Hyman Minsky's theories about debt accumulation received revived attention in the media during the subprime mortgage crisis of the late 2000s.
Minsky argued that a key mechanism that pushes an economy towards a crisis is the accumulation of debt by the non-government sector. He identified three types of borrowers that contribute to the accumulation of insolvent debt: hedge borrowers, speculative borrowers, and Ponzi borrowers.
The "hedge borrower" can make debt payments (covering interest and principal) from current cash flows from investments. For the "speculative borrower", the cash flow from investments can service the debt, i.e., cover the interest due, but the borrower must regularly roll over, or re-borrow, the principal. The "Ponzi borrower" (named for Charles Ponzi, see also Ponzi scheme) borrows based on the belief that the appreciation of the value of the asset will be sufficient to refinance the debt but could not make sufficient payments on interest or principal with the cash flow from investments; only the appreciating asset value can keep the Ponzi borrower afloat. Because of the unlikelihood of most investments' capital gains being enough to pay interest and principal, much of this type of finance is fraudulent.
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Pensioenfondsen baseren hun premies en toekomstige betaling niet meer alleen op de verwachte cashflows (direkte rendement) maar gezien hun gebruikte 6%/7% rendement op toekomstige waardestijging, waarmee zij zijn verworden tot Ponzi finance collectieven. Dat loopt meestal (of eigenlijk: nooit) goed af.