Philip Mirowski, known for his book More Heat than Light: Economics as Social Physics, Physics as Nature’s Economics in which he criticizes neoclassical economics for adopting methods from the natural sciences, recently published a book on neoliberalism and the economics profession during the financial crisis. In Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown, his main thesis is that the economics profession utterly failed in predicting and explaining the financial crisis. Nevertheless mainstream economists did not suffer any negative consequences but continue with business as usual.
In Mirowski’s view, neoclassical economics, neoliberalism, and the political right came out of the crisis stronger thanks to a complicated propaganda effort and an intricate lobbying machine headed by the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS). According to Mirowski, the Mont Pelerin Society functions at the heart of a complex web of conservative and free-market think tanks and the neoliberal academics that controls politics.
Mirowski’s analysis is interesting even though it comes from a far left and egalitarian perspective. Especially pertinent is his analysis and critique of neoclassical economics.
This post was published at Ludwig von Mises Institute on JANUARY 4, 2016.
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