Transcribed: Actually, "We're sorry" might have been nice.

I agree that there's plenty of blame to go around, but when former Countrywide VP Adam Michaelson attempted to wriggle out of accepting his company's share of responsibility for the housing mess and tumbling economy? Well, that was pretty shameless.

In this excerpt from yesterday's Marketplace podcast, Marketplace's Kai Rysdal does a pretty good job of trying to pin him down. It was fascinating listening.

Adam Michaelson: There's moral ambiguity inherent in all selling. In fact, I would argue that many of your readers, any of whom have ever been involved in sales, have at one time wondered whether that prospect should be buying that product or could buy that product. But they have goals to make and their job is to sell whatever it is they're selling.

Kai Ryssdal: But it's one thing, though, to be selling lawn mowers, it's another thing to be putting somebody who everybody knows can't really afford it into a half-million dollar house.

AM: That kind of point of view is a very valid point of view, it's also a populist point of view. But using that argument, we as a nation should decide to vilify fast food companies, for...

KR: And we do.

AM: And credit card companies who offer new credit cards to people who owe $50,000 in household debt.

KR: And we do.

AM: So it's a much larger issue about not only the morality of selling, but is it more about the death of personal responsibility? It's important for us to question: was every foreclosed homeowner really a victim? Was every corporation really evil? I think the answer is much bigger than that.

KR: What is the answer then? I mean, I'm not going to let you get away with just saying, well, we have to question these things because the economy is in tatters in large part because of what a company like Countrywide did.

AM: Well, part of the reason I wrote the book is because I started to read stories about foreclosed homeowners and about how corporations were all evil and I said, wait a minute, I was in the room, and I'm telling you, we were not out to hurt people...

Marketplace, 1.6.09

Check this link to find the full audio interview, transcript, and the many great comments that follow.