Dodd, Duplicity and Federal Oversight

Since we have had several articles on the financial crisis on the Evangelical Portal at Patheos (see here and here), I just wanted to issue a quick note that Senators Dodd and Conrad, both of whom were tasked with oversight of banking and mortgages, are exposed now to have had deep conflicts of interest.  Angelo Mozilo rose from the butcher shop in which he was raised to being the head of Countrywide, which pushed harder than any other mortgage lender into the subprime market, inflating the bubble that later burst on all of us.  Mozilo himself made hundreds of millions of dollars before Countrywide and IndyMac collapsed and destroyed many billions of dollars in American wealth.

Mozilo gave sweetheart deals to powerful people, including Congressmen and Senators (“friends of Angelo”), on their own mortgages–two mortgages apiece from Countrywide.  Dodd heads the Banking Committee and Conrad the Budget Committee.  These are precisely the same people who were supposed to supervising and regulating the housing and financial markets–precisely the ones who were supposed to be keeping an eye on people like Angelo Mozilo–and they, knowingly, received mortgages from Mozilo that were well beneath the market rate.

That these are Democratic Senators is not the point.  Every Congressperson and Senator who profited personally from turning a blind eye toward the financial and housing markets should be run out of town.