every time they enter into an agreement -- but there has to be a reasonably level playing field or you might as well just let crooks like Countrywide and Mozilo take over the whole system