現在の危機について最新のマクロ経済理論は無力だ、とBuiterは嘆いている:
Most mainstream macroeconomic theoretical innovations since the 1970s (the New Classical rational expectations revolution associated with such names as Robert E. Lucas Jr., Edward Prescott, Thomas Sargent, Robert Barro etc, and the New Keynesian theorizing of Michael Woodford and many others) have turned out to be self-referential, inward-looking distractions at best.

Those of us who have marvelled at the non-linear feedback loops between asset prices in illiquid markets and the funding illiquidity of financial institutions exposed to these asset prices through mark-to-market accounting, margin requirements, calls for additional collateral etc. will appreciate what is lost by this castration of the macroeconomic models. Threshold effects, critical mass, tipping points, non-linear accelerators - they are all out of the window.

[An economist at the Bank of England] once said of the Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium approach which for a while was the staple of central banks’ internal modelling: “It excludes everything I am interested in”. He was right. It excludes everything relevant to the pursuit of financial stability.
RBCやDSGEなどの均衡理論では、現在の大きく均衡からはずれた状況については何もいえない。その前提している完備市場や効率的市場などの仮定が崩壊したからだ。不確実性の問題が経済学のコアだと考えたケインズの思想は、そういうノイズは長期的には無視できると考えたフリードマンや新しい古典派に取って代わられたが、この点では経済学はケインズに帰る必要があろう。厳密に間違っているより、大ざっぱに正しいほうがましである。