Ethical Branding and Marketing

4     Lessons from the Housing Crisis Support a Formal Fiduciary Standard in For-Profit Higher Education

Robert J. Foran

Introduction

Many factors contributed to the Great Recession, but the erosion of lending standards in the mortgage industry largely explains the root cause of the severe economic downturn. Over a span of a few years, financial firms made it incrementally easier for more individuals to obtain mortgages to purchase larger and more expensive homes. Between 2006 and 2015, as real estate prices collapsed and the Great Recession ensued, nearly 10 million homeowners directly experienced the hardships of foreclosure, home surrender, or short sale (National Center for Policy Analysis, 2015). Similar to the housing market before ...