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Milken Review Reprint:Economy Is Bush's Fault

By Jeremy Rosenberg
February 22, 2010
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The current issue of the Milken Institute Review(free registration required) includes a remix of an article by economist Allen Sanderson that was commissioned by the University of Chicago Magazine.

The piece sets out to determine blame for the global financial crisis, via an NCAA basketball tournament style "Sweet 16" bracket. UC fans voted for the winners of each round's match-ups.

Competitors included Sanderson-named "teams" from four sub-brackets: Washington, D.C., Wall Street, Main Street, and "The Eggheads" -- which included academics, writers, and regulatory bodies.

The winning -- or really, the losing -- "team" blamed for causing the financial woes was... the Bush administration. Sanderson brands this squad, the "Indifferences."

From the Milken story:

"The Bush administration team, the Indifferences, cut taxes like (and for) Republicans, spent money like Democrats, looked the other way on regulation and, with sheer disengagement and an anything-goes attitude, forgot to mind the store or guard the piggy bank."

Sanderson's own bracket, by the way, blames Main Street, with the "Foreclosures" team taking the title.

And keeping in mind that old saw, "Two Economists, Three Opinions," here are the resultsof an American Economic Association group bracket. Wall Street wins the blame, thanks to team, "Moral Hazard."

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