Out of the nineteen academic economists chosen, thirteen had identifiable ties to some private financial firm, while eight served on boards of directors, and two were co-founders. When writing for the public (with the interesting partial exception of business advice proffered on Bloomberg), very rarely did any of these figures self-report their financial affiliations; rather, they did identify their affiliation with the NBER or the Fed. In academic papers published from January 2005 through October 2009, with one exception, the financial affiliations were never mentioned. They also noted “the stronger the economists’ alliance with the private sector the weaker would be their calls for regulation.”

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 2129