The FCIC’s competing crisis narratives both shielded Wall Street from blame

Evidence

Having watched some of the hearings online, I can attest that witnesses were tossed one whiffle ball after another. Yves Smith reported the disgust of one of the FCIC staff, who complained, “I am still getting the stink out of my clothes.” He understood that both the majority line that it was all the fault of wicked deregulation, and the Wallison line of “Fannie/Freddie did it,” were equally unavailing. Both versions conspired to help perpetuate a myth that Wall Street financial firms were as much the victim of the crisis as everyone else, and existed to keep the proceedings from tripping up the sausage machine that eventually became the Dodd-Frank act. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 896

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School/enlightenment critique and author’s treatment of the ‘thought collective’ — the FCIC dissent narratives both serve to protect the financial orthodoxy. — connects to: Official crisis reports posited contradictory causes rather than settled explanations — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 891; Economics escaped crisis blame because the banking sector it protected escaped unscathed — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 555; The crisis-as-government-fault narrative was engineered to justify austerity — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 950 (+3 more)
• ADDENDUM: Relates to the reader’s earlier treatment of how post-2008 institutions perform ritual rather than genuine inquiry.

Broader Connections

• Official crisis reports posited contradictory causes rather than settled explanations #expands (0.90) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 891
• Economists’ ineffectual model disputes distract the public from threatening crisis explanations #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 840
• Orthodox macroeconomics masked crisis buildup and blocked repairs afterward #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 662
• Financial crisis blame was displaced onto homeowners and housing policy #expands (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1520
• Economics escaped crisis blame because the banking sector it protected escaped unscathed #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 555
• The crisis-as-government-fault narrative was engineered to justify austerity #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 950