Thomas Palley identifies and illuminates both the internal and external drivers of the war in Ukraine. Through this article, he explores how the breakup of the Soviet Union, the aggressive expansion of NATO, U.S. neoconservative geopolitics, present-day Ukraine’s domestic tensions, and other factors led to the current conflict, in which the only winner seems to be the United States. | more…
Aside from Keynes, no economist seems to have benefitted so much from the financial crisis of 2007-08 as the late Hyman Minsky. The collapse of the sub-prime market in August 2007 has been widely labeled a “Minsky moment,” and many view the subsequent implosion of the financial system and deep recession as confirming Minsky’s “financial instability hypothesis” regarding economic crisis in capitalist economies.…Recognition of Minsky’s intellectual contribution is welcome and deserved. Minsky was a deeply insightful theorist about the proclivity of capitalist economies to experience financially driven booms and busts, and the crisis has confirmed many of his insights. That said, the current article argues that his theory only provides a partial and incomplete account of the current crisis. | more…