There’s nothing in this story that involves illegality

[Who_ll_take_the_rap]

Sabannes Oxley Act in the slip stream of Enron etc has affected all our lives. Many of us are monitored to destruction on the instructions of the Central Banks worldwide. But in going after the small fry, are they letting greater scandals happen? Here is an example of what some people are getting away with.

Countrywide often led customers to “high-cost and sometimes unfavorable loans” that, among other things, generated “**outsize fees to company affiliates providing services **-----------------------------Countrywide seems peculiarly unwilling to work out deals that might let borrowers hold on to their homes — even when such a deal, by avoiding the costs of foreclosure, would actually work to the benefit of both sides.-------------------------------Why block mutually beneficial deals? As the article points out, Countrywide can make money from the fees it charges on foreclosures, while the losses from mortgages that could have been saved, but weren’t, are borne by others.---------------------In late 2006, even as **Countrywide began using shareholders’ money to buy back its own stock **at more than $40 a share — it’s now worth only $19 — Mr. Mozilo was selling. Between November 2006 and August 2007 — that is, during the months before investors fully realized the extent to which his company would be hurt by the subprime mortgage crisis — he unloaded $138 million worth of Countrywide’s stock.

Again, unless the stock sales lead to insider-trading charges, there’s nothing in this story that involves illegality. Still, how can it be that so soon after Enron, WorldCom and other scandals rocked the business world, we’re once again hearing about executives cashing in just before their companies are revealed as less successful than advertised? The answer, of course, is that we never dealt properly with those scandals.
nytimes.com/2007/10/01/opini … 4&partner=
permalink&exprod=permalink

Tell me! if Central Banks and Governments find this behaviour to be neither illegal, immoral, dishonest, or theft!
What is it?

[yoganmahew]

Canny?
Savvy?
A no-brainer?
Shrewd?
Entirely sensible given the looming storm and the madness of all around you? (ah shit, the last one just sneaked out).