Follow this link to an article in the New York Times about homeowners who can afford to pay their mortgages, but decide it makes more financial sense to just walk away from their underwater mortgage.

Walking away – also called jingle mail, – because of the notion that homeowners just mail their keys to the bank, setting off foreclosure proceedings – began in the Southwest during the 1980s oil collapse, though it has never been clear how widespread it was.

My sense of history goes back beyond that. I heard from a Texas real-estate agent in the 1970’s that such a situation existed in the Seattle, Washington area during a severe downturn for Boeing. She talked about people mailing in their keys to the bank and walking away. As I recall, this agent had moved from Seattle area to the Dallas, Texas area.

Talking about one particular homeowner, the artile goes on to say:

Most of all, though, he struggles with the ethical question.

I took a loan on an asset that I didn’t see was overvalued, he said. As much as I would like my bank to pay for that mistake, why should it?

That is an attitude Wall Street would like to encourage. David Rosenberg, the chief economist of the investment firm Gluskin Sheff, wrote recently that borrowers were not victims. They signed contracts, and as adults should also be held accountable, he wrote.

Of course, another way to look at it is that the bank, too, was acting as an adult. It signed a contract that said in essence, you agree to pay back this loan or you will forfeit your house to me. The homeowner is merely taking an agreed upon option of the contract.

By the way, I have no direct personal stake in this issue. I am not underwater on a mortgage.