Report April 2008

In a new Public Policy Brief, Senior Scholar Jan Kregel reviews Hyman P. Minsky’s concept of financial fragility, and concludes that the current financial crisis is the result of insufficient margins, or "cushions," of safety based on how creditworthiness is assessed in the new originate-and-distribute financial system.

Contents:

NEW PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF

• Minsky’s Cushions of Safety: Systemic Risk and the Crisis in the US Subprime Mortgage Market

NEW WORKING PAPERS

• Public Employment and Women: The Impact of Argentina’s Jefes Program on Female Heads of Poor Households
• Nurkse and the Role of Finance in Development Economics
• Earnings Functions and the Measurement of the Determinants of Wage Dispersion: Extending Oaxaca’s Approach
• Lessons from the Subprime Meltdown
• The Natural Instability of Financial Markets
• Promotion Nationale: Forty-Five Years of Experience of Public Works in Morocco
• Financialization: What It Is and Why It Matters
• American Jewish Opinion about the Future of the West Bank: A Reanalysis of American Jewish Committee Surveys
• Financing Job Guarantee Schemes by Oil Revenue: The Case of Iran
• Financial Flows and International Imbalances—The Role of Catching Up by Late-industrializing Developing Countries

LEVY INSTITUTE NEWS

• Upcoming Event: 17th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, April 17–18, 2008

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

• Publications and Presentations by Levy Institute Scholars
• Recent Levy Institute Publications