The prestigious staff roles relate to the central banking functions: economic research, macro modeling, and of course, monetary policy. PhD monetary economists rule the roost. And there is considerable group think. The organization is very vertical, with little lateral hiring except at the very top levels. The result is intellectual inbreeding. I'm told the public rejection of perspectives that ruffled the Fed's world view, such as Robert Shiller being pushed off the New York Fed's economic advisory board after he suggested that there was a housing bubble pre crisis and the dressing down of Raghuram Rajan at Jackson Hole in 2005 is consistent with an internal posture of ignoring people who don't fall in with the party line.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 2078