Mid-Life MBA: The Art of Business

The Wall Street Journal noted today how the current market volatility is raising the stock of a little-known economist whose views have suddenly become very popular–Hyman Minsky.

The WSJ says that, “Minsky, who died more than a decade ago, spent much of his career advancing the idea that financial systems are inherently susceptible to bouts of speculation that, if they last long enough, end in crises. At a time when many economists were coming to believe in the efficiency of markets, Mr. Minsky was considered somewhat of a radical for his stress on their tendency toward excess and upheaval.”

“Today, his views are reverberating from New York to Hong Kong as economists and traders try to understand what’s happening in the markets. The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, where Mr. Minsky worked for the last six years of his life, is planning to reprint two books by the economist — one on John Maynard Keynes, the other on unstable economies. The latter book was being offered on the Internet for thousands of dollars.  Christopher Wood, a widely read Hong Kong-based analyst for CLSA Group, told his clients that recent cash injections by central banks designed “to prevent, or at least delay, a ‘Minsky moment,’ is evidence of market failure.”"

The “Minsky moment” has become a fashionable catch phrase on Wall Street. It refers to the time when over-indebted investors are forced to sell even their solid investments to make good on their loans, sparking sharp declines in financial markets and demand for cash that can force central bankers to lend a hand.

Wikipedia says:

“Hyman Minsky has proposed a simplified explanation that is most applicable to a closed economy. He theorized that financial fragility is a typical feature of any capitalist economy. High fragility leads to a higher risk of a financial crisis. To facilitate his analysis Minsky defines three types of financing firms choose according to their tolerance of risk. They are hedge finance, speculative finance and Ponzi finance. Ponzi finance leads to the most fragility.

Financial fragility levels move together with the business cycle. After a recession firms have lost much financing and choose only hedge, the safest. As the economy grows, and expected profits rise, firms tend to believe that they can allow themselves to take on speculative financing. In this case they know that profits will not cover all the interest all the time. Firms, however, believe that profits will rise and the loans will eventually be repaid without much trouble. More loans lead to more investment and the economy grows further. Then lenders also start believing that they will get back all the money they lend. Therefore they are ready to lend to firms without full guarantees of success. Lenders know that such firms will have problems repaying. Still, they believe these firms will refinance from elsewhere as their expected profits rise. This is Ponzi financing. In this way the economy has taken on much risky credit. Now it is only a question of time before some big firm actually defaults. Lenders understand the actual risks in the economy and stop giving credit so easily. Refinancing becomes impossible for many and more firms default. If no new money comes into the economy to allow the refinancing process, a real economic crisis begins. During the recession firms start to hedge again and the cycle is closed.”

Major Works of Hyman P. Minsky

• “Central Banking and Money Market Changes”, 1957,
• “Can “It” Happen Again?”, 1963, in Carson, editor, Banking and Monetary Studies.
• “Longer Waves in Financial Relations: Financial factors in more severe depressions”, 1964, AER.
• “The Modeling of Financial Instability: An introduction”, 1974, Modelling and Simulation.
• John Maynard Keynes, 1975.
• “The Financial Instability Hypothesis: A restatement”, 1978, Thames Papers on Political Economy.
• Can “It” Happen Again? Essays on instability and finance, 1982.
• “The Financial-Instability Hypothesis: Capitalist processes and the behavior of the economy”, 1982, in Kindleberger and Laffargue, editors, Financial Crises.
• “Beginnings”, 1985, BNLQR.
• Stabilizing an Unstable Economy, 1986.
• “The Global Consequences of Financial Deregulation”, 1986, Marcus Wallenberg Papers on International Finance.
• “Sraffa and Keynes: Effective demand in the long-run”, 1988
• “The Macroeconomic Safety Net: Does it need to be improved?”, 1989, in H.P. Gray, editor, Modern International Environment.
• “Schumpeter: Finance and evolution”, 1990, in Heertje et al, editors, Evolving Technology and Market Structure.
• “Financial Crises: Systemic or Idiosyncratic?”, 1991
• “Market Processes and Thwarting Systems” with Piero Ferri, 1991 
• “The Transition to a Market Economy: Financial Options”, 1991
• “Reconstituting the United States’ Financial Structure: Some Fundamental Issues”, 1991
• “The Capitalist Development of the Economy and the Structure of Financial Institutions”
• “The Financial Instability Hypothesis: A clarification”, 1991, in Feldstein, editor, Risk of Financial Crisis.
• “Financial Instability Hypothesis”, 1993, in Arestis and Sawyer, Handbook of Radical Political Economy
• “Finance and Stability: The Limits of Capitalism”, 1993
• “Business Cycles in Capitalist Economies”, 1994, MIJCF.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 18th, 2007 at 2:39 am and is tagged with john maynard keynes, hyman minsky, financial fragility, bard college, mr minsky, market meltdown, market volatility, wall street journal, capitalist economy, market failure, economics institute, minsky moment, latter book, catch phrase, central banks, typical feature, wsj, wikipedia, credence, bouts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.

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