Raghuram Rajan
Why Did Economists Not Foresee the Crisis?
CHICAGO – At the height of the financial crisis, the Queen of England asked my friends at the London School of Economics a simple question, …
User Account
Economists' spectacular failure to foresee crucial recent developments – including the collapse in the US housing market, the onset of the global financial crisis, and the duration and depth of the Great Recession – has powerfully undermined the credibility of the discipline's models and assumptions. What went wrong, and how can economists regain the trust of policymakers and citizens?
Dismal Soothsaying
Most recent
-
-
Howard Davies
Economics in Denial
PARIS – In an exasperated outburst, just before he left the presidency of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet complained that, “a…
-
J. Bradford DeLong
Economics in Crisis
BERKELEY – The most interesting moment at a recent conference held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire – site of the 1945 conference that create…
-
Dani Rodrik
Blame the Economists, Not Economics
CAMBRIDGE – As the world economy tumbles off the edge of a precipice, critics of the economics profession are raising questions about its co…
-
Robert Skidelsky
Models Behaving Badly
LONDON – “Why did no one see the crisis coming?” Queen Elizabeth II asked economists during a visit to the London School of Economics at the…
-
J. Bradford DeLong
The Perils of Prophecy
BERKELEY – We economists who are steeped in economic and financial history – and aware of the history of economic thought concerning financi…
-
Dani Rodrik
The Tyranny of Political Economy
CAMBRIDGE – There was a time when we economists steered clear of politics. We viewed our job as describing how market economies work, when t…
-
Robert J. Shiller
The Narrative Structure of Global Weakening
NEW HAVEN – Recent indications of a weakening global economy have led many people to wonder how pervasive poor economic performance will be …
-
Dani Rodrik
Occupy the Classroom?
CAMBRIDGE – Early last month, a group of students staged a walkout in Harvard’s popular introductory economics course, Economics 10, taught …
-
Simon Johnson
Predators and Professors
WASHINGTON, DC – Are America’s great universities still the stalwart custodians of knowledge, leading forces for technological progress, and…
Top Project Syndicate commentaries
-
