Countrywide Financial Corporation and the Subprime Mortgage Debacle

In 2006, the world discovered that Countrywide Financial and other lenders had been promoting mortgages practices that were not impractical, they were criminal. Countrywide was one of a number of corporations (but the one with the largest number of questionable mortgages) which followed the lead of a then recent push by the government to provide incentives to companies that offered a greater number of people home loans. These types of loans are called subprime because the people who want the loan do not qualify under the normal rules. Because of the government push, which became a push within the company, countrywide offered a greater number of loans to people who could not afford them, and many of these were structured as ARMs. An ARM is an adjustable rate mortgage one in which the rate can change over a specified number of years,...
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