10 Facts About Wynne Godley

Wynne Godley was an economist famous for his pessimism about the British economy and his criticism of the British government.

Dirk Bezemer argues that Godley was notable for predicting the nature of the Great Recession of the late 2000s well in advance, and for doing so on the basis of a formal model.

Wynne Godley was born in London to Hugh Wynne Godley, 2nd Baron Kilbracken and his wife Elizabeth Usborn.

Wynne Godley was born six years after his older brother, John who was to become John Godley, 3rd Baron Kilbracken.

Wynne Godley attended Sandroyd School in Wiltshire before attending Rugby School then read politics, philosophy and economics at New College, Oxford where Isaiah Berlin and Philip Andrews, one of the main economists of the Oxford Economic Research Group, were two of his most important mentors.

Wynne Godley trained to become a professional musician, studying at the Paris Conservatoire for three years, and then becoming principal oboist at the BBC Welsh Orchestra.

Wynne Godley was however continuously nervous about performing in public, and gave up this career, although he remained interested in music and was director of the Royal Opera from 1976 to 1987.

In 1983, Wynne Godley published a book called Macroeconomics, co-authored with Francis Cripps.

In 1995, Wynne Godley took up a post at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College in New York State, where his work focused on the strategic prospects for the US and world economies, and the use of accounting macroeconomic models to reveal structural imbalances.

Dirk Bezemer argues that Wynne Godley was notable for being one of relatively few economists to predict the nature of the Great Recession of the late 2000s well in advance, and for doing so on the basis of a formal model.