Ivory Tower Unswayed by Crashing Economy

Yet prominent economics professors say their academic discipline isn't shifting nearly as much as some people might think. Free market theory, mathematical models and hostility to government regulation still reign in most economics departments at colleges and universities around the country. True, some new approaches have been explored in recent years, particularly by behavioral economists who argue that human psychology is a crucial element in economic decision making. But the belief that people make rational economic decisions and the market automatically adjusts to respond to them still prevails.
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 James K. Galbraith, an economist at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, who has frequently been at odds with free marketers, said, "I don't detect any change at all." Academic economists are "like an ostrich with its head in the sand."

"It's business as usual," he said. "I'm not conscious that there is a fundamental re-examination going on in journals."

Mankiw is not only a traditional (conservative) economist, but a flack for the Republican party. You can judge how open he is to ideas from the fact that he shutdown comments on his blog after it quickly became obvious that many who started reading disagreed with him. He brooks no dissent. I'd hate to be in one of his classes.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape