Thomas Balogh, Baron Balogh (2 November 190520 January 1985), born Balog Tamás, was a British

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

. The elder son of a wealthy

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Jewish family (his father was head of public transport, his mother the daughter of a professor), Balogh studied at the city Gymnasium, considered 'the

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

of Hungarian youth', then at the universities of

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. He took a two-year research position at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as a

Rockefeller Fellow The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

in 1928. Following this, Balogh worked in banking in Paris, Berlin and Washington before coming to England.A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists, ed. Philip Arestis, Malcolm C. Sawyer, pg 28-35, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 2000 After getting British citizenship in 1938, he became a lecturer at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, and was elected to a Fellowship in 1945, then became Reader in 1960. He was also the economic correspondent for the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'', an economic adviser to

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

's Cabinet office following the 1964 Labour Party victory, and member of the Secretariat of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. As an advisor in the Cabinet Office after 1964, Balogh was a critic of consumption- and profit-orientated tax policies, arguing that "profit can be earned not merely by satisfying long felt wants more efficiently and in a better fashion, but also by creating new wants through artificially engendered satisfaction and the suggestion of status symbols", instead arguing that nationalisation was a better means of securing wage restraint and a more equitable tax system as a whole. Balogh was opposed to Britain's entry of the EEC. Balogh was created a

Life Peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baron Balogh, "of

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

" on 20 June 1968. He was married twice: firstly in 1945 to Penelope Noel Mary Ingram Tower (daughter of Rev. Henry Bernard Tower, Vicar of

Swinbrook Swinbrook is a village on the River Windrush, about east of Burford in Oxfordshire, England. The village is in the civil parish of Swinbrook and Widford. Widford is a hamlet about west of Swinbrook. The 2011 Census recorded the parish popul ...

, Oxfordshire, and widow of

Oliver Gatty Oliver Gatty (5 November 1907 – 5 June 1940) was a British chemist and psychical researcher. Career Gatty was born in Kensington, Middlesex. He was the second child and first son of Stephen Herbert Gatty and his second wife, Katharine Morriso ...

907-1940(a Balliol Fellow, by whom she had a daughter, Tirril), a psychotherapist, with whom he had two sons and a daughter; secondly in 1970 to Catherine (née Cole, previously married to

Anthony Storr Anthony Storr (18 May 1920 – 17 March 2001) was an English psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author. Background and education Born in London, Storr was educated at Winchester College, Christ's College, Cambridge, and Westminster Hospital. H ...

), a psychiatrist and author.

Major works

* ''The Dollar Crisis'' (1949) * ''The Economics of Poverty'' (1970) * ''The Irrelevance of Conventional Economics'' (1982)

Biographies

* ''The Life and Times of Thomas Balogh: A Macaw Among Mandarins'', June Morris (Sussex Academic Press, 2007).

References

1905 births 1985 deaths 20th-century British economists Academics of the London School of Economics Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford 20th-century Hungarian economists Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Balogh, Thomas Balogh, Baron Chairs of the Fabian Society Hungarian emigrants to the United Kingdom Life peers created by Elizabeth II {{Life-peer-stub