Angelo Mozilo Depo: Underwater Homeowners' Borrower Ruthlesness At Fault For Mortgage Crisis; Has "No Regrets About How ... Countrywide Was Run, It Was A World-Class Company!"

From CNBC's blog, NetNet with John Carney:

• The Big Picture [...] posted the transcript of the deposition of Angelo Mozilo taken in connection with MBIA's lawsuit against Bank of America over loans Countrywide originated.
  
  Perhaps the most jarring moment in the deposition is when Mozilo lays out a completely self-serving and bonkers theory of the financial crisis.
  
  
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  [from the deposition:]
  
  This is a matter of record. The cause of the problems of foreclosures is not created by Countrywide, nor MBIA. This is all about an unprecedented, cataclysmic situation, unprecedented in the history of this country. Values in this country dropped 50 percent.
  
  ...And for the first time in the history of this country people decided that they were going to leave their homes because the value of their home was below the mortgage amount. Never in the history of this country did that ever happen,and that could never have been assessed in the risk profile.
  
  These people didn't lose their jobs. They didn't lose their health. They didn't lose their marriage. Those are the three factors that cause foreclosure. They left their home because the values went below the mortgage. That's what caused the problem.So I have no regrets about how I -- how Countrywide was run. It was a world-class company.
  
  
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  Bravo to the attorney for MBIA who managed to provoke Mozilo into this rant. It really is revealing to see that the events of the financial crisis have not introduced even a sliver of doubt into his mind about the lending practices of Countrywide.

For more, see Angelo Mozilo's Theory of the Financial Crisis: Zombie Homeowners!