Mozilo’s Capitol testimony

Angelo Mozilo was obviously wide awake when the matter of his own self-interest was at stake, but asleep at the switch when Countrywide shares plummeted during the mortgage meltdown (“Mozilo defends stock sales,” March 8).

There is something terribly wrong with a system that allows greedy chief executives to profit unconscionably while failing at their job. I always thought that a person was rewarded for success, not for abject incompetence and negligence.

Obviously, I am naive in thinking that decency and even basic morality have a part to play in the halls of corporate America.

Peter A. O’Reilly

Claremont

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I agree with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) that these men are not villains.

If anybody should be involved in a hearing at this point, it’s former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Early on, Greenspan could have kept the rates at a reasonable amount, instead of continually lowering them. This only encouraged greed to come out of “normal” people.

I am a seasoned appraiser, and at the time everyone involved in all of these mortgage transactions of the past five years wanted them to go through regardless of affordability, common sense or the unpredictable future.

All of a sudden, everyone is a victim.

At the time, borrowers wanted the homes, the lenders wanted to loan the money, appraisals were barely looked at, and everybody made out well.

Elisabeth Chatfelter

Lake Hughes