Subprime Leeches Defend Their Indefensible Gazillions
Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) is holding hearings today in Congress about outlandish executive compensation, especially for those who inflicted horrible economic damage on this country by their greedy, risky subprime mortgage financial practices.
Former CEO's of institutions involved in the subprime mortgage disaster are testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Investigations.
Bush's deliberate deregulation of just about everything corporate, particularly comprising financial and lending companies, complements his support and protection of corporate cronies making profits any way they can.
The three corporate leeches testifying today are trying to defend the gazillions they greedily grabbed when resigning and the millions they made heading companies that defrauded borrowers and helped send the economy into a recessionary spiral.
And these dishonest and dishonorable men will whine and moan and talk about humble beginnings and make other indefensible excuses for their avaricious rewards for harming this nation and its people.
From the NYTimes, "Three prominent financial executives were summoned before Congress on Friday to face questions about the huge paydays that they earned from the subprime mortgage boom, even as their companies have lost billions of dollars and thousands of borrowers have lost their homes.
"Two of the three lost their jobs last fall after the collapse of the subprime market — E. Stanley O’Neal, Merrill Lynch’s chairman and chief executive, and Charles O. Prince III, his counterpart at Citigroup — but left with sizable pay packages. The other, Angelo R. Mozilo, the founder and chief executive of Countrywide Financial, presided over the demise of a once high-flying company that is now being acquired by Bank of America."
Mr. Mozilo is typical of these high dollar leeches. As I wrote in a post "Greedy Mortgage Lenders Set To Get Golden Bailout," on 1/12/08, "According to the excellent article by Gretchen Morgenson at the New York Times, "...few companies benefited more from the mortgage mania than Countrywide, among the most aggressive home lenders in the nation. As such, the company is Exhibit A for the lax and, until recently, highly lucrative lending that has turned a once-hot business ice cold and has touched off a housing crisis of historic proportions.
“ 'In terms of being unresponsive to what was happening, to sticking it out the longest, and continuing to justify the garbage they were selling, Countrywide was the worst lender,' said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. 'And anytime states tried to pass responsible lending laws, Countrywide was fighting it tooth and nail.' "
As I concluded then, "The mortgage crisis is another example of a disaster caused by rapacious lenders and Wall Street high flyers. These are some of Bush's top 2% of have's and have-more's who always make out like bandits because of traditional Republican disdain for regulatory law."
And, of course, there is Mr. Prince about whom I wrote in "Democratic Leaders and Wall Street," on 11/28/07, "It seemed like a popping champagne corks early New Year's Eve for the stock market when it was announced that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority bought a 4.9% stake for $7.5 billion in Citigroup, the largest financial institution in the US. Citigroup had been reeling because of its integral part in the subprime mortgage crisis.
"Its former CEO, Charles Prince III had jumped ship with the usual golden resignation package and this incompetent was replaced by his former adviser and biggest supporter, Robert Rubin. Illogical, but you read that right. This buy in by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority occurred on Rubin's watch.
"However, not everyone was celebrating the news. Because of their greedy role in the subprime mortgage debacle and subsequent credit crunch, the biggies now need capital of their own. As one investor put it, "It's a bitter pill to swallow to admit that the problems in the market have reached the point where companies that could traditionally fund themselves now need external sources of capital." But their greed created the disastrous 'problem.'
Yet, top Democratic leaders refuse to admit that Robert Rubin, adviser and supporter of Charles Prince III, one of the dishonorable former corporate CEO's testifying today, is cut from the same cloth as these three despicable examples of selfish corporate greed.
As I wrote last November, "But Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill and other Dems inside the beltway, like Hillary Clinton, think Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury Secretary, is a genius. A genius for Wall Street but not necessarily for typical Americans."
O'Neal, Prince, Mozilo, and Rubin are all interchangeable. Rubin not only supported the avaricious Prince but shaped the strategy at Citibank that led to its enormous problems and helped create this nation's economic catastrophe. He is a true Republicrat, Clintonite DLCer, waiting in the wings to inflict more mainstream, no real change Hamilton Group damage on the American people under a Clinton II presidency.
Former CEO's of institutions involved in the subprime mortgage disaster are testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Investigations.
Bush's deliberate deregulation of just about everything corporate, particularly comprising financial and lending companies, complements his support and protection of corporate cronies making profits any way they can.
The three corporate leeches testifying today are trying to defend the gazillions they greedily grabbed when resigning and the millions they made heading companies that defrauded borrowers and helped send the economy into a recessionary spiral.
And these dishonest and dishonorable men will whine and moan and talk about humble beginnings and make other indefensible excuses for their avaricious rewards for harming this nation and its people.
From the NYTimes, "Three prominent financial executives were summoned before Congress on Friday to face questions about the huge paydays that they earned from the subprime mortgage boom, even as their companies have lost billions of dollars and thousands of borrowers have lost their homes.
"Two of the three lost their jobs last fall after the collapse of the subprime market — E. Stanley O’Neal, Merrill Lynch’s chairman and chief executive, and Charles O. Prince III, his counterpart at Citigroup — but left with sizable pay packages. The other, Angelo R. Mozilo, the founder and chief executive of Countrywide Financial, presided over the demise of a once high-flying company that is now being acquired by Bank of America."
Mr. Mozilo is typical of these high dollar leeches. As I wrote in a post "Greedy Mortgage Lenders Set To Get Golden Bailout," on 1/12/08, "According to the excellent article by Gretchen Morgenson at the New York Times, "...few companies benefited more from the mortgage mania than Countrywide, among the most aggressive home lenders in the nation. As such, the company is Exhibit A for the lax and, until recently, highly lucrative lending that has turned a once-hot business ice cold and has touched off a housing crisis of historic proportions.
“ 'In terms of being unresponsive to what was happening, to sticking it out the longest, and continuing to justify the garbage they were selling, Countrywide was the worst lender,' said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. 'And anytime states tried to pass responsible lending laws, Countrywide was fighting it tooth and nail.' "
As I concluded then, "The mortgage crisis is another example of a disaster caused by rapacious lenders and Wall Street high flyers. These are some of Bush's top 2% of have's and have-more's who always make out like bandits because of traditional Republican disdain for regulatory law."
And, of course, there is Mr. Prince about whom I wrote in "Democratic Leaders and Wall Street," on 11/28/07, "It seemed like a popping champagne corks early New Year's Eve for the stock market when it was announced that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority bought a 4.9% stake for $7.5 billion in Citigroup, the largest financial institution in the US. Citigroup had been reeling because of its integral part in the subprime mortgage crisis.
"Its former CEO, Charles Prince III had jumped ship with the usual golden resignation package and this incompetent was replaced by his former adviser and biggest supporter, Robert Rubin. Illogical, but you read that right. This buy in by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority occurred on Rubin's watch.
"However, not everyone was celebrating the news. Because of their greedy role in the subprime mortgage debacle and subsequent credit crunch, the biggies now need capital of their own. As one investor put it, "It's a bitter pill to swallow to admit that the problems in the market have reached the point where companies that could traditionally fund themselves now need external sources of capital." But their greed created the disastrous 'problem.'
Yet, top Democratic leaders refuse to admit that Robert Rubin, adviser and supporter of Charles Prince III, one of the dishonorable former corporate CEO's testifying today, is cut from the same cloth as these three despicable examples of selfish corporate greed.
As I wrote last November, "But Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill and other Dems inside the beltway, like Hillary Clinton, think Robert Rubin, Bill Clinton's former Treasury Secretary, is a genius. A genius for Wall Street but not necessarily for typical Americans."
O'Neal, Prince, Mozilo, and Rubin are all interchangeable. Rubin not only supported the avaricious Prince but shaped the strategy at Citibank that led to its enormous problems and helped create this nation's economic catastrophe. He is a true Republicrat, Clintonite DLCer, waiting in the wings to inflict more mainstream, no real change Hamilton Group damage on the American people under a Clinton II presidency.
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