Hyman Minsky

"Markets are forward-looking, which means they're always making bets about an unknowable future."

"The only true test of a financial system is whether it survives the next major crisis or collapse."

"Reform that leaves the fundamental structure intact will not prevent the next crisis."

"We need institutions and rules that work even when people are behaving irrationally and greedily."

"The economy is fundamentally flawed because it is based on the false assumption of stability in a fundamentally unstable system."

"Capitalism is a system that contains within itself the seeds of its own instability and breakdown."

"Financial crises are not anomalies; they are the normal state of a capitalist economy."

"The best time to borrow is when you don't need to, but the worst time is when you must."

"Stability breeds instability, and instability breeds stability."

"Wall Street views the stock market as a casino where the house always wins in the long run."

"Banks do not merely respond to economic conditions; they actively create those conditions through their lending."

"A successful economy is one that can manage its own contradictions without collapse."

"The future is not determined by the present; it is created by the expectations we hold about it."

"Unemployment is not a failure of the system; it is a feature of the system."

"Financial innovation without restraint is like giving matches to children."

"The invisible hand of the market is often a clenched fist."

"Money is not neutral; it is the lifeblood of the capitalist machine."

"Debt is a form of coercion that binds workers to their employers and nations to their creditors."

"The rational actor is a fiction invented to make economics tractable."

"Institutions matter more than individual rationality in determining economic outcomes."

"The distribution of income and wealth is as much a political question as an economic one."

"Inflation is often the price paid for maintaining full employment and social stability."

"Private profit and public welfare are not always aligned in a capitalist system."

"The economist who ignores the possibility of financial crisis is ignoring reality itself."

"Markets are creatures of the state, not alternatives to it."

"Uncertainty is not just a feature of economic life; it is the essence of economic life."

"The financial system is a complex web of interdependencies that makes contagion inevitable."

"Monetary policy alone cannot solve the fundamental problems of a capitalist economy."

"The pursuit of profit often leads to the pursuit of monopoly power."

"Central banks are not as powerful as they believe themselves to be."