Countrywide: How Their "Pain" Got Me A Free Lunch Invite

AP

So, I've been spending the entire morning today sitting outside Countrywide's corporate headquarters in Calabasas, California (at least there's a nice breeze). I'm covering the nuggets inside the company's quarterly regulatory filing which doesn't paint a pretty picture.

Bottom line, the future of lending looks murky. Countrywide can't sell a lot of its loans to investors, so it's having to hold onto them.That means less cash flow, fewer loans it can fund. But the company has $190 billion in liquidity to see it through.

So like a local news reporter in front of a crack house I am out here pondering the doom and gloom of it all, on the off chance CEO Angelo Mozilo might pop out for a "hello!" Sure he will.

But we called inside and asked if somebody could come out! They were very friendly, and cheerily told producer Jeff Daniels they'd be happy to at least buy us lunch!

Guess it's not all gloom and doom inside.

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