Plug “Cerberus Capital Management” into Google and the sponsored advertisement that comes up next to the result is WeShortSell.com. The site offers advice to America’s underwater homeowners on how to get some of their debt forgiven (tagline: “Walk Away”).

Residential Capital, the struggling mortgage business that is part of GMAC (owned by Cerberus and General Motors), is similarly hoping its lenders will accept a haircut. The payoff is that GMAC will then provide a new $3.5bn senior credit facility to the business. Friday is the first deadline for ResCap bondholders, owed $14bn, to exchange their old notes for new paper. Most are being asked to accept a discount of between 10 per cent and 20 per cent as well as longer repayment maturities.