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The author makes the classic mistake of confusing correlation with causation: "Hmmm...banks hire lots of people with MBA degrees, and this crisis started in the
by ryanwaggoner 18y ago
The author makes the classic mistake of confusing correlation with causation: "Hmmm...banks hire lots of people with MBA degrees, and this crisis started in the banking sector. The MBA degree must be the root cause of financial crisis!"
Actually, now that I read through it again, I'm not sure it's even worth dissecting. It strikes me less as a merely illogical diatribe against business education as much as an intentionally misleading hit piece against something the author neither understands nor respects.
- weiser 18y agoActually, the author is clearly stating the causal relationship. He is pointing out that free market fundamentalism is the cause of the crises and Business schools are the cheerleaders for free market fundamentalism. Now, I personally do not agree with that argument, but your criticism of author's argument is unfounded.
- ojbyrne 18y agoPerhaps some B-schools are the cheerleaders, but I never saw it where I was. Economics departments are where that particular meme came from, and they don't actually teach economics in B-school except tangentially.
- TomOfTTB 18y agoMy experience is the same. I think people are confusing the macro (economics) with the micro (running an actual company). Business schools focus on the micro and in doing so very rarely address economic systems as a whole. To but it a different way economics is about how the rules of an economic system are created. Business school is about teaching the student to work within the rules already created in the existing system.