>>That sounds more like fraud. What do you mean "more like fraud"? Immoral behavior and fraudulent behavior are not mutually exclusive. It is possible for some

>>That sounds more like fraud. What do you mean "more like fraud"? Immoral behavior and fraudulent behavior are not mutually exclusive. It is possible for something to be both immoral and fraudulent, such as the example I gave in my post. >>What if I take out a loan, am perfectly capable of paying it off, but the asset backing the loan has lost sufficient value so as not to be worth the continued investment? Is there any shame in defaulting and letting the lender suffer some of the consequences? No, I don't think there is any shame in that. Like you said, the risk for that is known upfront and is therefore built into the interest rate.