After experiencing a crisis that mainstream economics thought could never happen again, the economics profession is begrudgingly recognizing Hyman Minsky, the economist who set himself the question “Can “It – a Great Depression – happen again?” – and answered that question in the affirmative.

In one of his most powerful statements, Minsky asserted that “capitalism is inherently flawed, being prone to booms, crises, and depressions. This instability, in my view, is due to char­acteristics the financial system must possess if it is to be consistent with full-blown capitalism.”

In this inaugural lecture, Professor Steve Keen explores the idea that Minsky was right: aspects of capitalism that cannot be reformed away are responsible for capitalism’s crises. We then have to work out how to deal with these inevitable crises, and abandon a manner of thought that ascribes to capitalism a stability that it does not, and cannot, have.