Crises always prompt an anguished and angry search for causes and culprits, and the current financial crisis is no exception. Fingers have been pointed at supine regulators, greedy bankers and investors, naive consumers and feckless politicians. One group, however, that has escaped careful scrutiny has been the academic community, particularly economics departments and business schools. After all, many of the intellectual underpinnings of the causes of the current crisis – be it financial innovations, capital account convertibility, deregulation or stock options – come from the best and brightest in US academia, not bureaucrats in dead-beat third world countries. Indeed, as the size and influence of the financial sector mushroomed in the past quarter-century, business schools and economics departments reaped a rich harvest. Money – and with it salaries, endowments and institutional power – moved in their favour.
危机总是促使人们带着伤痛和愤怒，探究它的起因和罪魁祸首，当前的金融危机也不例外。人们已经把矛头指向了松懈的监管机构、贪婪的银行家和投资者、天真的消费者以及软弱无能的政治家。但有一个群体没有受到细究，那就是学术界，尤其是大学的manbetx20客户端下载 系和商学院。毕竟，此次危机起因——无论是金融创新、资本项目可兑换、放松监管，还是股票期权——的理论支柱，不少来自于美国学术界最优秀、最聪明的人，而非落魄的第三世界国家的官员。事实上，在过去25年里，随着金融业的规模和影响力迅速扩大，商学院和manbetx20客户端下载 系受益匪浅。资金，还有薪酬、捐款和制度权力等方面，都朝着有利于他们的方向发展。