I think if it gets as bad as they think, there may end up being drastic measures. Not to necessarily protect the people, but to protect the economy.

However, I personally don't believe it will be as bad as everyone thinks. Maybe someone will use this time to push an agenda to make sure we are prepared for things. There has been all this "talk" about "Emergency/Disaster Prepardness", but there doesn't seem to be anything visibly happening.

As for mortgage payments and such, if it gets bad enough, maybe that'll mean no one will be at the computers to see you're late! What will probably happen though is voluntary postponement of payments. It happened on a few of my student loans. They just put me into "forbearance". Never asked, and never told me!

Edited: Removed possible political comment - ki4buc