Unveiling the Triple Nexus: Marx, Keynes, and Minsky—The Enigma of Economic Crises

Abstract

This paper reconceptualizes the foundational critiques of capitalism through the intersecting lenses of Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and Hyman Minsky, offering a deeper analytical framework for understanding recurring systemic economic instability. Each theorist, in distinct yet complementary ways, exposes the inherent instability of capitalist economies, refuting the mainstream assumption of self-correcting markets and perfect equilibrium. Marx locates crisis in the systemic contradictions of accumulation and exploitation; Keynes challenges the orthodoxy of Say’s Law by centering aggregate demand and psychological uncertainty; Minsky extends these critiques into the financial domain, theorizing crisis as the endogenous outcome of speculative excess and debt structures. By synthesizing their insights, this paper illuminates the internal dynamics that produce economic crisis, from the Great Depression, the 2008 financial collapse, to the COVID-19 recession. It calls for a renewed engagement with heterodox economics to more fully capture the cyclical, fragile, and crisis-prone character of the modern economy.