This volume of specially written papers is a fitting tribute to Hyman Minsky's work as it relates to the global financial and economic crisis that began in 2007 in the US and quickly spread around the world.

The most influential and controversial economist of the twentieth century, John Maynard Keynes was the leading founder of modern macroeconomics, and was also an important historical figure as a critic of the Versailles Peace Treaty after World War I and an architect of the Bretton Woods international monetary system after World War II. This comprehensive Companion elucidates his contributions, his significance, his historical context and his continuing legacy.

At its core this book sets out the analytical and methodological foundations of Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis (FIH). Grounded on the joint work of Piero Ferri and Hyman Minsky, it offers insightful analysis from a unique insider's perspective. The objective is to deepen and enlarge the toolbox used by Minsky and to place the analysis within a dynamic perspective where a meta model, based upon regime switching, can encompass the different forms that the FIH can assume.

Hyman Minsky is renowned for his theoretical and empirical investigation of the capitalist economy. In this book, a distinguished group of contributors provides an authoritative account of his contribution to the analysis of capitalism and, more particularly, to the fields of monetary and post Keynesian economics. The authors first provide an introduction to Hyman Minsky's economic legacy before going on to discuss his role in analysing the macroeconomy, monetary policy and instability. In detail, they consider the structural instability of a sophisticated market economy, the NAIRU, Minsky's financial fragility hypothesis, his business cycle theory, his investment theory and debt inflation.

Perhaps no economist was more vindicated by the global financial crisis than Hyman P. Minsky (1919–96). Although a handful of economists raised alarms as early as 2000, Minsky's warnings began a half-century earlier, with writings that set out a compelling theory of financial instability. Yet even today he remains largely outside mainstream economics; few people have a good grasp of his writings, and fewer still understand their full importance. Why Minsky Matters makes the maverick economist’s critically valuable insights accessible to general readers for the first time. L. Randall Wray shows that by understanding Minsky we will not only see the next crisis coming but we might be able to act quickly enough to prevent it. As Wray explains, Minsky’s most important idea is that "stability is destabilizing": to the degree that the economy achieves what looks to be robust and stable growth, it is setting up the conditions in which a crash becomes ever more likely. Before the financial crisis, mainstream economists pointed to much evidence that the economy was more stable, but their predictions were completely wrong because they disregarded Minsky’s insight. Wray also introduces Minsky’s significant work on money and banking, poverty and unemployment, and the evolution of capitalism, as well as his proposals for reforming the financial system and promoting economic stability. A much-needed introduction to an economist whose ideas are more relevant than ever, Why Minsky Matters is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why economic crises are becoming more frequent and severe—and what we can do about it.

Analyzes the deflation theories of Thorstein Veblen, Irving Fisher, Joseph A Schumpeter, and Hyman Minsky. In so doing, this work develops a paradigm for understanding the phenomenon of deflation. It also provides a re-examination of the literature and theories of deflation.

This book will be of interest to advanced students looking for an even-handed overview of alternative theories of financial disturbances; academics who need a reference on the historical interrelationships of the literature in the field; and professionals who want to understand how the tools and concepts they use daily have emerged through time and whether there are forgotten lessons to be heeded. Susan K. Schroeder, Review of Political Economy Financial markets have an aura of disturbing instability. In this history of the thought of earlier economists who have studied the processes of finance, Jan Toporowski takes us on a fascinating journey to explore how they saw the impact of finance on the real economy. Not one for formal models, nor for rational expectations, Jan [Toporowski] values historical experience and the insights and experience of earlier great thinkers. Charles A.E. Goodhart, CBE, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Jan Toporowski s Theories of Financial Disturbance is a tour de force. With his substantial knowledge of financial markets, his deep conceptual understanding of relevant concepts and his exhaustive reading of the essential literature, he is ideally placed to tell an absorbing narrative of, as he writes, critical theories of finance from Adam Smith to the present days and he has. In a world in which finance and industrial and commercial capital are so out of kilter with one another, Toporowski s lucid wisdom is required reading. G.C. Harcourt, University of Cambridge, Jesus College, Cambridge, UK and University of Adelaide, Australia Theories of Financial Disturbance examines how the operations of market-driven finance may initiate and transmit disturbances to the economy at large, by looking in detail at how various economists envisaged such disturbances occurring. This book is more than just a study in the history of economic thought it illustrates how economic debate focuses upon financial disturbance at times of financial instability, and then conveniently discards critical views when such instability recedes. Jan Toporowski looks at the development of critical theories from the views of Adam Smith and François Quesnay, and their reflection in recent new Keynesian ideas of Joseph Stiglitz and Ben Bernanke, through credit cycles in Alfred Marshall and Ralph Hawtrey, to the financial theories of Thorstein Veblen and Irving Fisher. Also studied are the theories of John Kenneth Galbraith, Michal Kalecki, John Maynard Keynes, Charles Kindleberger, Rosa Luxemburg, Hyman P. Minsky, Robert Shiller and Josef Steindl. Not least among the original features of this book are a discussion of Quesnay s attitude towards interest, and a chapter devoted to the work of the Polish monetary economist Marek Breit, whose work inspired Kalecki. Jan Toporowski s fascinating work will find its audience in academics of finance and financial economics, bankers, financiers and policy makers concerned with financial stability as well as anyone looking for arguments on the imperfect functioning of finance.