From this article by Lisandro 'Leloy' Claudio, a Philippine/a Filipino professor of history, politics, South & Southeast Asian Studies (and not necessarily of finance, economics, mathematics or statistics)
a country can become a sad place if its most brilliant minds prioritize profit. In the 1990s and 2000s, most of the top graduates of the American Ivy League went to big Wall Street banks, and it was these geniuses who caused the financial crash of 2008. The world would have been better off if they had done something else.
Question 1: Was the financial crash of 2008 caused by top graduates of the American Ivy Leagues working at wall street banks?
Question 2 and context: Ok I'm gonna be explicit here to be clear at the cost of sounding, or even actually being, arrogant or ignorant. When I 1st read this like I was just about to start grad school in mathematical finance/quantitative finance. No offense or anything, but I actually kinda figured that the prof is not only wrong about this but has no idea what e is talking about. Does the quote make substantial sense?