Market efficiency seemed sufficient for describing returns only briefly in the 1970s

Evidence

There was, Fama later recalled, “a brief euphoric period in the 1970s when market efficiency and the [capital asset pricing] model seemed to be a sufficient description of the behavior of security returns” (Fama 1991, p. 1590). However, there too difficulties soon began to accumulate. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 391

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Market efficiency means prices fully reflect available information. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 291; Empirical anomalies accumulated through the 1970s that potentially contradicted the efficient-market hypothesis. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 419; Market efficiency was treated as an ongoing process, not an achieved fact — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1115 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Empirical anomalies accumulated through the 1970s that potentially contradicted the efficient-market hypothesis. #expands (0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 419
• The efficient market hypothesis survived every empirical refutation and became finance orthodoxy #contradicts (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 758
• Market efficiency was treated as an ongoing process, not an achieved fact #contradicts (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1115
• The efficient-markets hypothesis erased discussion of bubbles and speculation #expands (0.70) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 749