Media Taken For a Ride by Countrywide CEO

Said Bartiromo, about how things have come full circle so beautifully: "This on a personal level must be incredible for you, this relationship..."

Aww. ... I could have sworn I even saw Mozilo blanch just a slightly paler shade of orange with surprise.

And though she did put him on the spot over the terms of the deal (Bank of America apparently didn't have the same case of the warm and fuzzies), the investor did not get the sense, which is needed in appraising such a high-profile man who is conjuring up images of the Great Depression, of whether he is full of it.

So let The Business Press Maven weigh in. Let me hold your hand through some rank inconsistencies, noticing how not everything adds up and he seems to want to have it both ways -- trumpeting doom, while holding out the prospect of immediate recovery. If a guy at his level is going to keep yelling "Great Depression" in a crowded theater, and the business media won't put his word to the test, I will. His level of historical analysis is subprime:

Mozilo is a man who was selling his stock in Countrywide as the company was catching a falling knife -- uh, buying back falling shares. In the past five years, he has exercised options and sold stock for hundreds of millions in profit. The pace quickened last fall.

Meanwhile, Countrywide itself was buying its atrophying stock back, a decision the man who all but willed Countrywide into existence called a group decision led by the financial dweebs in the company.