Since it is an economic crisis, most people seeking its intellectual roots are tempted to begin with economists, who, with a few exceptions, look particularly discredited. The founder of the rational expectations revolution, Robert Lucas, is endlessly quoted as having stated in 2003 in his presidential address to the American Economic Association that the “central problem of depression-prevention has been solved, for all practical purposes, and has in fact been solved for many decades.”
由于它是一场经济危机，多数人都不自觉地从经济学家那儿开始挖它的学术根子。除了一些例外，经济学家的公信力大打折扣。人们无休止地引用理性预期革命的奠基人罗伯特·卢卡斯（Robert Lucas）2003年在美国经济学学会主席就职演说里讲的一段话：“预防萧条的核心课题已经得到解决，已经可以满足实践上的一切需要，而且实际上已经解决了好几十年。”