Interesting article over at MSN Money. Here's a taste:
Just where did Wall Street go wrong? It's popular to blame misaligned incentives, lack of regulation or just plain greed. . . . The truth is, sadly, more complex, but it boils down to this: Harvard Business School is to blame. Harvard Business School led the charge away from an approach to business centered on relationships and commerce and toward one rooted in markets and competition. . . . a Hobbesian view of business — nasty, brutish and every man for himself — and a rejection of the idea that ultimately we're all in this together. . . . In this worldview, "business ethics" is an oxymoron, not because of bad behavior but because ethics can't even exist apart from some notion of a "relationship" to something or someone else. Subordinating everything to shareholder value is, literally, anti-ethical.
I just want to say that I fully support blaming Harvard. I graduated from Brown. In fact, I think this should justify granting sole possession of the 2008 Ivy League football championship to Brown.
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You can always tell a Harvard Man. But you can't tell him much.
You have to give Richard Posner at least some of the credit.