The Minsky-Kindleberger Connection and the Making of Manias, Panics, and Crashes

Abstract

This article traces the evolution of what has come to be called the Kindleberger-Minsky model, starting with Kindleberger’s 1978 publication of Manias, Panics, and Crashes and continuing thereafter. The key to understand the affinity of the two men, it is argued, is a shared intellectual ancestry in pre-war American institutionalism, which led to shared outsider status in the post-World War II economics academy. Both also identified with the longer tradition of monetary thought that emphasizes the inherent instability of credit, and hence the necessity for central bank management.

Keywords

• financial crisis
• financial instability
• American institutionalism
• lender of last resort