The recent bursting of the housing bubble led to a wave of defaults on home mortgages. Many, no doubt most, of the defaults are due to an inability to pay. But an increasing number of homeowners are engaging in “strategic default,” that is, they are deciding not to pay their mortgage even...

This article examines corporate bailouts from several ethical perspectives. Utilitarian analysis concludes that bailouts cannot be ethically justified because the losers exceed the winners. Applying rights theory reaches the same conclusion for different reasons