"You think you got problems?"

When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf coast of the US mortgage lender Countrywide leaped into action and offered thousands of area mortgage holders a three month moratorium on repayments which, these homeowners claim, was to be added to the end of the loan. Now that Countrywide has problems of its own driven by the sub-prime debacle it is saying that the arrears plus interest have to be repaid as a lump sum or the loan has to be restructured; a move that would cost the borrowers thousands of dollars.

I can hear Adam Smith smiling.