If this doesn't make your blood boil, I don't know what will. Most likely, the
business purpose of this trip was to figure out a way to make this the US
taxpayer's problem. Remember this kind of stuff when these clowns come with
their hands out...


======================
Countrywide Treats Bankers to Ski-Resort Trip
By JAMES R. HAGERTY and DAMIAN PALETTA
February 22, 2008; Page A13

The U.S. home-mortgage industry is in the dumps. That doesn't mean the party is
over for mortgage bankers.

Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender by loan
volume, will host about 30 representatives of smaller mortgage banks for three
nights next week at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch ski resort in Avon, Colo. At
one of the country's most-glamorous skiing spots, a regular room on a weekday
starts at $750.

The first items on the agenda for guests arriving Monday evening: Cocktails and
ski fittings. Next is dinner at the Spago restaurant, whose menu includes Kobe
steak with wasabi potato puree for $105. (For the budget-minded, pan-roasted
buffalo filet with Kabocha pumpkin flan is $54.)

The annual event is for bankers at correspondent lenders, which originate loans
and then sell them to Countrywide. The Calabasas, Calif., lender is paying for
hotel rooms, meals, skiing and tips, according to a program distributed to
attendees.

The schedule calls for four-hour business meetings Tuesday and Wednesday
mornings, followed by skiing and dinner. Those dinners are at Zach's Cabin,
where diners arrive by sled, and at Larkspur in Vail, Colo., where the menu
includes California farmed Alverta President caviar, listed at $140.50.

Many companies entertain business partners in luxurious settings, of course. But
this event stands out because of the company's circumstances. Countrywide's
board agreed last month to sell to Bank of America Corp. for about $4 billion,
less than a fifth of its market value 12 months earlier.

Rising defaults and falling home prices led to losses of about $1.6 billion at
Countrywide in the second half, and the company has reduced its work force by
11,400, or 19%, since July. Countrywide's servicing arm, which collects payments
and handles other administrative tasks, has about 90,000 loans in foreclosure,
or 1% of the total.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat who has been pushing Countrywide and
others to do more for people facing foreclosure, called on Countrywide to cancel
the trip and devote the money to refinancing distressed homeowners.

A Countrywide spokesman declined to comment. The company has argued in recent
news releases that it is making efforts to keep distressed borrowers in their
homes. Among those are agreements with nonprofit consumer-advocacy groups to
negotiate loan workouts for borrowers. A Bank of America spokesman declined to
discuss Countrywide's hospitality.

Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com and Damian Paletta at
damian.paletta@dowjones.com

===============================================