The 2008 crisis debate collapsed to first-year textbook economics.

Evidence

Sometimes this was bruited about as a “return to Keynes,” although a historian might aver that the American profession was never all that enamored of the actual Keynes and his writings. Nevertheless, this latter group was extrapolating from the heady days of late 2008, when all thoughts of DSGE were nowhere to be found. As the economic historian Greg Clark put it, “The debate about the bank bailout, and the stimulus package, has all revolved around issues that are entirely at the level of Econ I. What is the multiplier from government spending? Does government spending crowd out private spending? … If you got an A in college Econ I, you are an expert in this debate: fully an equal of Summers and Geithner.” — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 802

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the idea that crisis moments strip away technical sophistication and revert to basic models — parallel to Krugman’s ‘zombie ideas’ framing. — connects to: The 2008 crisis was fundamentally a crisis of economic ideas — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 132; Famous economists responded to 2008 by defending their unchanged textbooks — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 461; Macroeconomic modelers responded to 2008 by swapping textbooks rather than questioning the orthodoxy — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 779

Broader Connections

• The 2008 crisis was fundamentally a crisis of economic ideas #corroborates (0.90) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 132
• Famous economists responded to 2008 by defending their unchanged textbooks #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 461
• Macroeconomic modelers responded to 2008 by swapping textbooks rather than questioning the orthodoxy #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 779