Hard-pressed consumers refuse to read from the script

The executives who gathered in a New Jersey hotel in June to discuss the crisis in the mortgage industry had plenty on their minds, but one thing in particular puzzled them: customers were just not behaving in the ways that lenders had come to expect.

For decades, people had continued to pay down mortgages until their last cent was spent. Now, increasing numbers were giving up their homes even as they continued to service other debts.