You’ve thrilled to Rezkogate, Wrightgate, Ayersgate, and Blagogate!  But if you’re anything like me (God help you), you’re already looking ahead and wondering what Obama’s next guilt-by-association scandal will be.  What kind of wacky shenanigans has Mr. Obama vicariously gotten himself into this time?  Well, feverishly speculate no longer, because I have found the answer:

From the efficient-market theories, to the concept of man as rational profit maximizers, much of the edifice that is was the Chicago school of economics is based on a foundation that is false, disproven or otherwise questionable.

(…)

If there is one silver lining in the entire collapse, its that this group of intellectual charlatans have been revealed as utterly wanting.

That’s right, it’s Chicago-School-Of-Economicsgate!  Barack Obama was a member of the University of Chicago faculty for twelve years, and not once has he given us any explanation of his relationship with the economics department there.  He has told us nothing about how close he was to Professor Emeritus Milton Friedman, the founder of the disastrously laissez-faire economic philosophy.

Oh sure, the Obamapologists may say that Obama was only a law professor and had nothing to do with economics, but check out this damning passage:

I first encountered the Chicago theory in law school…. I found the extremist legal theories of Judges like Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook intellectually repulsive. They were undemocratic, anti-representative government. When I told a professor that the law and economics movement was an attempt at a political coup, he laughed and said, try to stop it.

You see?  The law department was part of the Chicago School as well!  And note Ritholtz’s omission of any mention of Barack Obama – which can only mean that someone got to him before he published this post, using bribes or intimidation to keep him quiet.  Could Obama himself have been the nameless, shadowy professor who mocked Ritholtz’s dire and prescient concerns?  It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

What is Barack Obama hiding about his involvement in the financial crisis?  The American people deserve the truth!

I joke, but the reality is that Obama was somewhat influenced by the Chicago School, and is consequently a fan of markets, but doesn’t consider them so infallible that they don’t need regulation or repair.  He’s also comfortable with spending money to stimulate the economy, which is more Keynes than Friedman.  So he’s not a total laissez-faire Kool-Aid drinker, thankfully.

The humor for me isn’t so much whether or not Obama is hiding a connection to the Chicago School (he’s actually pretty open about it, and economics adviser Austan Goolsbee is from the UofC biz school), it’s the conservative and media eagerness to tie any kind of Illinois scandal to Obama because, well, he’s in Illinois.  That, and the idea that a connection to the Chicago School would ever be considered scandalous.