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No economist has written more incisively and provocatively on financial crisis than Hyman Minsky. Minsky is best known for his claim that "stability is destabilizing" - that the seeds of the bust are sown in the boom. This financial instability hypothesis received renewed attention - and substantial confirmation - in the global financial crisis of 2008.
Minsky's insights are not limited to moments of crisis; they grow out of a comprehensive and critical theory of financial capitalism. This book provides a systematic overview of Minsky's thought, covering his entire body of work. It shows how financial crises arise not as exceptions, but out of the normal operation of a financial capitalist system. It explains why Minsky's theories sit uncomfortably with economics and what efforts have been made to integrate them, and shows how Minsky's work can be incorporated into other fields of social thought.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars in economics, political economy, finance, politics, and social theory, as well as to anyone with an interest in the financial system and its tendency toward crisis.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
2 Financial Capitalism
3 A Payments Theory of Finance
4 The Inadequacy of Economics
5 Making the Market
6 Last Resort
7 The Resilience of Economics
8 Minsky for All Moments
References
About the author
Daniel H. Neilson is Assistant Professor in Economics at Bard College at Simon's Rock.
Summary
No economist has written more incisively and provocatively on financial crisis than Hyman Minsky. Minsky is best known for his claim that "stability is destabilizing" - that the seeds of the bust are sown in the boom. This financial instability hypothesis received renewed attention - and substantial confirmation - in the global financial crisis of 2008.
Minsky's insights are not limited to moments of crisis; they grow out of a comprehensive and critical theory of financial capitalism. This book provides a systematic overview of Minsky's thought, covering his entire body of work. It shows how financial crises arise not as exceptions, but out of the normal operation of a financial capitalist system. It explains why Minsky's theories sit uncomfortably with economics and what efforts have been made to integrate them, and shows how Minsky's work can be incorporated into other fields of social thought.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars in economics, political economy, finance, politics, and social theory, as well as to anyone with an interest in the financial system and its tendency toward crisis.
Report
"Capitalism is essentially a financial system, said Minsky fifty years ago, and his thought laid the foundations for understanding how that system works. Reinterpreting Minsky for today, Neilson offers the best available introduction to Minsky's thought for the modern reader."
Perry Mehrling, Boston University
"Daniel H. Neilson's book manages an extraordinary feat: the reader understands Minsky's life and his system of thought in one book. You need to understand Minsky's ideas to understand capitalism in the twenty-first century. This is the best book to help you do that."
Stephen Kinsella, University of Limerick
