Financial Conditions and Macroeconomic Performance

This collection of papers on financial instability and its impact on macroeconomic performance honours Hyman P. Minsky and his lifelong work. It is based on a conference at Washington University St. Louis in 1990 and includes among the authors Benjamin M. Friedman Charles P. Kindleberger Jan Kregel and Steven Fazzari. These papers consider Minsky's definitive analysis that yields such a clear and disturbing sequence of financial events: booms government intervention to prevent debt contraction and new booms that cause a progressive buildup of new debt eventually leaving the economy much more fragile financially.