Orthodox economics grew more intolerant the more it proclaimed its own openness
Evidence
However, the apogee of denial of divergent thought occurred during the Great Bubble. A very strange literature sprang up in the early 2000s, asserting that there was no such thing as neoclassical economics anymore, in the sense that the legitimate orthodox economics profession had explored every possible analytical divergence from the rigid Walrasian general equilibrium model of days past, and someone, somewhere, sometime had built formal models addressing the previously heterodox concerns. Rationality? Who needs it? Equilibrium? We can do without it! Maximization? We can get around it! Individual greed? Just read Amartya Sen! Supply and demand? That just gets fed to people insufficiently mathematical to grasp the latest interpretation of the Sonnenschein-Mantel-Debreu theorems! Bubbles? We got ‘em, hot, foamy, and rational. Complexity? How much can you handle? And so on and so on. Point to anything you may not find salubrious, and we’ve got a “not-so-new” model (and maybe a bridge) to sell ya. And yet, all this putative open-minded tolerance and catholic heedfulness was accompanied by bald attack on and excommunication of any last vestige of heterodox economics in top-ranked universities throughout the world, and the redoubled exclusivity of top-ranked economics journals. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 63
Categorization
- XREF: Directly extends the book’s thesis about the neoliberal ‘thought collective’ policing its boundaries; ties to chapter material already covered on the economics profession’s internal conformity. — connects to: Orthodox economists retaliate against critics while never being held accountable themselves — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2032; Untestable economic theories breed intellectual intolerance and absolutism. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 409; Neoliberalism claimed openness to all viewpoints while privately enforcing ideological conformity — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 200 (+1 more)
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 63
Broader Connections
- Neoliberalism’s public rhetoric of open liberalism contradicted its actual closed, hierarchical organization
#corroborates(0.88) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 200 - Neoliberalism claimed openness to all viewpoints while privately enforcing ideological conformity
#exemplifies(0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 200 - Orthodox economists retaliate against critics while never being held accountable themselves
#corroborates(0.82) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2032 - Untestable economic theories breed intellectual intolerance and absolutism.
#expands(0.78) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 409