My contention is with the statement about people who know someone who default on a mortgage are in turn more likely to do so. That seems like a pretty good causation-correlation mix-up. Think about how people work — we like to go through life staying in our own narrow band of comfort, and usually it means being surrounded by people just like us. So (with all due respect to people who were unfairly screwed by this economy) the likelihood that someone would default on a mortgage has to be at least somewhat correlated to income. I would guess that friends tend to band together at income levels, and so knowing someone who defaulted and defaulting oneself would be correlation rather than causation, i.e. financially shaky people will often have financially shaky friends. (Again, no disrespect to the people who were swept off their feet by this whole housing bubble boondoggle)

Now that I think of it, obesity itself has a large (ahem) financial component, at least in the U.S. and other developed countries, in which obesity and income have an inverse relationship – poor/fat, thin/rich. I looked at the study in the link, and in the section on statistical analysis it appears that the study’s authors did not factor in income level (although they did look at education level, which is, tragically for many grads, not a perfect indicator of income). I wonder if income, and friends/family tending to band at income levels, could have any input into this obesity infection phenomenon.

Say that you’re due to bat fourth in the inning and the three fellows who go up to the plate before you get hits. You go up there expecting to get a hit too. And the odds that you will therefore go up.
‘
We’re social beings.

Rob