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.
危機總是促使人們帶著傷痛和憤怒，探究它的起因和罪魁禍首，當前的金融危機也不例外。人們已經把矛頭指向了鬆懈的監管機構、貪婪的銀行家和投資者、天真的消費者以及軟弱無能的政治家。但有一個羣體沒有受到細究，那就是學術界，尤其是大學的經濟系和商學院。畢竟，此次危機起因——無論是金融創新、資本項目可兌換、放鬆監管，還是股票期權——的理論支柱，不少來自於美國學術界最優秀、最聰明的人，而非落魄的第三世界國家的官員。事實上，在過去25年裏，隨著金融業的規模和影響力迅速擴大，商學院和經濟系受益匪淺。資金，還有薪酬、捐款和制度權力等方面，都朝著有利於他們的方向發展。