Even prominent crisis commentators had undisclosed financial conflicts of interest
Evidence
The fact that Shiller has a conflict of interest in promoting the Case-Shiller index and his other financial contraptions is revealed by the mission statement of his company, at www.macromarkets.com/index.shtml. He also is part-owner of Case Shiller Weiss, Inc. Some may object that Shiller is not a card-carrying member of the Neoliberal Thought Collective. While true, many other comparable proponents of financial innovation are, such as Robert Litan, research director of the Kauffmann Foundation, and co-author of Litan and Wallison, Competitive Equity. I use Shiller’s quotes in the text because he has been such a high-profile commentator on the crisis. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2351
Categorization
- XREF: Feeds the ‘thought collective’ theme — the author draws a boundary around who counts as inside (Litan) versus outside (Shiller) the NTC, relevant to mapping that network. — connects to: Academics who shaped the crisis conceal their consulting ties while playing impartial arbiters — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 572; An opaque financial crisis elevated prescient explainers into cultural authorities. — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 212; Insiders dismissed the bad-apples excuse as covering pervasive Wall Street corruption — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1431 (+1 more)
- SEED: Potential angle: ‘The conflict of interest behind the most-cited crisis index’ — examining how the canonical data source for housing-pop cycles doubles as a product its inventor profits from.
Broader Connections
- Academics who shaped the crisis conceal their consulting ties while playing impartial arbiters
#corroborates(0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 572 - Insiders dismissed the bad-apples excuse as covering pervasive Wall Street corruption
#complicates(0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1431 - An opaque financial crisis elevated prescient explainers into cultural authorities.
#complicates(0.72) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 212