business ethics unit VI case study and DQ Question

Mortgage crisis, ethics central in panel event Cook, Rachel . McClatchy - Tribune Business News ; Washington [Washington]16 Feb 2012.

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ABSTRACT  

Kern Schools Federal Credit Union CEO and president Steve Renock and Louis Gill, executive director of the

Bakersfield Homeless Center and the Alliance Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault, also joined the panel. FULL TEXT  

Feb. 16--Hamburger meat may be the best analogy for understanding the mortgage crisis that has ravaged Kern

County and the country.

California State University Bakersfield associate professor of economics Aaron Hegde employed the metaphor at

panel discussion Wednesday night to explain the precariousness of mortgages bundled together preceeding the

housing crisis. Figuring out which mortgages are extremely risky is like trying to point out the rancid parts mixed in

hamburger meat, he said.

"We still don't know how much bad meat is out there," Hegde said.

The professor's comments opened a discussion about the mortgage crisis and aftermath hosted by the

university's Kegley Institute of Ethics at the campus' student union building.

About 30 people attended the conversation that touched on the nuts and bolts of how the housing crisis started,

and the ethics of the predicament.

Kern Schools Federal Credit Union CEO and president Steve Renock and Louis Gill, executive director of the

Bakersfield Homeless Center and the Alliance Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault, also joined the panel.

Gill said the crisis has hit local people hard, causing some to live in their cars and squat in vacant homes. He

predicted stays at shelters will increase in the next six to eight months as stimulus money runs out.

Attendees and the panel mulled questions about financial ethics and what moral obligation homeowners may have

to stick it out rather than walk away when their homes are underwater.

Renock said he's grateful that people in Kern seem to be more reluctant to bail when they owe more on their

mortgage than their home is worth.

"People here take their obligation a lot more seriously, and that's a good thing for us," he said.

After the forum, CSUB alum Anne Arnold said she thinks local people's sense of responsibility extends to their

neighbors. If homeowners walk way, their properties may fall into disrepair, causing problems for a whole

neighborhood, she said.

"I think people here do a have a sense of not being anonymous. We know our neighbors. We want to do right by

them," Arnold said.

Credit: The Bakersfield Californian DETAILS

Subject: Mortgages; American Recovery &Reinvestment Act 2009-US; Sex crimes; Ethics

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Company / organization: Name: California State University Bakersfield; NAICS: 611310

Publication title: McClatchy - Tribune Business News; Washington

Publication year: 2012

Publication date: Feb 16, 2012

Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC

Place of publication: Washington

Country of publication: United States

Publication subject: Business And Economics

Source type: Wire Feeds

Language of publication: English

Document type: News

ProQuest document ID: 921614281

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/921614281?accountid=33337

Copyright: _(c)2012 The Bakersfield Californian (Bakersfield, Calif.) Visit The Bakersfield

Californian (Bakersfield, Calif.) at www.bakersfield.com Distributed by MCT

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Last updated: 2016-03-28

Database: ABI/INFORM Collection