Is The Harvard Business School Responsible For The Economic Crisis And The Worst Recession Since The

By Author: Tracey Smith
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The Bad Karma Award (www.thekarmareport.com) was overdue to be given to the Harvard Business School. Essentially, HBS is responsible for the crisis that the entire world finds itself in at the moment. The reason for this actually has many more variables than just the fact that many of its graduates have been responsible for the banking institutions and the government such as:

-George Bush

-Henry Paulson - Treasury Secretary and prior CEO of Goldman Sachs

- Jamie Dimon - CEO JP Morgan Chase

- John Thain - CEO Merrill Lynch, previous executive of Goldman Sachs

This is just a quick example of the people who have brought us the crisis and are still around (thanks to the Old Harvard Boys Club) to try to fix it (and make money on it at the same time).

There is a great book out there called What They Teach you at Harvard Business School by Philip Delves Broughton. Philip is a British National and former journalist who decided to attend and subsequently wrote a book about his experiences at Harvard. It is very objective and gives you a great look inside the culture of the school and ...
... insight into its graduates. Some great excerpts are:

-He reads a student guide on What to Bring. Don't bring that guitar . . . Don't bring any books from literature or history classes . . . Don't bring your cynicism. Do bring all the diverse rest of you.

- He is surprised at the large presence of earnest Mormons and unimaginative former-military men in this cauldron of capitalism. But gradually this begins to make sense, for HBS is pervaded with an oppressive atmosphere of unquestioning obedience and creepy religiosity.

- Yet to support this sense of righteous mission there's a whole new raft of jargon, not just daft but pretentious and nauseating. These money-loving graduates must nurture heightened self-awareness and a strong moral compass, they must foster integrity strategies, acquire leadership and values. But why the hell would the rest of us want to be led by these spreadsheet-reading, PowerPoint-presenting swots who've devoted the best years of their lives simply to making moolah?

And as if all of this was not enough, consultant Ray Soifer, an HBS grad himself, has found that the initial career choices of HBS grads amount to a rather esoteric but nonetheless generally accurate long-term indicator of the US equity market. His research shows that the more Harvard grads on Wall Street, the worse the market does. Soifer counts the proportion of the class that goes into the six categories of jobs that depend to a large extent on the stock market: investment banking, investment management, sales and trading, venture capital, private equity, or leveraged buyouts. Historically, when fewer than 10 percent of HBS grads go into these fields, it's a signal that stocks are a long-term buy. The HBS grads are an even better sell warning. Soifer has found that when 30 percent or more of HBS alums throng into the industry, it's a sell signal.

His theory is proving very accurate-he wrote this report in 2004.The number of HBS grads going to Wall Street has remained a great indicator of market bubble collapse - more than 40% of HBS graduates went to Wall Street in 2007. Need I say more?

Tracey Smith , Editor of the Karma Report
www.thekarmareport.com

Editor of the Karma Report