How the Economy Works: Confidence, Crashes, and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies。For the most part, the financial crisis that began in 2007, crested in 2008, and left aftershocks which arestill being felt today, has brought into question the credibility of the economic thinking that has guidedpolicymakers for a generation. Lay people are not the only ones asking questions. Economists, too, arestriving to understand precisely why it happened and how to prevent it from happening again.