[quote patb]
i hate to tell you this but for almost a 100 years Cramdown was part of law.
[/quote]
I’d be curious as to where you get that ‘fact’. Part of the differentiation between secured and unsecured loans is that with secured loans, unless their is fraud.. the lender walks away from bk with the property and the borrower is free and clear of the loan.. whether or not the lender is ‘made whole'(only exemption that I know of on this is under homestead act). If it is unsecured, the lender can go after other assets, including garnishing bank accounts, tax returns and wages.

There are some variants in some states, like New Mexico, where if the lender is not made whole, they can go after other assets (recourse vs nonrecourse). Of course, this may be ‘stayed’ under bk.. where the lender on the secured loan only gets the property and no more, even though they were not made whole.