The professors and the banks: US views on the subprime crisis

This review article surveys accounts of the recent global financial crisis by ten leading economists -- nine in the US and one, Martin Wolf, in the UK -- all of whom are critical of mainstream economic thinking. Since their explanations of the crisis are very similar, the review concentrates on their differing views on three questions: the reform of the financial sector; the state of academic macroeconomics; and the global economic imbalances. Some of the writers have also considered recent austerity policies and their opinions on this topic are also discussed. The article closes by referring to some of the gaps in these accounts.