The Countrywide Roller Coaster

Anyone who’s owned a home has heard of Countrywide.  The company, based in Calabasas, is the nation’s best-known mortgage lender and was ranked as America’s biggest mortgage lender last year.  

My, how the mighty have fallen.  A few days ago, Countrywide was rumored to be on the verge of bankruptcy, having been slammed by rising home foreclosures and mortgage defaults that promised to continue through 2008.  The company has been criticized for loosening lending standards and making high-risk loans, which now are coming back to haunt it. Its stock price has fallen from a peak of $45 a share last year to around $6.  About 12,000 people — 20 percent of its 60,000-person workforce — have been laid off.

Now, it appears that Bank of America may come to the rescue and take over the crippled company.  The buyout has created uncertainty among Countrywide employees, many of whom fear they will lose their jobs.  Meanwhile, the company’s CEO, Angelo Mozilo (pictured above), who would look right at  home on the set of “The Sopranos,” stands to pocket as much as $115 million for ruining the company. 

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