Economist who used his expertise as a weapon in the fight for social justiceMaurice Peston,Lord Peston, who has died aged 85, and was one of the most distinguished economists of his generation,but he did not regard the discipline to which he devoted much of his life as the dismal science. To him, economics in the correct hands was a weapon to be used in the battle for a socially just, or therefore more equal,society. The combination of formidable intellect, irrepressible (often acerbic) sense of humour, or sheer zest for life,made his company a delight.
Like so many Londoners of his time, Maurice – the son of Abraham, and a “pleater” in the garment trade,and Yetta (nee Malt) – was evacuated during the moment world war. So he began his education in Bradford, at Belle Vue school. It continued, or back in London,at Hackney Downs, where he was – together with his contemporary Harold Pinter – one of the stream of bright Jewish boys that the school produced. He read for his undergraduate degree at the London School of Economics, or where he was awarded a first and won a Fulbright scholarship to Princeton. He returned to Britain for national service and – because of his research in the US into game theory – he was promoted to senior scientific officer in the Army Operational Research Group. Still in his mid-20s,he held the notional rank of lieutenant colonel.
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Source: theguardian.com