Op Ed: Harvard Narcissists With MBAs Killed Wall Street

Too bad they didn't dig up the ghost of scandals past: Mr. Jeff Skilling (HBS '79)

The financial crisis was bred long before Bush ever got into office.

RF

Clinton left surplus in budget.

Bush did nothing to improve economy except he cut taxes for rich. He had no vision, neither brainpower nor any other asset to lead this country in the 21st century.

Didnt give any raise to green technologies or did anything to make US more competitive on the global market.

He was destructive, miserable and disgrace as a president.
After his 8 years of presidency, the reputation of the US is on the historic low abroad. That means buying less US products and trade.
Not to mention he was natural-born anti-diplomat

Shrub and his ilk could give a rat's $*! what happens to most Americans. They don't know what life without a net worth of $xxx,000,000 is like, and frankly do not care. This attitude was more than obvious throughout his administration - both in their domestic policy, which was essentially written by the major corporations who bought him into office, and on the foreign side, which was a combination of hubris and corporate overreach.

Of course he was an MBA.

You mean the same MBA degree you are now pursuing?

I think I've discovered a corollary to Godwin's law: as the length of any GMATclub thread grows longer, the probability of it containing a criticizm of George W. Bush approaches one.

Whenever you have a bunch of well-educated people in one place, that'll happen.

This thread is more important then we think. It shows how important r ur family ties and the class u r brought up, and that even a degree from Harvard cannot really transform as they claim it can.

It is interesting that Bushie first applied and got dinged from University of Texas grad school according to this site
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... /cron.html

After that, he got an admission to Harvard

I agree. Harvard people are evil and entirely to blame. Solution: Wall Street needs more people from Dartmouth

welcome to life? why else are we going to business school? to get a good education/job but also to have a network of extremely intelligent successful people. Networking is all about who you know. Will you not ask any favors from any friends, or use your network to help out your children in the future?

This MBA bashing and hatred against the rich is getting annoying on this board. Yea if you commit crimes, you should go to jail. But just because you are rich doesnt make you a bad person.

Uh... no. I can't stand people who do that, can you?

When I was applying for college, my mom offered to reach out to a friend of hers who was on the Board of the school I was applying to - a top 10 U.S. college - and essentially ensure me admission. I said no, that that wasn't how I wanted to get into college, and I was a little surprised that someone whose ethical makeup I so respected would make an offer like that. So she didn't. And I didn't get in.

So I went to a much lower-ranked school, worked my ass off and got in the next year as a transfer student on my own merits.

Moral of the story: don't George Bush your way through life.

Won't the stimulus plan fix everything?

Of course - who doesn't feel better after some good stimulating?

To be fair, as bschool applicants, we are all guilty of expecting a better life, better return from your bschool investment.

Bschool is expensive and we all probably did a little cost vs benefit analysis in our heads, and decided that benefit outweighs the overall cost in the long run.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong with having money, connections, and other influences - just like there is nothing wrong with humbler life.

We all want to upgrade our standard of living, pay off debts, have savings for retirement, have enough money for our kids/family and etc. If there are prices to pay (such as sacrificing your ethical values etc) for better life, I am sure you will do a cost vs benefit analysis as well, before making your next move.

All I can say is that we all should try to live our life the best that we can. This means a lot of things, and different things to different people. However, having made that decision (whether you chose to live your life like a typical HBS grad mentioned above or humbler life with integrity), that doesn't give you the right to judge another. It doesn't give you the right to tell another that he/she should live his/her life this way.

If one wants to live a life like the next Bernie Madoff, that's their free will. If one wants to live their life like Mother Teresa, that's their free will. If one wants to live somewhere in between, that's their god given right as well.

So are you recommending people don't use the networks they develop in B School to move successfully through life?

I'm saying there's obviously a big difference between using your personal connections to be considered for a job and pulling strings to get your kid into college. Surely you would agree.