Ferguson discusses the growing corruption and money-making that has affected academic economics. The expansion of a top-heavy administrative layer that lacks strong structural ties to the people using the institution is a pattern we see in finance and healthcare as well as education.
"Inside Job" Director Charles Ferguson: Wall Street Has Turned the U.S. into a "Predatory
Nation":
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about—what is so fascinating in Predator Nation is looking at the
academic part of the network that you talk about misleading us, the ivory tower.
"CHARLES FERGUSON: Yes, this is a problem that I think many Americans remain unaware of. I was quite struck when my film was released that most people who saw the film and spoke with me afterwards commented that the section on the economics discipline was the most surprising and shocking to them. What has happened is that over the same period of time, roughly the last 30 years, that money has become so much more important in American politics, it has also become more important in American academia. And the same interest groups, companies, industries, that began contributing to political campaigns and building up lobbying organizations and engaging in revolving-door hiring in the political sphere also began doing the same thing in American academia, to the point that now there is actually an industry, an industry that’s probably a couple of billion dollars a year, of selling academic expertise for people who have public policy or legal or law enforcement problems" 'via Blog this'
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