Minsky on money, the survival constraint and the current hierarchy of the globalized monetary system

Abstract Hyman Minsky is well-known for his contributions to the theory of financial instability. He proposes that crises in the capitalist system have an endogenous origin since companies and banks adopt increasingly speculative behavior, the longer a period of economic stability lasts. However, other original and relevant concepts developed by Minsky, such as the ‘survival constraint’, are not as widely discussed in the literature. This study intends to cover this gap, presenting and discussing the relevance of the survival constraint to the theory of money and to the understanding of the hierarchy adopted by the globalized monetary system, after the 2008 crisis.