This book provides a timely and engaging treatment of Hyman Minsky's approach to economics, which is enjoying a renewed appreciation because of its prescient analysis of the slow but sure transformation of the capitalist economy in the post-war period. Many have called the global financial crisis that began in the United States in 2007 a 'Minsky crisis', and these collected contributions demonstrate precisely why both academic economists as well as policy makers have turned to Minsky for guidance. The book brings together the foremost Minsky scholars to provide a comprehensive overview of his approach, with extensions to bring the analysis up to date. With the 2008 republication of his seminal books John Maynard Keynes (1975) and Stabilizing an Unstable Economy (1986), Minsky's ideas saw an unprecedented resurgence. This companion exemplifies this resurgence by emphasizing that economists have discovered Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis and have widely applied it to the course of events in the US from 2004 until the real estate market went bust. The book also argues that many commentators have recently begun to employ Minsky's hedge, speculative and Ponzi classification scheme to analyze the evolution of mortgage markets. Many of Minsky's favorite themes - 'stability is destabilizing', the role of the 'Big Government' and 'Big Bank' in constraining endogenous instability, banker's rationality, money non-neutrality, creative destruction and innovation by financial institutions - are taken up in the chapters commissioned especially for this volume. Using the introductory chapter as a springboard, the work here delves deeply into Minsky's ideas and how they have impacted thought today. The scope and comprehensive analyses found in this companion will appeal particularly to economists and post-Keynesian economists, institutionalists and upper-level scholars of economics and finance. Contributors: T. Assenza, M. Auerback, R.J. Barbera, R. Bellofiore, D. Delli Gatti, S. Dow, G.A. Dymski, P. Ferri, D.K. Foley, J.K. Galbraith, M. Gallegati, J. Halevi, J. Kregel, P. McCulley, E. Nasica, D.B. Papadimitriou, R.W. Parenteau, M. Passarella, D.M. Sastre, M. Shubik, E. Tymoigne, C.L. Weise, L.R. Wray

This unique volume presents, for the first time in publication, the original Ph.D. thesis of Hyman P. Minsky, one of the most innovative thinkers on financial markets. Dimitri B. Papadimitriou's introduction places the thesis in a modern context, and explains its relevance today. The thesis explores the relationship between induced investment, the constraints of financing investment, market structure, and the determinants of aggregate demand and business cycle performance. Forming the basis of his subsequent development of financial Keynesianism and his 'Wall Street' paradigm, Hyman Minsky investigates the relevance of the accelerator-multiplier models of investment to individual firm behaviour in undertaking investment dependent on cost structure. Uncertainty, the coexistence of other market structures, and the behaviour of the monetary system are also explored.In assessing the assumptions underlying the structure and coefficient values of the accelerator models frequently used, the book addresses their limitations and inapplicability to real world situations where the effect of financing conditions on the balance sheet structures of individual firms plays a crucial and determining role for further investment. Finally, Hyman Minsky discusses his findings on business cycle theory and economic policy. This book will greatly appeal to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in economics, as well as to policymakers and researchers. In addition, it will prove to be valuable supplementary reading for those with an interest in advanced microeconomics.

This collection of papers on financial instability and its impact on macroeconomic performance honours Hyman P. Minsky and his lifelong work. It is based on a conference at Washington University, St. Louis, in 1990 and includes among the authors Benjamin M. Friedman, Charles P. Kindleberger, Jan Kregel and Steven Fazzari. These papers consider Minsky's definitive analysis that yields such a clear and disturbing sequence of financial events: booms, government intervention to prevent debt contraction and new booms that cause a progressive buildup of new debt, eventually leaving the economy much more fragile financially.