What went wrong with macro economics and financial economics

I have previously written about Paul Krugman's article in the NY Magazine about how the economics profession got a real black eye out of the current Recession-and-almost-Depression. Here's some more writings on the same subject:

• What went wrong with economics Jul 16th 2009 from the Economist.


• Why I didn't go medieval on Krugman, and other book newsSept 10, 2009 in Time.com


• Hoisted from the archives – my old post on Freshwater and Saltwater macroeconomic theorySept 16th, 2009 posted in the TPM reader blogs by John Hempton.

They all tell pretty much the same story. Financial economists and Macro economists essentially overlooked the warnings that the economy was coming off its rails.

The articles are all quite good, and each takes a mildly different look at the issues so reading them all helps in understanding what has been happening to us. My earlier blog can be found at The US economy is surprisingly dysfunctional. . It contains links to other writings, as do many of the articles in the list above.

One important point to remember, though. Even though the economists got some important points wrong, the politicians have been consistently much worse and should not be trusted.