Countrywide Leads Insider Selling Spree

You already know the drill. Insiders sold $15.8 million worth of shares at an average price of $38.25. Those same shares are now worth just $2.4 million. That's some loss. Naturally, the insiders didn't always walk away with all the money. In some cases they exercised options -- albeit often at low prices -- on the shares before selling them.

Politicians on Capitol Hill are planning to hold hearings into the subprime market meltdown. If they want to do something useful, they might invite some of the executives at the companies above to turn up, then ask them some tough questions.