Post-crisis reforms to neoclassical economics were theatrical failures that still served a distraction function.

Evidence

So perhaps all those attempts to “fix” orthodox neoclassical theory that were trumpeted by journalists after the crisis really didn’t actually amount to much. Whether or not it was intentional, its effect was to foster the mistaken impression in the general populace that neoclassical economists were dutifully atoning for their sins by rethinking their past premises, even though no such thing was happening. Given the very notion that Nobel winners in economics were especially or ideally primed to fundamentally transform economic thinking once they had been anointed by the glittering prize bordered on delusional, and since those very same Nobel winners loomed large in journalists’ accounts for reasons already discussed, this abortive outcome was more or less a foreordained conclusion. Behavioral economics, divestment of the EMH, and tinkering with the DSGE have all been abysmal failures. Yet something agnotological was achieved: the blogosphere was set all a-twitter on irrelevant pointless topics, while journalists were set off on wild goose chases. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 807

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that nominal reform attempts functioned as agnotological theater — failing to change the profession yet succeeding in manufacturing an impression of atonement — is a dense, paradigm-shifting observation about how the thought collective absorbs crisis.
• SEED: Angle: ‘theatrical reform’ as a strategy — how institutions manufacture the appearance of contrition while preserving the underlying paradigm.
• XREF: connects to: Orthodox macroeconomics masked crisis buildup and blocked repairs afterward — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 662; Three splashy economics revisions diverted attention from structural crisis causes — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 725

Broader Connections

• Three splashy economics revisions diverted attention from structural crisis causes #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 725
• Orthodox macroeconomics masked crisis buildup and blocked repairs afterward #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 662