This timely biography of the economist Wynne Godley (1926-2010) charts his long and often crisis-blown route to a new way of understanding whole economies. It shows how early frustrations as a policy-maker enabled him to glimpse the cliff-edges other macro-modellers missed, and re-arm 'Keynesian' theory against the orthodoxy that had tried to absorb it. Godley gained notoriety for his economic commentaries - foreseeing the malaise of the 1970s, the Reagan-Thatcher slump, the unsustainable 1980s and 1990s booms, and the crises in the Eurozone and world economies after 2008. This foresight arose from a series of advances in his understanding of national accounting, price-setting, the role of modern finance, and the use of economic data, especially to grasp the interlinkage of stocks and flows. This biography also gives due attention to Godley's life outside academic economics - including his chaotic childhood, truncated career as a professional oboist, equally brief stints as a sculptor's model and economist in industry, and a longer spell as as a Treasury adviser with a mystery gift for forecasting. This first full-length biography traces Wynne Godley's long career from professional musician to public servant, policymaker, tormentor of conventional macroeconomics and creator of a workable alternative - all after escaping a childhood of decaying mansions and draconian schools, and rescuing his private world from the legacy of two Freuds. Drawing on Godley's published and unpublished work and extensive interviews with those who knew him, the author explores Godley's improbable life and explains the lasting significance of his work.

Autorentext
Alan Shipman studied economics at Cambridge in Wynne Godley's shadow, and realised how the subject had needed his insights on returning to  it after the Global Financial Crisis. Now a lecturer in economics at the Open University, his previous books include Capitalism Without Capital: Accounting for the Crash (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

Klappentext
This  timely biography of the economist  Wynne Godley (1926-2010) charts his long and often crisis-blown route to a new way of understanding  whole economies. It shows how early frustrations as a policy-maker enabled him to glimpse the cliff-edges other macro-modellers missed, and re-arm 'Keynesian' theory against the orthodoxy that had tried to absorb it. Godley gained notoriety for his economic commentaries - foreseeing the malaise of the 1970s, the Reagan-Thatcher slump, the unsustainable 1980s and 1990s booms, and the crises in the Eurozone and world economies after 2008. This foresight arose from a series of advances in his understanding of national accounting, price-setting, the role of modern finance, and the use of economic data, especially to grasp the interlinkage of stocks and flows. This biography also gives due attention to Godley's life outside academic economics including his chaotic childhood,  truncated career as a professional oboist, equally brief stints as a sculptor's model and economist in industry, and a longer spell as  as a Treasury adviser with a mystery gift for forecasting. 
This first full-length biography traces Wynne Godley's long career from professional musician to public servant, policymaker, tormentor of conventional macroeconomics and creator of a workable alternative all after escaping a childhood of decaying mansions and draconian schools, and rescuing his private world from the legacy of two Freuds.  Drawing on Godley's published and unpublished work and extensive interviews with those who knew him, the author explores Godley's improbable life and explains the lasting significance of his work.

Inhalt
1.Life Before Economics 1926-19552.Under Treasury Rules 1956-643.Short-term Forecasting4.Public Expenditure5.Planning, Tax Reform and Structural Change6.Gatecrashing the Cambridge Tradition7.Public Expenditure Revisited8.Sector Balances and 'New Cambridge'9.Balance-of-Payments, Deindustrialisation and Protection10.Spectating on Thatcher and Major11.Macroeconomics12.The SSRC Showdown13.Wilderness and Wisdom14.Cassandra Across the Atlantic15.The Long Road to Redemption16.Monetary Economics and After17.The True Self