The purpose of this research project is to understand how the policy innovation process is initiated in situations of major uncertainty and confusion. To this end, this research will focus on an empirical analysis of how the Ministry of Economics and Finance and more broadly, all the actors involved in the making of economic policy, grasped and responded to the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007 and to the crises that followed. Based on a survey of the policy proposal trajectory within the politico-administrative arena, the research will attempt to grasp how, when faced with situations for which they have neither explanatory statements nor policy solutions, key policymakers establish new solutions and garner the widest possible agreement around them to enable their adoption.