The Bailout

One wonders how many of you feel the way we do? Isn't this proposed bailout simply rewarding CEO's who took outrageous salaries and were inept stewards of the ships they were sailing? Who were greedy beyond words, who were all friends and contributors to our fiscally irresponsible President. Who protected these men as their billion dollar companies were going under? How about many of our congressmen and senators.

Would you reward your child for misbehaving? How about if your child stole money from you...would you then reward him/her with a "get out of jail free card". What if you were in business for yourself? If your company had to declare bankruptcy, you would have to turn all of your assets over to a receiver. Do you think your government would have any hand in "bailing you out"? Not so much!

How about Angelo Mozillo the former CEO Of Countrywide Financial. This was the one of the 1st of the mortgage houses that fell. They were also one of the greediest, charging exorbitant closing costs that were added on to the mortgage of people who truly did not qualify for the house they bought. Through spiffy negotiations with mortgage brokers they bought their dream house. They bought the "american dream", even though they didn't truly have the means to pay back their debt.

Mr. Mozillo was CEO of Countrywide Financial (the nation's largest independent mortgage lender) for 10 years. As CEO his average salary for 6 years was $66.4 Million. Not a bad piece of change to take home...however, Mr. Mozillo drove Countrywide Financial into the ground. The Company, when it was ready to go belly up, was bought by Bank of America for $4 Billion. "The rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say...when Bank of America bought the bankrupt company, Mr. Mozillo made over $100 Million.

I would say that was a very good payday for Mr. Mozillo! Pity Mr. and Mrs. America got the shaft...but, oh well, he's living high on the hog. If we ran our business that way we'd just go broke, there wouldn't be anyone to step in and help us. Remember, the only time a bank will lend you money is when you don't need it.

We could go on and name all the greedy CEO's that got us into this mess, as well as those in Congress that knew what was happening, but kept quiet because they were paid to keep quiet. All in all, this is incredibly sad and once again the American taxpayer...Mr. and Mrs. America, their children, their grandchildren and probably their great-grandchildren are going to get stuck with bill and we won't even get a kiss.

NO BAILOUT,
Neelie