Strikingly, most of these rock-star economists are fierce critics of Wall Street. "The failures in our financial system are emblematic of broader failures in our economic system," argues Stiglitz in his book, which cries out for a sweeping overhaul of the way Wall Street works, from breaking up "too big to fail" institutions to questioning the logic behind the relentless process of product innovation. Wall Street, he argues, has "repeatedly worked hard to shift blame to others" for the crisis, both economic and financial, in which we find ourselves today.

Simon Johnson has also used his various media appearances on National Public Radio and PBS as well as his Huffington Post blog, to blast both the "too big to fail" institutions and policymakers who have failed to tackle the problem. "The incentives for the people running these megabanks is now to take on reckless amounts of risk," Johnson declared in a Huffington Post commentary earlier this month, commenting on President Barack Obama's apparent lack of concern about the hefty bonuses paid to Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein for their 2009 performance. "They get the upside (for example, in these compensation packages) and—when the downside materializes—this belongs to taxpayers and everyone who loses a job."

James Galbraith, another fierce Wall Street critic and an economist who holds the Lloyd Bentsen chair in Government/Business Relations at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin, says the real test of whether these and other new rock stars will succeed in transforming the world or just flaming out will be the extent to which their ideas filter through into the policy arena and even, in many cases, to the academic world itself.

"The few of us who were dissidents and warning about the coming crisis in one way or another have achieved a degree of notoriety, but for now, at least, the regulatory apparatus and the academic world are both still dominated by traditional thinkers," Galbraith argues. "Will the system become more open to these ideas and methodologies?"

Some of the less high-profile economists who have produced intellectually rigorous work but who haven't achieved the same high profile of a Roubini or Simon Johnson include South African economist Patrick Bond, Wynne Godley, a member of a team at the Levy Economics Institute in England, and Hyman Minsky.

"Will this kind of thinking continue to thrive when the sense of being in the midst of an economic crisis fades—and will it be welcomed as part of the mainstream and not just the fringes?" Galbraith frets.

In one sense, it's great news for our financial system that its new rock stars are individuals who make their living by thinking and analyzing problems rather than on just finding new ways to make more money. The biggest risk is that by elevating these economists to the status of rock stars, we may end up diminishing their ability to contribute going forward. If they are pressed to make short-term economic calls—will the recovery be V-shaped? W-shaped? U-shaped?—that will, inexorably, distract attention from their more long-term research. If we focus on their more dramatic prescriptions—break up the "too big to fail" banks!—we risk losing sight of the more nuanced and potentially more useful diagnoses, such as Stiglitz's core argument that the financial system no longer operates in the interests of the broader society.

Still, even though some of the rock-star economists (stand up, Nouriel Roubini) seem to be adopting some of the flashier lifestyles once reserved for hedge fund managers and other masters of the universe (vast loft apartments and bleeding-edge art collections), the rise of this new group of public intellectuals can only be good news for that broader society. "It wasn't until the 1980s that bankers found a way to parlay their power into admiration by society and ultimately persuade the media that they were to be emulated," comments Galbraith. The increased status of economists, he argues, is really just the pendulum swinging back to a world that values the contributions of all professionals, not just the wealth of a small group of investment bankers.

"That has got to be part of what we're all seeking—a more sustainable and stable world, on Wall Street and across society as a whole," Galbraith adds.