Academics who shaped the crisis conceal their consulting ties while playing impartial arbiters

Evidence

The only private affiliation listed on his personal website is as founder and chief scientist at the hedge fund AlphaSimplex, but on its website we learn, “Andrew has 24 years of industry experience. Prior to starting AlphaSimplex, Andrew developed investment strategies and trading technologies as a consultant to a number of prominent Wall Street firms.” Professor Lo never lists any of these consultancies on his public papers and appearances, nor does he mention his position at the New York Fed or FINRA, an organization dedicated to the private self-regulation of the securities industry, along the lines of a “Better Business Bureau.” But we are getting used to this pattern of strategic silences. Despite all these rather specific commitments, Professor Lo presents himself as an open-minded, impartial arbiter of all things having to do with the crisis, all the while promoting a very specific political set of positions. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 572

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: ‘strategic silences’ as a method — how experts launder financial-industry advocacy through academic neutrality, with Lo as the case study.
• XREF: Connects to the broader ‘thought collective’ thesis of Mirowski’s book and the revolving-door critique common in post-2008 analysis. — connects to: Even prominent crisis commentators had undisclosed financial conflicts of interest — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2351; Patronage, not analysis, explains academic economists’ crisis positions. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 874; Climate and health experts also hide financial ties, making capture profession-wide — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 582 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Neutral scholarship rhetoric often conceals worldly power connections #corroborates (0.85) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 309
• Economists involved in financial innovation disappear their own roles when narrating crises #expands (0.82) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 571
• Patronage, not analysis, explains academic economists’ crisis positions. #complicates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 874
• Climate and health experts also hide financial ties, making capture profession-wide #expands (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 582
• Finance theorists moved fluidly between academia and market practice #complicates (0.72) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1096