For-profit colleges enjoy the fruits of a business model to die for. It's not a new model. In fact, it's very similar to the one employed by subprime mortgage purveyors Washington Mutual and Countrywide Financial that helped put the entire global financial system at risk, pitching the U.S. into the worst financial panic since the Depression. As we confront a national student loan debt now over $1 trillion and counting, that holds back their "normal" investment in first-time housing, cars and the like, it would be wise to look closely at those similarities and see what we can do about them before its too late (again).