Newswire:

As The Economy Crashes, Where's Our "CEO-In-Chief?"

Flashback: When George W. Bush took office in 2001, he touted his credentials as the nation’s first MBA in the Oval Office. No more lawyers; he had training as a manager. And Harvard Business School, after all! [New York Times]

So much for all that. The New York Times reported that as the economy continues to slump, the President – our chief MBA – has becoming largely invisible.

First, there were the early signs of detachment. In February, President Bush admitted that he hadn’t heard the widespread predictions that gasoline could skyrocket to $4 per gallon.

Then, according to the Times, "Bush went to Wall Street to warn against "massive government intervention in the housing markets," two days before his administration helped broker the takeover of the investment bank Bear Stearns."

Currently, Bush is in Eastern Europe (one of the eight trips abroad he’s got planned for this year) at the NATO conference, as Congress scrambles to make sense out of the nation’s economic mess.

"He’s over there arguing about who should get into NATO, and the American people are focused on what’s in their pocketbooks," said Kenneth M. Duberstein, who was chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan in his second term. "He has talked about the economy, but it is not viewed as being a satisfactory response. Unfortunately, the lasting image is of not knowing of $4-a-gallon gas."

Another thing we’re guessing the President won’t take note of? The current spike in jobless claims. The Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment insurance jumped a seasonally adjusted 38,000 to 407,000 for the week ending March 29. The increase left claims at their highest point since Sept. 17, 2005. [USA Today]

We knew all you do during MBA programs is go to happy hours.

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