New School Economic Review

And the economics profession shifts a bit more

by Benjamin on May 26, 2009

To be fair, it took me several decades before I learned to appreciate Keynes in the original. Maybe a reread will make me see the depths of Minsky’s insight across the board. Or maybe not.

I guess the point is that you can be a bad writer and a great economist. And I really am gravitating toward a Keynes-Fisher-Minsky view of macro, although of the three I’d much rather read Keynes.

That would be Paul Krugman in his NYT blog as he is reading Minsky’s Stabilizing and Unstable Economy. I am not suggesting the whole world has changed, but as ever, in the afterglow of a crisis, the books of Minsky and Keynes are cracked open for another look.

Ponzi & UBIK

by Jeanne aka JStor on May 3, 2009

Some people have names for their future kids. I have names for my future dogs.

One is UBIK, after Phillip K. Dick’s masterpiece. The other name I picked is Ponzi in honor of Hyman Minsky, one of my favorite economists. After Obamanomics, Ponzi has become THE buzzword for anyone discussing the economy. It irks me so.

“The Ponzi Workshop”
Last week, I read this headline in the Book section of the NYT and thought “Finally, someone wrote a take on Minsky and our current environment.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. The article had NOTHING to do with Minsky’s Financial Instability Hypothesis, crony capitalism, or a (valid) pyramid scheme (everyone’s favorite/easiest example). It was just a catchphrase for some sucker (me) to get swooped up in. GRRRRR.

Granted, you probably don’t have the same attachment to Minsky and his work. His work expanded (and wrote an AWESOME book) on John Maynard Keynes, and in his own right, I’d like to think of him as a forefather to Roubini, Krugman, Baker, and Wray. It’s too bad that no one has given his just due. Yes, I get it; not everyone is going to get the Minsky-Ponzi connection, but at the very least learn what Ponzi really means before using it. Save yourself from the embarrassment.