Hyman Minsky

Independent activity 1919.9.23.–1996.10.24. ○ Natural causes

American economist of the financial instability hypothesis, in which stability breeds instability

Minsky was born in Chicago into a Jewish family of Menshevik emigrants from Belarus. He studied at the University of Chicago, took his doctorate at Harvard under Joseph Schumpeter and Wassily Leontief, and taught at Brown University and at Washington University in St. Louis. In John Maynard Keynes (1975) and Stabilizing an Unstable Economy (1986) he set out the "financial instability hypothesis", which explains crises by swings in a fragile financial system, and divided borrowers into hedge, speculative and Ponzi finance. His work had little influence in the mainstream during his life, but it was widely reread after the crisis of 2007–08, whose onset was named a "Minsky moment" after him.

Also known as: Hyman Philip Minsky