Portfolio has the scoop on the favorable loan terms that Countrywide has given a number of luminaries, notably HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND). It's still not clear who the bad actors are; we know is that Countrywide was giving out sweetheart deals, but we don't know if anyone was asking for them or if there was a quid pro quo in any of these transactions. Senator Conrad's office issued a fairly strong denial which suggests this all happened without his knowledge: “I never met Angelo Mozilo ...I have no way of knowing how they categorized my loan. I never asked for, expected or was aware of any special treatment…From what we have been able to determine, it appears that we were given a competitive rate.”
Credit rating agencies keep a VIP list of elected officals to make sure they don't encounter problems that would lead to further regulation, and one can imagine the mortgage industry doing much the same thing. I'm not really eager to rush to the defense of Senators getting favorable loan terms, but we're talking about modest sums of money saved relative to the amounts of the loans, and it's unclear if they even knew what was going on. I have a hard time believing that Dodd and Dorgan, who are two of the more good-government oriented Senators out there, would abuse their post for a few grand.
That shit ain't right.
Posted by: Sir Charles | June 13, 2008 at 12:09 PM