It’s difficult for some people to imagine eating a $105 Kobe steak and sleeping in a hotel room that costs $750 a night.
There is a word for those people: losers.
If they were mortgage bankers, they’d know what things cost. Particularly at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch in Avon.
New York’s elite media — The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times — know full well the prices of things. And yet they’ve held up Countrywide Financial Corp. for ridicule. “Let ‘Em Eat Kobe Steak,” a New York Post headline screamed Saturday.
The company merely invited 30 mortgage bankers to a three-day retreat at the Ritz. They wanted to dine on caviar and Kurobuta pork osso bucco at the hotel’s Spago restaurant.
In between runs at Vail and Beaver Creek, they planned to discuss the mortgage industry’s problems — and all those losers facing foreclosure.
On Monday, though, Countrywide executives canceled their Colorado ski retreat. I am hoping they will reconsider.
So what if Countrywide is a poster child for all that is wrong in the mortgage industry? So what if it has had to lay off 11,000 people since July? So what if it’s selling itself to Bank of America for one-fifth of what it was worth a year ago?
And so what if its CEO, Angelo Mozilo, is going before Congress this week to explain how he made more than $100 million a year making bad loans?
That’s not the point. The point is that Countrywide still has shareholders, and they can be charged for this trip.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, called on Countrywide to “call off this shameful ski getaway.”
“Let me get this straight: Countrywide is too cash-strapped to prevent layoffs, refinance borrowers or ward off bankruptcy without help from Bank of America, but it can afford a posh junket for its co-conspirators in the sub prime mess?” he said in a written statement. “This brings new meaning to ‘snow job.’ ”
The senator is clearly not an advocate for Colorado tourism.
This reminds me of the time former Tyco CEO Dennis Koz lowski was forced to sell his ski- in/ski-out log mansion, near this same Ritz-Carlton, just because some investors accused him of misappropriating funds and sent him to prison.
What people seem to be hung up on here is price. It would not have made news if Kozlowski had chosen Arapahoe Basin.
Countrywide’s executives should reconsider. They’ve been through a tough year and deserve a break. And I know just the place: Eldora, 30 minutes up the mountain from Boulder. No one will shame Countrywide for skiing Eldora.
They can stay at the Best Western, 3 miles from the slopes, in Nederland. Like the Ritz in Avon, this hotel is a log structure. Some rooms come with bunk beds, too.
No, they don’t serve Kurobuta pork osso bucco. But at Nederland’s Pioneer Inn, there’s an extensive burrito selection.
All-day passes to Eldora’s Tenderfoot tow line cost $7. Hold on tight, and the rope will pull you right along. Better leave those Gucci gloves at home, though.
Respond to Al Lewis at blogs , 303-954-1967 or alewis@denverpost.com.
