In Marx's famous base/superstructure metaphor, the normal development of the base (which I interpret as involving technology, the economy, class struggle, etc.) comes into conflict with the relatively static and conservative superstructure (ideology, politics, law, etc.) causing crises, institutional change, and even revolution. What we see these days is something like that: the economics profession is heavily involved in ideological production, and is organized in a very conservative way (and wedded to the concept of equilibrium as being descriptive). So, like a supertanker captained by Joseph Hazelwood, it does not change its direction quickly if at all in response to real-world events. So the dynamics -- here mostly financial and macroeconomic -- have come into conflict with the ideology of the economics establishment. Economics is in crisis, but nobody recognizes it. Back in the 1930s, it took about 7 years before the profession started responding to this kind of disjuncture.
-- Jim Devine / If you're going to support the lesser of two evils, at least you should know the nature of that evil.
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