Hyman Minsky Quotes & Sayings

In a world of businessmen and financial intermediaries who aggressively seek profit, innovators will always outpace regulators; the authorities cannot prevent changes in the structure of portfolios from occurring. What they can do is keep the asset-equity ratio of banks within bounds by setting equity-absorption ratios for various types of assets. If the authorities constrain banks and are aware of the activities of fringe banks and other financial institutions, they are in a better position to attenuate the disruptive expansionary tendencies of our economy. — Hyman Minsky

Success breeds a disregard of the possibility of failure. — Hyman Minsky

Stability leads to instability. The more stable things become and the longer things are stable, the more unstable they will be when the crisis hits. — Hyman Minsky

Unless we understand what it is that leads to economic and financial instability, we cannot prescribe
make policy
to modify or eliminate it. Identifying a phenomenon is not enough; we need a theory that makes instability a normal result in our economy and gives us handles to control it. — Hyman Minsky