Sociopathic Hubris?

If there is no clinical term “sociopathic hubris”, there should be.

That’s the only conclusion I can draw from the recently released transcripts of disgraced Countrywide Financial co-founder Angelo Mozilo under oath last year as recounted in this story at Bloomberg today:

The crisis was “not caused by an act of Countrywide,” said Mozilo, 73, according to a transcript of the deposition. “This is all about an unprecedented, cataclysmic situation, unprecedented in the history of this country. Values in this country dropped by 50 percent.”
…
“I have no regrets about how Countrywide was run,” Mozilo said. “We were a world-class company in every respect.”
…
“We never made a loan knowingly — and it would be stupid to do so — that we knew the borrower could not pay. Never,” Mozilo said. “All our loans had that one standard from 1968 to the end of my reign at Countrywide.”
…
While publicly reassuring investors about the quality of his loans, Mozilo issued “dire” internal warnings and engaged in insider trading accelerating stock sales to reap about $140 million, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a 2009 lawsuit. In one e-mail, he described a “particularly profitable subprime product as ‘toxic.’”
…
He also wrote that Countrywide was “flying blind” and had “no way” to determine the risks of some adjustable-rate mortgages, the SEC said.
…
Mozilo “remains really proud of his company and this institution he built,” said his attorney, David Siegel. “It would be unfair to say he doesn’t feel a great deal of empathy for the honest, hard-working Americans who suffered in the financial crisis.”

Now I kind of wish I’d never read the article - it’s left me feeling nauseous.

There’s lots of background material in this search at the old blog. This item from December 2007 (nine months before the wheels fell of the global financial system) sums it up nicely - Angelo Mozilo is a moron.