14 May 2010
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Posted by: King's College
Wynne Godley died yesterday (13 May), age 83. Godley
was an Emeritus Fellow of King's and one of the most original
economists of his generation.
In the 1970s he was scorned when he
predicted that unemployment would rise to 3m in the 1980s, but his
prediction came true. He also attracted the wrath of the Thatcher
government for dismissing its economic policies as 'a gigantic con
trick'.
Yet despite his maverick status he also worked within the
establishment. Between 1971 and 1973 he was Official Adviser to the
Select Committee on Public Expenditure, and in 1975 he was an Economic
Consultant to the Treasury. He was also a Member of the Treasury’s
Panel of Independent Forecasters ("The Six Wise Men") under John
Major's government.
Godley's early career lay in music. He studied at the Paris
Conservatoire and became a professional oboist with the BBC Welsh
Symphony Orchestra. But musical career was cut short by stage fright.
'I was plagued by nightmarish fears of letting everyone down', he said.
He changed careers and became an economic analyst. In 1956 got a job as
a forecaster in the Treasury and in 1970 he joined the Department of
Applied Economics at Cambridge. He was elected a Fellow of King's in
the same year.
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