Simone Weil (1909-43), philosopher
Open Letter to Countrywide Bank:
I find your organization to be despicable and if it didn’t further hurt the country or the economy, I would love to see Countrywide Bank go bankrupt. I believe your former CEO should be fined and jailed for the reminder of his days.
It seems to me that if there was a ground zero on this loan fiasco that is causing so much grief to so many, Countrywide Bank was there. What has inspired this note is your latest missive informing your customers that they no longer have a line of home equity credit. I didn’t even ask or apply for a home equity credit line, but you sent me a credit card with an astronomical amount of available credit. I locked it away in a safety deposit box in case of emergency, good thing I didn’t count on Countrywide Bank.
Thankfully, I did not have to use mine, but there are many now who may need it. Once again, Countrywide Bank is right there to add to the misery of others. The Countrywide Bank rationale is that home values have declined so rather than attempting to find a solution to a problem Countrywide Bank so readily help make, you are kicking your customers when they are down.
I was shocked when I applied for my home loan and was told that copies of my pay stubs were not necessary. I thought maybe it had to do with our down payment, but you were not requiring any documentation before handing out sums of money to many people who could not afford it, but you convinced them they could take out a crazy adjustable loan even when loan rates could do nothing but go up because they were at historic lows. Again, because I knew better, I did not fall prey to your thimblerig tactics, but far too many did.
Congress needs to impose regulations on financial institutions, which of course won’t happen until we get the current disastrous administration the hell out of office, because greed instead of corporate responsibility is always the rule when there are no rules.