Bailouts persisted because nobody could admit the economy was ungovernable

Evidence

The bailouts that followed the crisis did not occur merely because a shadowy group of bankers colluded with the state. They happened because no one can admit the truth: that they cannot turn the machine off or realistically slow it down without crashing the global economy and imperilling the capitalist system as a whole. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 545

Categorization

• CANDY: A concise, quotable counterintuitive line — the bailout ‘conspiracy’ failed because coordinated collusion would have required admitting the machine can’t be turned off.
• XREF: connects to: Government bailouts prevent capitalist crises from restoring profitability — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 801; The 2008 crisis killed none of the economic ideas that caused it — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 44; The economy is a game whose outcome no one knows — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 931 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Government bailouts prevent capitalist crises from restoring profitability #expands (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 801
• The economy is a game whose outcome no one knows #corroborates (0.80) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 931
• Bailing out finance was the single most important event protecting orthodox economics #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 975
• The 2008 crisis killed none of the economic ideas that caused it #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 44
• The Day of Reckoning narrative collapsed when bankers were bailed out and prospered #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 468
• Economists had no consensus explanation for the 2008 financial crisis #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 448