This week’s Trend of the Week is Minsky Moment Ahead? Hyman Minsky was an economist who studied credit cycles. Minsky died in 1995, but in 1998, during the Russian Ruble and Asian Currency Crises, economist Paul McCulley recognized the situation was one described by Hyman Minsky, and dubbed it a “Minsky Moment.” A credit cycle starts when credit is abundant and banks are lending generously and gradually taking bigger and bigger risks. Eventually, an event like the Silicon Valley Bank failure hammers the banks, causing them to pull back and tighten their lending to a greater degree than at the start of the cycle. It’s a classic case of locking the barn door after the horses have escaped. Once the crisis is in place banks tighten their lending standards and this causes a constriction of credit when the economy really needs credit–a Minsky Moment. Right now, there are a lot of contractionary forces at work in the economy, including the Fed’s raising of interest rates while selling off some of its balance sheet. The two areas that will likely be hit hardest by these contractions and the Minsky cycle are emerging markets, which are having trouble repaying debt from lenders such as China that are not willing to renegotiate, and the start-up market, where private companies are finding it harder to raise enough capital to keep their companies going. If you’re holding emerging markets stocks or new tech stocks with an eye to the future, make sure you’re comfortable with where they are presently, and watch that they’ve been able to secure the funding they need. Be careful out there.