ABSTRACT
Five years ago, when we prepared the fi rst edition of this book, we commented extensively on the fallout from the fi nancial ethics scandals of the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst century. In particular, at the outset of the 2000s, the technology “bubble” had burst showing the purported value of many Internet-related companies to have been greatly infl ated. More dramatically, in 2007-2008, a housing “bubble” centered in the USA dramatically cratered. Housing, it turned out, was built on “easy credit” and was hyper-leveraged by complex and over-valued mortgage-based securities that fi nancial institutions had broadly perpetuated. The subsequent economic rout led to a “Great Recession” in the U.S. as well as Europe and, for a while, the global banking system teetered on collapse. While many observers considered both these events to be ethical failures of the fi nancial system, we pointed out back then how marketing actions had also been central causes, especially the aggressive packaging and selling of home loans to those who could not aff ord them as well as the fi nancialization and sale of mortgage-based securities. While “big banks” were quickly bailed out by the economic guarantees of their governments, middle-class people lost considerable sums of money from the marked decline in their homes’ value, the downturn in their retirement savings accounts and the loss of jobs due to a faltering economy. Tragically, they have yet to fully recover. Consumers in the U.S. and Europe remain in a state of considerable discontent.
