New Podcast Episode Out: The Life and Legacy of Wynne Godley

Related publications

• Strategic Analysis
  January 01, 1999

  Seven Unsustainable Processes

  Wynne Godley
  Abstract

  The purpose of this Strategic Analysis is not to make short-term predictions about the life expectancy of the current economic expansion in the United States, but to determine if the…more

  Download Strategic Analysis, January 1999 PDF (10.42 MB)
• Blog
  April 26, 2012

  Godley’s Seven Unsustainable Processes

  Abstract

  Over at his Concerted Action blog, Ramanan has a post featuring some of Wynne Godley’s Levy Institute publications with special attention paid to Godley’s prescient “Seven Unsustainable Processes,” which appeared in 1999 as part of the Levy Institute’s continuing Strategic Analysis series.  Ramanan (whose blog derives its name from Godley’s last Strategic Analysis [2008]) quotes this passage from “Seven Unsustainable Processes” in which Godley, in the context of the budget surpluses of the ’90s, contrasted his approach to macro modeling (and its policy upshots) with what he regarded as the “consensus view” at the time: The difference between the consensus view and that put forward here could not exist without a profound difference in the view of how the economy works. So far as the author can observe, the underlying theoretical perspective of the optimists, whether they realize it or not, sees all agents, including the government, as participants in a gigantic market process in which commodities, labor, and financial assets are supplied and demanded. If this market works properly, prices (e.g., for labor and commodities) get established that clear all markets, including the labor market, so that there can be no long-term unemployment and no depression. The only way in which unemployment can be reduced permanently, according to this view, is by making markets work better, say, by removing…more

• March 05, 2026

  Levy at 40: A Celebration of 40 Years Beyond the Mainstream

  Abstract

  Introducing Levy at 40. In 2026, the Levy Economics Institute marks the 40th anniversary of its founding. For four decades, the Institute has advanced independent economic research, shaped policy debates,…more

• September 11, 2013

  Embracing Wynne Godley, an Economist Who Modeled the Crisis

  Abstract

  The New York Times, September 10, 2013. All rights Reserved. BOSTON — With the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession still a raw and painful memory, many economists are asking…more