Observers widely expected the 2008 crash to refute neoliberal doctrine

Evidence

In the midst of the downdraft of 2008–9, I remember people saying to me: Yes, it’s been awful, but maybe the trial by fire will cleanse as well as sear. As Jenny Turner reminisced in the London Review of Books, “People imagined that a crash, when it came, would act like Occam’s Razor, cutting out the hedge funds and leaving the world a little saner …” Who among us back then did not suspect that the collapse of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Northern Rock, Lloyd’s Bank, Anglo Irish Bank, ­Kaupthing, Landsbanki, Glitnir (and a parade of lesser institutions) would at least cut through the smarmy triumphalism of those who claimed to fully comprehend the workings of the globalized economy? … The next step in the syllogism, but the link fated to fail, was that everyone would perceive that the prior bubble was the direct consequence of certain modes of thought, and thus, it was these doctrines that would be refuted. Collect those doctrines together under the umbrella term “neoliberalism,” toss into the mix a Little Bo Peep falsificationist psychology, and there materialized the widespread perception that we were living through the demise of an entire way of thinking: The first intellectual consequence of the economic crisis was to undermine Neoliberalism-or the belief in the sufficiency of markets to secure human welfare-as the age’s default ideology. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 80

Categorization

• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 80
• XREF: connects to: Left academics wrongly assumed the 2008 crash would doom neoliberalism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 93; The 2008 crisis was expected to falsify neoliberal doctrine but did not — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 80; Crisis commentary from 2008-10 shared one syllogism, that failure proves neoliberalism dying — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 93 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• The 2008 crisis was expected to falsify neoliberal doctrine but did not #corroborates (1.00) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 80
• Crisis commentary from 2008-10 shared one syllogism, that failure proves neoliberalism dying #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 93
• Opponents of neoliberalism could not locate the intellectual roots of the 2008 crisis #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 16
• The 2008 crisis reinforced rather than refuted neoliberal and orthodox economic doctrine #qualifies (0.70) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 100