Description
Book SynopsisThis timely book studies the economic theories of credit cycles and disturbances in the 20th century, presenting a nuanced view of the role of finance in the economy after the financial crash of 2008.
Focusing on the work of economists from Marx onwards, Jan Toporowski moves beyond conventional monetary theory to offer an insightful critical alternative to current financial macroeconomics. The book features an extended discussion of Marx's approach to credit and finance, new insights to Minsky's ideas and a reconsideration of the financial theories of Kalecki and Steindl.
Economic researchers and postgraduate students seeking to extend their knowledge of critical approaches to finance will find this an invaluable read, as well as practitioners and policy makers who seek to understand financial instability and unstable markets. This will also be an insightful read for economic historians looking to understand the nuances of different key economic theories and their practical applications. This timely book studies the economic theories of credit cycles and disturbances in the 20th century, presenting a nuanced view of the role of finance in the economy after the financial crash of 2008.
Trade Review'Jan Toporowski provides a provocative guide to a dissenting tradition in macroeconomics where monetary and financial institutions are just as fundamental to the market economy's performance as real factors - endowments, tastes, technology, etc. Along his route from Marx to Minsky we naturally encounter the likes of Keynes and Kalecki, but also, more surprisingly, proto-monetarists like Fisher, Hawtrey, and Henry Simons. Whatever our own views, Toporowski forces us to look at today's macroeconomics in a refreshingly new light: highly recommended.' --David Laidler, University of Western Ontario, US
'Professor Jan Toporowski offers us a brilliant piece of scholarship combining history of money and credit theories ranging over heterodox economists from Marx and Luxemburg to mainstream but radical economists such as Keynes and Minsky. It is a here and now explanation of our problems.'
--Lord Meghnad Desai, London School of Economics, UK
Table of ContentsContents: PART I: CAPITALISM AND FINANCIAL CRISIS 1. Marx and the Monetary Business Cycle 2. Marx and the Emergence of Debt Markets 3. Rosa Luxemburg and the Marxists on Finance PART II: CRITICAL THEORIES OF FINANCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: UNSTABLE MONEY AND FINANCE 4. Ralph Hawtrey and the Monetary Business Cycle 5. Irving Fisher and Debt Deflation 6. John Maynard Keynes’s Financial Theory of Under-Investment I: Towards Doubt 7. John Maynard Keynes’s Financial Theory of Under-Investment II: Towards Uncertainty PART III: CRITICAL THEORIES OF FINANCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: CORPORATE DEBT AND CRISIS 8. The Principle Of Increasing Risk: Marek Breit 9. The Principle Of Increasing Risk: Michal Kalecki 10. The Principle of Increasing Risk: Josef Steindl and Michal Kalecki on Profits and Finance 11. The Kalecki-Steindl theory of financial fragility PART IV: CRITICAL THEORIES OF FINANCE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE FINANCIAL INSTABILITY HYPOTHESIS 12. The Monetary Theory of Kalecki and Minsky 13. From Money to Minsky: Henry Simons 14. The Financial Instability Hypothesis Bibliography Index
