Chicago Economists on the Crisis

Earlier this week, Dubner linked to a terrific New Yorker piece by John Cassidy, which explores the state of the “Chicago School.” Following up, Cassidy has posted some very revealing interview transcripts.
All the interviews are with truly great economists. The very best come across as trying to build insight that is both rigorous and empirically relevant. But some come across as obtuse; others as arrogant; and some oblivious, or uninterested in evidence. Time and again I was surprised at how readily the interviews slipped from careful insight into personal ideology and dogmas. In each case, the interviews are revealing. (The charitable interpretation is that perhaps what they reveal is how seriously each took Cassidy’s interviews.)
Read them all, and come to your own judgments:

• Richard Posner
• Eugene Fama
• John Cochrane
• Gary Becker
• Jim Heckman
• Kevin Murphy
• Raghu Rajan
• Richard Thaler