Understanding the global financial crisis: contributions of post-Keynesian economics

Abstract

Post-Keynesian economics has greatly improved our understanding of the causes as well as some of the consequences of the Global Financial Crisis. This paper deals with some examples related to monetary issues—namely, the financial instability hypothesis of Minsky and its extension to the household sector, as well as the post-Keynesian theory of endogenous money, with its extension to quantitative easing policies set within a framework where the central bank’s target rate of interest is set equal to the rate of interest paid on reserves.