23rd Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference

The National Press Club
Washington, D.C.
April 9–10, 2014

Organized by the Levy Economics Institute with support from the Ford Foundation

Click here for video.

Despite the appearance of greater stability in the US financial system since the 2008–09 global recession, the economic recovery remains fragile and uneven, and social conditions are expected to improve even more slowly. In Europe, the introduction of fiscal austerity to deal with the high government debt produced by crisis response measures has worsened the prospects for recovery in many countries—prospects that are unlikely to improve for years to come. Further, decoupling of the Asian and emerging-market economies has failed to materialize; these countries are also suffering from the sluggish recovery in the developed economies.

In this context of global uncertainty, with growth and employment well below normal levels, the 2014 Minsky Conference addressed both financial reform and prosperity, drawing from Minsky’s work on financial instability and his proposal for achieving full employment. Panels focused on the design of a new, more robust, and stable financial architecture; fiscal austerity and the sustainability of the US and European economic recovery; central bank independence and financial reform; the larger implications of the eurozone debt crisis for the global economic system; the impact of the return to more traditional US monetary policy on emerging markets and developing economies; improving governance of the social safety net; the institutional shape of the future financial system; strategies for promoting an inclusive economy and more equitable income distribution; and regulatory challenges for emerging-market economies.

Some of the issues addressed by the conference’s keynote speakers included the longer-term challenges for the American economy, US monetary policy and goals, the financial cycle and real convergence in the euro area, the return of the Great Moderation, reform of the financial system, and policies aimed at achieving sustainable growth and full employment.

Program