In Massachusetts, a housewife who had hidden her family's mounting financial crisis from her husband sends a note to the mortgage company warning: "By the time you foreclose on my house, I'll be dead."

Then Carlene Balderrama shot herself to death, leaving an insurance policy and a suicide note on a table.

This has now left all sense of decency. Businesses and banks, especially banks, know exactly what is going on, and in many cases contributed to the disaster our economy has turned into. The "almighty dollar" isn't good enough. Instead of working against people, they need to be working with them, and for any banker who doesn't understand this one, dead people don't pay bills.