Group-think and the Current Financial Crisis

Charles Goodhart

Chapter 4 in Financial Crises and the Nature of Capitalist Money, 2013, pp 70-78 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Geoffrey Ingham is eminent both as a sociologist and as an economist. As a sociologist he understands that humans, like all other mammals, are social animals. We interact with, and learn from, our fellow men and women. Our perceptions, views, methods of analysis and expectations are basically formed by such interaction, learning processes. How could it be otherwise? An individual has limited time and limited ability. We cannot exist except by relying on the accumulated ideas and analyses of others. When faced with a novel conundrum our instinct is not to try to work out the answer for ourselves from first principles, but ‘to ask a friend’ whom we believe to be better equipped than ourselves to provide an answer. We are all, and quite naturally, subject to group-think in all manners of ways. In macroeconomics I am often part of a Financial Times group-think, shepherded by Martin Wolf!

Keywords: Housing Price; Credit Default Swap; Shareholder Wealth; Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium; Price Bubble (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-30295-3_5

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137302953_5

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