Borrowers refuse to pay home equity loans

Some interesting anecdotes from David Streitfeld at the NY Times:

Lenders say they are trying to recover some of that money but their success has been limited, in part because so many borrowers threaten bankruptcy and the collateral in the homes backing the loans has often disappeared.

The result is one of the paradoxes of the recession: the more money you borrowed, the less likely you will have to pay up.