Harvard Business School (HBS) got its first black eye from Enron when an alumnus about which HBS had written gushing cases, Jeff Skilling, ended up causing one of America's biggest corporate frauds. And now Enron and HBS are joined again with the scandal at Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY) -- whose stock finally opened yesterday on the NYSE and plunged 86% -- which has been dubbed India's Enron.

Satyam's founder and chairman Byrraju Ramalinga Raju is a graduate of HBS's executive education program. And HBS accounting professor Krishna G. Palepu was on Satyam's board of directors. But both of these gentlemen are gone now. And while I would have thought that Palepu would serve on Satyam's audit committee -- he opted out of that rule because of a consulting contract he had with Satyam which he felt would have compromised him had he served on the audit committee.

Palepu said he didn't learn about the fraud until after he had resigned from the company. So we are left with many questions: Why did Palepu resign if it wasn't because of the fraud? As an accounting professor, why didn't he detect problems with its books? (It would have been simple to compare Satyam's stated cash position with the content of its bank accounts). Was Palepu window dressing on Satyam's board? Did he just fly to India for the board meetings and accept his compensation or did he ask probing questions and try to understand Satyam's finances and strategy?

Harvard's business school (HBS) has been celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. And it looks to be at the peak of its power. That's unfortunate because five of its most powerful graduates have made significant contributions to absolutely wrecking the global economy. HBS admits people who are natural leaders. Unfortunately, many of the most powerful of these leaders have followed the path of destruction.

Here are five Harvard MBAs who wrecked the economy:

• George W. Bush ('75). The best thing I can say about Bush is that he said he was sorry for all the problems that occurred while he was in the White House. Unfortunately, he seems to believe he was a victim of events outside his control. One of his HBS professors said of Bush "He showed pathological lying habits and was in denial when challenged on his prejudices and biases. He would even deny saying something he just said 30 seconds ago."
• Hank Paulson ('70). As Treasury Secretary Paulson has consistently ignored the severity of the financial crisis -- In June 2006 he gave a speech at HBS in which he said, "this is by far the best global economy that I have seen in my career" -- but this September he was able to sell Congress on an ineffective plan to fix what he finally realized was an imploding economy -- a plan has kept changing. The economy has continued to crash despite his bone-headed efforts to save it.