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 is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. The elder son of a wealthy

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

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

Minta Gymnasium Minta Gymnasium ("Model") was a secondary school in Budapest, Hungary, founded by , Hungarian philosopher and educator who reformed the Hungarian school system. It is noted, together with Fasori Gimnázium, Fasori Lutheran Gymnasium and the Piaris ...

, considered 'the Eton of Hungarian youth', then at the universities of

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He took a two-year research position at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

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 foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller ("Seni ...

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 a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

, 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'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'', an economic adviser to

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

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

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) 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 (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

. 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. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

as Baron Balogh, "of

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

" on 20 June 1968. Brian Harrison recorded an oral history interview with Balogh, in May 1977, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.'' In the interview Balogh talks about his friendship with Eva Hubback. 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 and former civil parish, now in the parish of Swinbrook and Widford, in the West Oxfordshire district, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is on the River Windrush, about east of Burford. Widford, Oxfordshire, Widf ...

, Oxfordshire, and widow of Oliver Gatty, 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), 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