Greg Mankiw teaches the famous Economics 10 introductory course at Harvard and on Monday he wrote the following blog entry:

Today is the first day of Harvard’s academic year, and the first day of a new year of ec 10. I will give the introductory lecture at noon. I would like to thank all my friends on Wall Street for doing so much to spark interest in economic issues. You have gone beyond the call of duty, and your timing could not have been better.

That is itself fairly droll, but what makes this ironic is that Mankiw didn’t mention that he was Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2003-2005. In other words, he had major responsibility for keeping the economy running smoothly during the build-up to the current crisis.

Jonathan Schwarz notes that Mankiw must be too modest to give himself the credit he deserves for sparking the current interest in economic issues. Could the current melt-down on Wall Street just be an elaborate scheme to increase enrollment in Professor Mankiw’s courses?