Private Intellectuals and Public Perplexity: The Economics Profession and the Economic Crisis
研究经济学家是否在加剧公众对经济危机的困惑而非提供清晰解释，通过市场设计者与房利美、房地美两个案例说明。
We explore recent arguments that economists may not serve to enlighten their publics so much as foster surplus confusion and doubt concerning controversies in their areas of expertise, particularly with regard to the recent worldwide economic crisis. After describing agnotology, the new area of the history of science that studies such phenomena, we recount two instances of these activities: the role of market designers in the framing and justification of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and the manufacture of the now-widespread impression that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were a primary cause of the crisis.