A double standard on default

While corporations get praised for staging strategic defaults, homeowners are painted as “dishonorable deadbeats” if they walk away from their mortgages, said James Surowiecki at The New Yorker.

James Surowiecki

The New Yorker

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So what about the millions of homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages? They too can still pay their debts, “but doing so is like setting a pile of money on fire every month.” While corporations get praised for staging strategic defaults, these homeowners are painted as “dishonorable deadbeats” if they walk away from their mortgages.

“The double standard here is obvious and offensive.” Mortgage-holders are constantly admonished to be morally upright and “to think of more than the bottom line.” Banks and corporations, meanwhile, conduct their business in “coldly rational terms.” Their hypocritical message: “Do as I say, not as I do.”

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