Summers blamed graduate training standards for economics’ predictive failure

Evidence

For Summers, the problem is that there is so much that is “distracting, confusing, and problem-denying in … the first year course in most PhD programs.” As a result, even though “economics knows a fair amount,” it “has forgotten a fair amount that is relevant, and it has been distracted by an enormous amount.” — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 15

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the textbook ‘dumbing down’ debates and Kuhn’s account of how paradigms manage anomalies by blaming pedagogical implementation. — connects to: Economic heterodoxy declined because graduate training filtered out non-economists — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 64; The 2008 crisis discredited efficient-market economists in public policy debate — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 158

Broader Connections

• The 2008 crisis discredited efficient-market economists in public policy debate #qualifies (0.72) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 158