Credit and Crisis from Marx to Minsky

Credit and Crisis from Marx to Minsky
Author: Jan Toporowski
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2020-09-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1788972155

This timely book studies the economic theories of credit cycles and disturbances in the 20th century, presenting a nuanced view of the role of finance in the economy after the financial crash of 2008. Focusing on the work of economists from Marx onwards, Jan Toporowski moves beyond conventional monetary theory to offer an insightful critical alternative to current financial macroeconomics.

Crises of Global Economy and the Future of Capitalism

Crises of Global Economy and the Future of Capitalism
Author: Kiichiro Yagi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2013-01-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135101655

Recent events in the global financial markets and macro economies have served as a strong reminder for a need of a coherent theory of capitalist crisis and analysis. This book helps to fill the gap with well-grounded alternative articulations of the forces which move today's economic dynamics, how they interact and how ideas of foundational figures in economic theory can be used to make sense of the current predicament. The book presents a comprehensive collection of reflections on the origins, dynamics and implications of the interlinked crises of the U.S. and global economies. The book is a thoughtful collaboration between Japanese heterodox economists of the Japan Society of Political Economy (JSPE) and non-Japanese scholars. It provides a unique immersion in different, sophisticated approaches to political economy and to the crisis. The book illustrates with the understanding of Marx's crisis theory and how it can serve as a powerful framework for analyzing the contemporary sub-prime world crisis. The book explains the subprime loan crisis as a crisis in a specific phase of the capitalist world system and concludes that it is a structural one which destroys the existing capital accumulation regime. It pays attention to structural changes and to how these changes beget profound and controversial consequences. The result is a must-read - one which truly contributes to the resurgence of radical analyses of the political economy, free from the market optimism of the main-stream economics.

Stabilizing an Unstable Economy

Stabilizing an Unstable Economy
Author: Hyman P. Minsky
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2008-05-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0071593004

“Mr. Minsky long argued markets were crisis prone. His 'moment' has arrived.” -The Wall Street Journal In his seminal work, Minsky presents his groundbreaking financial theory of investment, one that is startlingly relevant today. He explains why the American economy has experienced periods of debilitating inflation, rising unemployment, and marked slowdowns-and why the economy is now undergoing a credit crisis that he foresaw. Stabilizing an Unstable Economy covers: The natural inclination of complex, capitalist economies toward instability Booms and busts as unavoidable results of high-risk lending practices “Speculative finance” and its effect on investment and asset prices Government's role in bolstering consumption during times of high unemployment The need to increase Federal Reserve oversight of banks Henry Kaufman, president, Henry Kaufman & Company, Inc., places Minsky's prescient ideas in the context of today's financial markets and institutions in a fascinating new preface. Two of Minsky's colleagues, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, Ph.D. and president, The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, and L. Randall Wray, Ph.D. and a senior scholar at the Institute, also weigh in on Minsky's present relevance in today's economic scene in a new introduction. A surge of interest in and respect for Hyman Minsky's ideas pervades Wall Street, as top economic thinkers and financial writers have started using the phrase “Minsky moment” to describe America's turbulent economy. There has never been a more appropriate time to read this classic of economic theory.

Minsky’s Moment

Minsky’s Moment
Author: Piero Ferri
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2019
Genre: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
ISBN: 1788973739

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.

Capitalism, Macroeconomics and Reality

Capitalism, Macroeconomics and Reality
Author: James Crotty
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2017-04-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1784719021

The essays comprising this collection analyze the deep flaws in the methodological foundation of mainstream economic theory, and explain how these flaws make mainstream economics more ideology than sound social science. James Crotty develops alternative theories built on realistic assumptions that can explain most of the disastrous economic and financial developments of the past four decades. His work contributes to the collective creation of a solid theoretical foundation on which to build an understanding of the ‘laws of motion’ of capitalism in the post WWII era.

Fictitious Capital

Fictitious Capital
Author: Cédric Durand
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2017-06-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1784787213

How finance is a mechanism of social and political domination The 2007–08 credit crisis and the long recession that followed brutally exposed the economic and social costs of financialization. Understanding what lay behind these events, the rise of “fictitious capital” and its opaque logic, is crucial to grasping the social and political conditions under which we live. Yet, for most people, the operations of the financial system remain shrouded in mystery. In this lucid and compelling book, economist Cédric Durand offers a concise and critical introduction to the world of finance, unveiling the truth behind the credit crunch. Fictitious Capital moves beyond moralizing tales about greedy bankers, short-sighted experts and compromised regulators to look at the big picture. Using comparative data covering the last four decades, Durand examines the relationship between trends such as the rise in private and public debt and the proliferation of financial products; norms such as our habitual assumptions about the production of value and financial stability; and the relationship of all this to political power. Fictitious Capital offers a stark warning about the direction that the international economy is taking. Durand argues that the accelerated expansion of financial operations is a sign of the declining power of the economies of the Global North. The City, Wall Street and other centres of the power of money, he suggests, may already be caked with the frosts of winter.

Bonfire of Illusions

Bonfire of Illusions
Author: Alex Callinicos
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2013-04-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 074565939X

Something dramatic happened in the late summer and autumn of 2008. The post-Cold War world came to an abrupt end. This was the result of two conjoined crises. First, in its brief war with Georgia in August 2008, Russia asserted its military power to halt the expansion of NATO to its very borders. Secondly, on 15 September 2008 the Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed. This precipitated a severe financial crash and helped to push the world economy into the worst slump since the 1930s. Both crises marked a severe setback for the global power of the United States, which had driven NATO expansion and forced through the liberalization of financial markets. More broadly they challenged the consensus that had reigned since the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989 that a US-orchestrated liberal capitalist order could offer the world peace and prosperity. Already badly damaged by the Iraq debacle, this consensus has now suffered potentially fatal blows. In Bonfire of Illusions Alex Callinicos explores these twin crises. He traces the credit crunch that developed in 2007-8 to a much more protracted crisis of overaccumulation and profitability that has gripped global capitalism since the late 1960s. He also confronts the interaction between economic and geopolitical events, highlighting the new assertiveness of nation-states and analysing the tense, complex relationship of interdependence and conflict that binds together the US and China. Finally, in response to the revelation that the market is not the solution to the world's problems, Callinicos reviews the prospects for alternatives to capitalism.

The Rise and Fall of Money Manager Capitalism

The Rise and Fall of Money Manager Capitalism
Author: Eric Tymoigne
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2013-07-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1135076723

The book studies the trends that led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, as well as the unfolding of the crisis, in order to provide policy recommendations to improve financial stability. The book starts with changes in monetary policy and income distribution from the 1970s. These changes profoundly modified the foundations of economic growth in the US by destroying the commitment banking model and by decreasing the earning power of households whose consumption has been at the core of the growth process. The main themes of the book are the changes in the financial structure and income distribution, the collapse of the Ponzi process in 2007, and actual and prospective policy responses. The objective is to show that Minsky’s approach can be used to understand the making and unfolding of the crisis and to draw some policy implications to improve financial stability.

Heterodox Analysis of Financial Crisis and Reform

Heterodox Analysis of Financial Crisis and Reform
Author: JoŠlle Julie Leclaire
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 085793757X

The editors of this book have put together a compelling compendium of explanations and consequences of the global financial crisis. The essays are fairly homogeneous despite their apparent diversity, all providing a useful historical background. There is an obvious Institutionalist twist, with authors examining the changes in organizations and regulations that have accompanied the move towards financialization and money-manager capitalism. This analysis is often informed by the work of Hyman Minsky, pointing towards the inherent destabilizing forces of competition, as well as the dangers of deregulation, self-regulation, securitization, excess leverage, global imbalances, and the illusion of liquidity-enhancing and risk-reducing financial innovations. Marc Lavoie, University of Ottawa, Canada This valuable collection offers a stimulating range of heterodox views on the global financial crisis and proposals for reform of the financial system, nationally and internationally. The perspective of the authors is broadly Post Keynesian, sometimes with a radical or an institutionalist twist. Vigorously argued, clearly presented and largely non-technical, these essays provide a great deal of food for thought. John King, La Trobe University, Australia Though the worst of the financial crisis of 2008 has, with hope, ebbed, it has forever changed the economy in the United States and throughout the rest of the world. Using the financial and economic crisis as a catalyst, this volume examines how to better regulate the financial system and what to expect in the future if no steps are made toward reform. This book lays the foundation for those steps by providing concrete ideas that will push policy in the direction of jobs growth and widespread prosperity. Paired with a history of financial market problems, Heterodox Analysis of Financial Crisis and Reform analyzes complacency regarding the state of the economy, its lack of jobs, growing income disparity, poverty and the consequences of the false but widely shared belief that the economy is self-regulating. This book suggests ways to account for the inherent instability of financial markets and how to make asset values less precarious. Examining both the macro and micro sides of financial instability, the authors argue that existing rules and regulations are either not applied or that they are not effective enough to prevent market fluctuations of the magnitude experienced in 2008. This volume also sheds new light on just how inextricably linked success on Wall Street and welfare on Main Street have become. Students and scholars of heterodox economics, historians, political scientists, policymakers and all those with an interest in an economic renaissance will find this thought-provoking analysis of significant interest.