History Professors Running The Economy

Also whipped from the local rag The Standard (not to be confused with the Labour Party's Communication Tool) in Hong Kong.

If people want to dig into possible reasons why the problems at Lehman Brothers weren't detected earlier, a good starting point could be the makeup of the company's board of directors, which was entrusted to guard the interests of shareholders.

One director is a producer of Broadway plays, while another is a retired rear admiral in the US Navy who most recently worked as head of the Girl Scouts and the American Red Cross.

A third used to run Hispanic television network Telemundo, known for its soap operas. The Lehman board consists of 11 people - chairman and chief executive Dick Fuld, plus 10 outside directors.

Of those, nine are retired, with four of them aged over 75.

Only one director - former US Bancorp chief Jerry Grundhofer - has recent experience running a bank.

Unfortunately, he did not sit on the Risk Committee or the Corporate Governance Committee.

Those important seats were reserved for the theatrical producer and the retired Girl Scout chief.