IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lev/wrkpap/wp_892.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Understanding Financialization: Standing on the Shoulders of Minsky

Author

Listed:
  • Charles J. Whalen

Abstract

Since the death of Hyman Minsky in 1996, much has been written about financialization. This paper explores the issues that Minsky examined in the last decade of his life and considers their relationship to that financialization literature. Part I addresses Minsky's penetrating observations regarding what he called money manager capitalism. Part II outlines the powerful analytical framework that Minsky used to organize his thinking and that we can use to extend his work. Part III shows how Minsky's observations and framework represent a major contribution to the study of financialization. Part IV highlights two keys to Minsky's success: his treatment of economics as a grand adventure and his willingness to step beyond the world of theory. Part V concludes by providing a short recap, acknowledging formidable challenges facing scholars with a Minsky perspective, and calling attention to the glimmer of hope that offers a way forward.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles J. Whalen, 2017. "Understanding Financialization: Standing on the Shoulders of Minsky," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_892, Levy Economics Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_892
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_892.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hyman P. Minsky & Charles J. Whalen, 1996. "Economic Insecurity and the Institutional Prerequisites for Successful Capitalism," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 155-170, December.
    2. Thomas I. Palley, 2013. "Financialization: What It Is and Why It Matters," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Financialization, chapter 2, pages 17-40, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Christopher J. Niggle, 1986. "Financial Innovation and the Distinction between Financial and Industrial Capital," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 375-382, June.
    4. Zdravka Todorova, 2009. "Money and Households in a Capitalist Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13178.
    5. Buiter, Willem, 2009. "The unfortunate uselessness of most ’state of the art’ academic monetary economics," MPRA Paper 58407, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Mar 2009.
    6. Christopher Brown, 2008. "Inequality, Consumer Credit and the Saving Puzzle," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12877.
    7. William Van Lear, 2002. "A Populist Challenge to Corporate Capitalism," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 4868, February.
    8. Feenstra, Robert C. & Taylor, Alan M. (ed.), 2014. "Globalization in an Age of Crisis," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226030753, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Whalen Charles J., 2017. "Understanding financialization: standing on the shoulders of Minsky," Financial Internet Quarterly (formerly e-Finanse), Sciendo, vol. 13(2), pages 45-61, December.
    2. Gökçer Özgür, 2021. "Shadow banking and financial intermediation," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 731-757, November.
    3. Charles J. Whalen, 2020. "Post-Keynesian institutionalism: past, present, and future," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 71-92, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Whalen Charles J., 2017. "Understanding financialization: standing on the shoulders of Minsky," Financial Internet Quarterly (formerly e-Finanse), Sciendo, vol. 13(2), pages 45-61, December.
    2. Charles J. Whalen, 2013. "Post-Keynesian Institutionalism after the Great Recession," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 10(1), pages 12-27.
    3. Charles J. Whalen, 2020. "Post-Keynesian institutionalism: past, present, and future," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 71-92, January.
    4. Charles Whalen, 2008. "Toward ‘Wisely Managed’ Capitalism: Post-Keynesian Institutionalism and the Creative State," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(1), pages 43-60, January.
    5. Fadhel Kaboub, 2011. "Understanding and preventing financial instability; Post-Keynesian Institutionalism and government employer of last resort," Chapters, in: Charles J. Whalen (ed.), Financial Instability and Economic Security after the Great Recession, chapter 4, pages 77-92, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Zdravka Todorova, 2013. "Conspicuous Consumption as Routine Expenditure and its Place in the Social Provisioning Process," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(5), pages 1183-1204, November.
    7. Hein, Eckhard & Dodig, Nina & Budyldina, Natalia, 2014. "Financial, economic and social systems: French Regulation School, Social Structures of Accumulation and Post-Keynesian approaches compared," IPE Working Papers 34/2014, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    8. W. Robert Brazelton & Charles J. Whalen, 2011. "Towards a synthesis of Institutional and Post Keynsian economics," Chapters, in: Charles J. Whalen (ed.), Financial Instability and Economic Security after the Great Recession, chapter 2, pages 28-52, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Glen Atkinson & Charles J. Whalen, 2011. "Futurity: cornerstone of Post Keynsian institutionalism," Chapters, in: Charles J. Whalen (ed.), Financial Instability and Economic Security after the Great Recession, chapter 3, pages 53-74, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Todorova, Zdravka, 2013. "Consumption as a Social Process within Social Provisioning and Capitalism: Implications for Heterodox Economics," MPRA Paper 51516, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Photis Lysandrou, 2016. "The colonization of the future: An alternative view of financialization and its portents," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 444-472, October.
    12. Ricardo Barradas & Ines Tomas, 2023. "Household indebtedness in the European Union countries: Going beyond the mainstream interpretation," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 76(304), pages 21-49.
    13. Xinhua Gu & Yang Zhang & Xiao Chang, 2017. "The role of financial systems for cross-country differences in the link between income and consumption inequality," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(24), pages 2365-2378, May.
    14. Till Treeck, 2014. "Did Inequality Cause The U.S. Financial Crisis?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 421-448, July.
    15. Mark Setterfield, 2024. "Managing the Discontent of the Losers Redux: A Future of Authoritarian Neoliberalism or Social Capitalism?," FMM Working Paper 98-2024, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    16. Yılmaz Akyüz, 2018. "Inequality, financialisation and stagnation," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 29(4), pages 428-445, December.
    17. Sebastian Dullien, 2010. "Macroeconomic Theory and Macroeconomic Pedagogy – A review of the book edited by Giuseppe Fontana and Mark Setterfield," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 7(2), pages 266-271.
    18. Eckhard Hein & Daniel Detzer, 2015. "Finance-Dominated Capitalism and Income Distribution: A Kaleckian Perspective on the Case of Germany," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 1(2), pages 171-191, July.
    19. Dögüs, Ilhan, 2016. "A Minskyan criticism on the shareholder pressure approach of financialisation," ZÖSS-Discussion Papers 53, University of Hamburg, Centre for Economic and Sociological Studies (CESS/ZÖSS).
    20. Charles J. Whalen, 2012. "Post-Keynesian Institutionalism after the Great Recession," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_724, Levy Economics Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hyman Minsky; Money Manager Capitalism; Financialization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • G - Financial Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_892. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Elizabeth Dunn (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.levyinstitute.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.