Value of the dollar?

[Fishspearit]

I'm no D&G'er either and am fully prepared for a wash off of housing prises in OZ thanks in part to US subprime and as Ex-Calif says Mr and Mrs Bubba and the plasma (Thanks Guy's).

Subprime fallout has canned my latest project (not the boat) as the banks are touch gun shy here at the moment on anything that may appear marginal.

Cat man do, you might want to take a look closer to home for the source of your credit problems

"
The Australian economy may be healthier now than it has been for 20 years, perhaps longer. But this doesn’t mean families or individuals are necessarily doing it easy. Rising housing costs have placed enormous additional mortgage and rent burdens on many people. Personal debt is at record levels.
The ratio of personal debt to income in Australia is one of the highest in the world � higher even than America and the UK. For every $100 we earn, we owe $130. Credit and charge card debt account for $26 billion of the debt." from » Real Esate - Home

A quick google search also shows that your bankruptcy laws are pretty similiar to the US, declaring bankruptcy allows you to 'walk away' from your debt just like us. The quote you took was comparing UK foreclosure to US foreclosure, in which the US puts some of the risk on the back of the lender to make a good loan. The UK puts all the risk on the borrower. Most of the time the value of homes goes up, and the lender profits by selling a foreclosed home because they got 20% down in the beginning. The lenders took unreasonable risks here in the last few years by making bad loans with no money down in a bubble period, they have a responsibility to ensure that the loans they make can be repaid as well as the borrower.
You make it sound as if we have the ability in the US to just ignore any debt that we don't want to pay. It's not like that.