A leading bailout critic admitted economists tailors advice to what audiences want.

Evidence

Cochrane changed his tune in minor ways in subsequent months as it became increasingly apparent that the financial sector would be left more or less intact. He even was caught in an unguarded moment admitting one of the principal tenets of agnotology in an interview: “The business of advice remains what it was … You have to be willing to become a sort of media person. You have to tailor your advice to what people want to hear, and then shade it in the direction of common sense.” — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 641

Categorization

• XREF: Direct confirmation of the agnotology/thought-collective thesis central to Mirowski’s argument across this book.