Mainstream economists admit failure to predict the crisis but resist overhauling the discipline

Evidence

[The financial crisis] has not been kind to the reputation of economics and economists, and understandably so. Almost universally, economists failed to predict the nature, timing, and severity of the crisis; and those who issued early warnings generally identified only isolated weaknesses in the system … As a result of these developments, some observers have suggested the need for an overhaul of the system as a discipline, arguing that much of the research in macroeconomics and finance in recent decades has been of little value or even counterproductive. Although economists have much to learn from this crisis, I think that calls for a radical reworking of the field go too far… . — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 517

Categorization

• XREF: Bernanke’s defense of economics prefigures the broader ‘thought collective’ defense of orthodoxy post-2008 that Mirowski dissects throughout the book. — connects to: The 2008 crisis falsified neoclassical economic theory yet elites kept using it. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 694; Many financial economists treat Modigliani-Miller as benchmarks rather than empirical claims — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 390; Economists actively denied the crisis, not merely failed to predict it. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2180 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Economists defended failed prediction by asserting contradictory claims at once #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 697
• Chicago economists deny the crisis falsified their core theories #exemplifies (0.78) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 718
• Leading orthodox economists could not agree on the crisis’s actual causes #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 809