There's no better reason to maintain perpetually bronzed skin and blinding white teeth than to be interviewed on CNBC.
Angelo R. Mozilo, who helped spark the global economic collapse with his imploding Countrywide Financial Corp., liked to use the word "terrific" in TV interviews. But I'm guessing he won't sound so terrific if they are ever replayed in court.
By September 2005, even then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was getting concerned about risky mortgage lending. But not Mr. I-spent-55-years-in-the-mortgage-business.
"I don't know why the Chairman's, you know, .. he's obsessed with this issue," Mozilo told CNBC that month.
"I don't see anything wrong, frankly, with people .. remodeling their home .. or financing a new business venture. .. I think it's terrific for the economy. It's terrific for the American people. And we have seen, particularly in the home equity loan area, very, very low delinquencies and virtually no foreclosures. I just think it's a terrific vehicle for the consumers of the country and has driven our economy."
States attorneys general now accuse Mozilo of predatory lending practices. And investors are suing him, alleging the ol' pump and dump.
Mr. Terrific personally made more than $400 million cashing stock options over the years as he touted such exotic instruments as "pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages" to consumers. He also managed to unload his beleaguered company on Bank of America Corp. (BAC) for $4 billion as the whole thing slid like a mansion in a mudslide.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has indicated it may file charges against Mozilo. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is still investigating. And New York's senior Democratic senator, Chuck Schumer, has said he wants to see Mozilo "boiled in oil," as if all those years of baking weren't hard enough on the guy's skin.
Mozilo's attorney, David Siegel, has called the claims politically motivated and vowed that the facts will clear his client. For now, though, it's probably a good idea to keep the guy off TV.
"Over the entire history of this country, housing prices have never gone down nationally," Mozilo told CNBC in May 2005. "Over the longer term, there's no better investment that I've observed than owning a home."
What about defaults?
"They're pretty low," he said. "And I think one of the reasons being is because you've had such an escalation in real-estate prices that if anybody gets into trouble, they have a way out; you know, they can sell the home. .. As long as we continue the job formations that we have, the momentum that we have, you're going to have very little incident of default. "
And what if housing values actually do go down?
"If you're in a home and you're going to live in that home, whether the value of the house goes up or down, except for your psyche, nothing really happens."
In September 2006, Mozilo told the Los Angeles Times that he personally called customers with pay-option ARMs to see if they understood them.
"What we're finding out is that they're pretty smart," he reported. "It's like voters: Individually they're sort of idiots, but collectively they seem to make the right decisions. .. The average age of our borrower is about 38 years old. They have never in their adult lives seen values going down. The concept is alien to them."
In a November 2006 article by trade publication Origination News , Mozilo talked about getting into reverse mortgage business to help older Americans cash out.
"There is no longer a euphoria involved in paying off your mortgage," he said. "The equity buildup that boomers are experiencing .. they will need that money to support their lifestyle."
Yet by then, even Mozilo had to acknowledge housing price declines, which is why he began begging the Federal Reserve Bank to lower interest rates.
"People can no longer tap their equity in order to continue to consume, and so that should have a negative economic effect," he complained in a November 2006 CNBC interview.
"I don't think it's .. going to be earth-shattering. But I think it is .. a factor. .. We'd like to see interest rates go lower. .. I think the Fed can help this along substantially and reduce the amount of pain by reducing the Fed Funds."
In a December 2006 interview with American Banker , Mozilo mused whether his career would be tainted because of Countrywide's pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages. "Only history will tell," he said.
"I never totally feel comfortable," he told the trade publication. "I wake up scared every day. I think it's an essential ingredient to being successful."
In March 2007, Mozilo came on CNBC to talk about a looming subprime mortgage crisis.
"This is now becoming a liquidity crisis, an unnecessary one," he said. "There's been a rush to judgment, an overreaction, a baby out with the bath water."
But not to worry about his baby.
"This will be great for Countrywide," he said, "because all the irrational competitors will be gone."
In December 2007, Mozilo went on CNBC to say that he was not in talks with Bank of America for yet another life-saving cash infusion.
"Countrywide," he declared, "is a strong, viable financial company."
Good thing he never listened to himself when his stock options vested.
(Al's Emporium, written by Dow Jones Newswires columnist Al Lewis, offers commentary and analysis on a wide range of business subjects through an unconventional perspective. The column is published each Tuesday and Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. Contact Al at al.lewis@dowjones.com or tellittoal.com)
