If there had been a sophisticated outside observer, they might have insisted that all the brouhaha about jettisoning the DSGE model was a weary sideshow, since the gnawing problem the economic orthodoxy was intent on avoiding was gauging to what extent the crisis had voided the legitimacy of neoclassical microeconomics. Legions of macroeconomists were mobilized into action by the crisis not to address its dire consequences, but instead to obscure this threatening conclusion through smoke, mirrors, and legerdemain. No one who wanted to maintain their position in academia would countenance the possibility that amputation of the DSGE would result in the patient bleeding to death. So instead they promoted endless expensive consultations over the health of the DSGE—and even Congress was snookered into the pointless game.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 799