Far from being the conventional generic blanket disparagement of “freshwater economics” (such as that spread by Paul Krugman, Brad DeLong, George Akerlof, and others), this points to the fact that Chicago was the prime initial incubator for modern finance theory, which has indeed provided direct intellectual inspiration and justification for most of the so-called innovation in financial derivatives and automated equity trading of the last three decades. There is also the Chicago inspiration for the theory of “public choice” and Stigler’s theory of regulation, so central in the modern development of government (anti)regulation. In other words, Chicago was the intellectual godfather of modern “securitization” and privatized regulation, among other activities.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 497