"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.

Foreword Preface and Acknowledgments to the First Edition Minsky's Stabilizing an Unstable Economy: Two Decades Later PART 1:Introduction 1. Economic Processes, Behavior, and Policy PART 2: Economic Experience 2. A Deep Recession But Not a Depression in 1975: The Impact of Big Government 3. A Deep Recession But Not a Depression in 1975: The Impact of Lender-of-Last-Resort Intervention 4. The Emergence of Financial Instability in the Postwar Era PART 3: Economic Theory 5. Perspectives on Theory 6. The Current Standard Theory: The After-Keynes Synthesis 7. Prices and Profits in a Capitalist Economy 8. Investment and Finance 9. Financial Commitments and Instability PART 4: Institutional Dynamics 10. Banking in a Capitalist Economy 11. Inflation PART 5: Policy 12. Introduction to Policy 13. An Agenda for Reform Appendix A: Financing Structures Appendix B: Consumer Prices and Real Wages Index