Before the housing bubble burst, Countrywide Financial was one of the nation’s largest home mortgage lenders. But after years of predatory lending practices, the predator went extinct.

Read the transcript.

GUESTS

Clare Fieseler — ecologist

Bethany McLean — journalist and author, contributing editor to Vanity Fair

Patricia McCoy — professor and author, Professor of Law at Boston College Law School

Mehrsa Baradaran — Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of Law at UCI Law

Michael Winston — whistleblower, former Chief Leadership Officer at Countrywide Financial Corporation

Maeve Elise Brown — public interest attorney, executive and founder of Housing and Human Rights Advocates (HERA)

Cloyed Miller — Countrywide mortgage borrower

SELECTED SOURCES

The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap — Mehrsa Baradaran

All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis — Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera

The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure, and Next Steps — Kathleen C. Engel and Patricia McCoy

“A Whistleblower’s Horror Story: Years after blowing the whistle on Countrywide, Michael Winston is bogged down in the courts, and fighting for his life” — From Rolling Stone, by Matt Taibbi 

JUST FOR FUN

Housing Market Outlook video — Office of Thrift Supervision panel featuring former CNBC “Money Honey” Maria Bartiromo and Angelo Mozilo

Lauren’s favorite Countrywide commercials — here, here and here

Angelo Mozilo in 2019 talking about lessons learned from the housing crisis — VIDEO

OUR SPONSORS THIS WEEK

Indeed - Indeed.com/spectacular

Policy Genius - Policygenius.com

Our Crowd - ourcrowd.com/spectacular

GET MORE FROM THE SPEC FAILS TEAM
Sign up to receive our brand new newsletter: spectacularfailures.org/newsletter.

You can follow Spectacular Failures on Twitter and Facebook using @failureshow. We're @failure_show on Instagram. Follow Lauren Ober on Twitter and Instagram at @oberandout.

HELP SUPPORT THE SHOW

Spectacular Failures is powered by you. Support the show with a donation at spectacularfailures.org/donate.