[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

Hundreds indicted in mortgage probe - Mortgage Mess - MSNBC.com

Finally some indictments handed out to the crooks who've been presiding over the rampant fraud in the mortgage industry the past few years. I can recall a few threads here where the question arose if what the subprime industry was up to was actually criminal- apparently so.

Gut instinct tells me the true scale of fraud is so huge we won't know the full extent for decades, and whatever handful of indictments handed out, will be just be window dressing while the vast majority of perps will get away without so much as a wrist slap.

Of course, would-be homeowners and let's pretend 'flippers' who were knowingly borrowing more than they could afford, allowing their incomes to be misreported to secure loans they had no business with, and trying to buy homes at idiotically inflated prices -which collectively was driving up those idiotically inflated prices- shouldn't be let off the hook for their role in the mass-stupidity either.

And I wish there were a few jail cells left over for the usual band of nitwit politicians that still are doing everything in their undeserved power to soak responsible taxpayers to foot the bill for bailing out crooks, scam artists, and 'victims' that knew better.

I'm sick of hearing from the crop of knuckleheads that took part in this whole 'bubble' about how terrible it is that the fun times are over. The mortgage industry crooks SHOULD be thrown in jail. People that bought houses they couldn't really afford SHOULD lose them. Prices SHOULD tumble back down to a point where real homeowners can afford them, that is, responsible people that don't even consider buying things they know they can't afford, don't deserve to get stuck bailing out other nitwits who do, who actually DO pay their bills, and deserve for housing prices to return to the realm of sanity.

[ghporter]

"About DAMN time." Added for emphasis. Frothing-at-the-mouth rant deleted for the safety of the reading public.

[Chongo]

Chris Dodd is neck deep in this, as chairman of Senate banking committee, as is Budget committee chairman Kent Conrad, both of whom have received sweetheart loans from Countrywide.

[ghporter]

I"m not sure about Dodd. He says he had "competitive offers" from other lenders, and was never informed that he was getting "a deal" from Countrywide. Maybe the Countrywide folks were so used to playing under the table that they expected him to pick up on it without a wink? Who knows. I haven't seen anything about Conrad's involvement, but I'll be surprised if there aren't a LOT of people in office that are soiled by the whole thing.

[mduell]

Yea, where's Dodd's indictment for his $60k bribe from Countrywide?

[turtle777]

The problem is, there is not only clear guilty or unguilty.

People's involvement and knowledge of the scams and fraud varied widely, so it's hard to say who should be punished, and to what degree.

At least, there should be minimum bailouts for people that got into this for greed only.

-t

[spacefreak]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I"m not sure about Dodd. He says he had "competitive offers" from other lenders, and was never informed that he was getting "a deal" from Countrywide.

Yet he himself called it a "VIP" offer. Most "VIP" things I know of generally include additional benefits and/or savings. Yet he had no idea of anything?

He's a US Senator. He's supposed to have some idea about what's going on around him. If he can't see that he received a sweetheart VIP deal, then I fear he's not seeing a lot of things.