The Foreclosure of America

The Inside Story of the Rise and Fall of Countrywide Home Loans, the Mortgage Crisis, and the Default of the American Dream.

From Countrywide's former Senior VP of Marketing, the first engrossing inside look at Countrywide Home Loans, how the mortgage crisis started-and where it may end.

In July 2004, Adam Michaelson entered "The Vault"- an underground bunker at Countrywide headquarters - for a meeting about a new loan product that would allow borrowers to pay less than their minimum monthly payment. After the "finance jocks" proudly made their case, Michaelson asked one question: "Are you nuts?" Countrywide's decision-makers believed these new exotic loans were "worth the risk."

The booming housing market would only get bigger, with ever-increasing home values supporting homeowners in a never-ending cycle of borrowing against the virtual value of their homes and refinancing later.

They were dead wrong.