On Hiring Foreign MBAs

The WSJ today printed an editorial from my colleagues and fellow deans Matt Slaughter and Paul Danos, and me.

The topic is the Employ American Workers Act, which restricts hiring practices of US companies that accepted stimulus and/or TARP funds. Like I said in my NYT post -- see here -- once you accept Federal money, you better be prepared to have them tell you what to do.

In this case, the government's restrictions are especially pernicious. Besides the economic illogic of it, pitting US citizens and foreign citizens against one another is not the way to go. A colleague sent me an email with the words from the Statue of Liberty, and they say it better than anything else:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Some people want to close that golden door -- and they accuse the bankers of being selfish!