What You Know About Recessions Could Be All Wrong

About this episode

Tyler Goodspeed challenges conventional beliefs about recessions, arguing they result from sudden shocks rather than prolonged expansions.

Everything we think we know about recessions is wrong—or at least mostly wrong—according to ExxonMobil Chief Economist Tyler Goodspeed. He argues downturns aren’t the inevitable result of overheated booms and don’t arrive simply because expansions last too long. In his new book, Recession: The Real Reasons Economies Shrink and What to Do About It , which spans 350 years of US and UK economic history, Goodspeed contends recessions are typically the product of sudden, overlapping shocks—particularly to energy and food—that derail otherwise healthy expansions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Guest: Tyler Goodspeed

Topics covered

• recession
• economics
• energy shocks
• food shocks
• economic history

Keywords

• recession
• economics
• Tyler Goodspeed
• energy
• food
• economic history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ExxonMobil

Books & works: Recession: The Real Reasons Economies Shrink and What to Do About It

Places: US, UK

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