In his most recent survey, Lo tends to favor neoliberal books on the crisis, such as Rajan’s Fault Lines and Rogoff and Reinhart’s This Time Is Different, while disparaging books such as Stiglitz’s Freefall. Economists on the center left are chided for getting a little testy, whereas books by neoliberals are treated as par for the course. There he also innovates a few more rather contrarian positions on the crisis: that the efficient-markets hypothesis (more on this in the next chapter) did not lead investors astray; that Wall Street compensation packages did not distort incentives and behavior; and finally, that the big investment banks did not become especially highly leveraged in the boom.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 572