$132 million, because he's worth it

To many, Angelo Mozilo is the face of failure. Under his watch he managed to build Countrywide Financial into the largest lender in the US and then almost as quickly, drive it in to the ground where Bank of America would buy it in a fire sale and reap tax benefits for years. Jobs lost, house evictions, ruined lives, it's all there courtesy of Mozilo. So just how tough are times for this failure? They're so bad that he scraped together $132 million in 2007 despite his magnificent failure.

As I've said before, these people who scream about the free market wouldn't know the free market if it bit them in the ass. In an earlier time, after the Crash of '29 for example, people such as Mozilo would be standing on a street corner begging for handouts much like the people who have lost their houses courtesy of his schemes. When I listen to Republicans talking about people needing to toughen up and quit relying on the system, well, what about Mozilo? How is it possible in this day and age to screw up so badly yet walk away so wealthy? It's easy, because this is the system that the GOP created where only the middle class and poor lose. Risk has been minimized at the top and it's everyone else who is stuck with the bill. Good work, when you can find it.