MACROECONOMICS IN THE POST-CRISIS ERA

In 2008 the world economy went into a profound recession which lasted for 18 months in the United States and 15 months in the eurozone. This "Great Recession" launched vivid discussions on the causes and consequences of recent financial development, its macroeconomic effects, as well as the proper role of economic theory and policy. Facing the recession, some economists and general public once again argued that the mainstream financial and macroeconomic models were in disarray as they had not predicted well a collapse of U. S. mortgage market and a subsequent sharp decline in economic activity of major industrial countries. As this issue appers rather unexploited in the Czech academic milieu, the paper focuses on the reflection of, Great Recession" in the international literature dealing with the methodological problems of macroeconomics and economic modelling. In particular, the paper pays attention to the dominant Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) approach and its criticisms for a lack of substance and relevance. In addition, the paper introduces a viable alternative called "Post-Walrasian Macroeconomics" or "Agent-Based Computational Economics" (ACE), which becomes a popular platform for doing (macro) economics differently. The paper compares the two competing research strategies and speculates about the future development of post-crisis macroeconomics and its wider social context.