There are two main reasons that caused mainstream economists and financial media to miss the financial crisis of 2008. The first is the NIH (Not Invented Here) bias, which is an organizational phenomenon manifested as an unwillingness to adopt an idea because it originates from unknown outsiders. It is a form of social cognition bias that leads to errors in group judgments such as missing on new opportunities or risks. The second reason is a cognition bias known as the Confirmation Bias which is the tendency to search for, filter in, or interpret information in a way that confirms existing preconceptions. The Confirmation Bias is recognized as an individual cognition bias, but when met with (NIH) bias it appears to develop into a social bias very similar to the Groupthink syndrome.
Med Jones