Well, now we have a pretty good idea why the Democrats weren’t interested in examining the Countrywide Loan busienss too closely. The WaPo: [1]
Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate [2] and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama [3] bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust [4] in Illinois.
The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a “super super jumbo.” Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.
…
“The real question is: Were congressmen getting unique treatment that others weren’t getting?” associate law professor Adam J. Levitin, a credit specialist at Georgetown University Law Center [5], said about the Countrywide loans. “Do they do business like that for people who are not congressmen? If they don’t, that’s a problem.”
Well, OK, look; A problem it may well be, from a moral standpoint. And from a legal one. But was it a unique situation? We both know better. I thnk, however, what a lot of Americans will find troublesome about this whole mess is that Obama’s been making all kinds of political milage on ‘sweetheart deals’ from the bank loan industry.