It took a major world depression, in which incidentally financial crises played a prominent role, to spur that kind of thinking. Likewise, after the failure of overly ambitious policies in the 1960s and 1970s, aimed at controlling short-term movements in output, we learnt the value of long-term horizons in policy making.
Excessive focus on forecasts in economic variables over short horizons can, and often do, lead their users astray. We are simply not very good at forecasting the timing of peaks and troughs and have too little knowledge about the time pattern of the influence of our instruments on economic activity. Intended stabilisation may result in unintended destabilisation.