Meanings
plural viewquakes
- informalA sudden drastic shift in someone's view on the world or a particular subject.
The section raises more questions than it answers. Most of all, [Allan H.] Meltzer never lets on that the crisis caused a “viewquake” within both monetarism and minimalist approaches to bank supervision.
2010 December, Tyler Cowen, “A History of the Federal Reserve. Volume 2. Book One: 1951–1969 by Allan H. Meltzer; A History of the Federal Reserve. Volume 2. Book Two: 1970–1986 by Allan H. Meltzer”, in Journal of Economic Literature, volume 48, number 4, →JSTOR, Book Reviews E: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics, page 10412 more examples
This summer, though, one of Hanson's "viewquakes," as he likes to call them, became a genuine national sensation. The only problem was, everybody hated it. Hanson's brainchild was roundly condemned by several U.S. Senators, derided by the likes of Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and bond guru Bill Gross, and lampooned by late-night talk show hosts.
2003 September 15, Jeremy Kahn, “The Man Who Would Have Us Bet On Terrorism—Not To Mention Discard Democracy And Cryogenically Freeze Our Heads—May Have A Point (About The Betting, We Mean)”, in Fortune, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2007He [Richard Meadows] points out that for $10 you can get a book that may be terrible, and that you stop reading it. Or you could find one that puts ideas in front of you that you'd never considered before, leading to a 'viewquake'.
2020 November 18, Frances Cook, “Frances Cook: How carefully calibrated risk-taking can lead to financial stability”, in The New Zealand Herald
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From view + quake, modelled after earthquake. Coined by American economist Robin Hanson.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
viewquake. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/viewquake
“viewquake.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/viewquake. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “viewquake,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/viewquake.
Source: viewquake on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.