Hyman Minsky

"Financial stability is a public good that markets alone cannot and will not provide."

"The student of economics must learn to think like a student of history and politics."

"Deflation is a catastrophe that policy makers must avoid at almost any cost."

"The fragility of the financial system is growing, not diminishing, as it evolves."

"Economic growth divorced from considerations of stability is unsustainable and dangerous."

"The fundamental instability of capitalism arises from the financial system's procyclical nature."

"In good times, people become overconfident and take excessive risks."

"Stability is destabilizing—success breeds the seeds of future failure."

"The economy is not an engineering problem; it's a human problem."

"Financial crises are not aberrations but features of capitalist economies."

"To understand the economy, you must understand debt and leverage."

"Capitalist economies contain within themselves forces that generate cyclical instability."

"The further away we are from the memory of the last crisis, the more reckless we become."

"Investment is not determined by past savings but by expectations of future profits."

"The financial system acts as the transmission mechanism for economic instability."

"Bankers are not neutral intermediaries; they are profit-seeking creatures."

"Business cycles are driven by the interaction between real investment and financial conditions."

"Uncertainty, not risk, drives economic behavior in capitalist systems."

"The postwar period's relative stability was an anomaly, not the norm."

"Central banks must act as lenders of last resort to prevent systemic collapse."

"Hedge financing gives way to speculative and Ponzi financing as cycles progress."

"The economy needs a big government to stabilize aggregate demand."

"Financial innovation often increases instability rather than reducing it."

"Corporations pursue growth not for efficiency but for survival in competitive markets."

"Asset prices diverge from fundamental values due to speculation and herd behavior."

"The Great Depression was not an accident but a manifestation of capitalism's nature."

"Full employment without inflation may be incompatible with capitalism."

"Wealth accumulation and income distribution are intimately linked to financial cycles."

"The money supply is endogenous, determined by credit demand, not central bank control."

"Debt-deflation dynamics trap economies in depression equilibria."