Thwarting systems and institutional dynamics or how to stabilize an unstable economy

In this contribution, it is shown that the ambivalence of institutional factors relatively to financial instability appears early in Minsky's first works, more precisely in the late fifties. The argument is developed in two main steps. First, on the basis of Minsky's analysis, I investigate the actual form that fluctuations analysis can take, explicitly including the institutional context that governs interactions between economic agents (I). I then look at the reasons why the stabilizing effects of a given institutional structure are not immutable. In order to remain effective, the institutional structure must, on the contrary, change endogenously in response to actions by private agents in the economy (II).