Henry Christopher Wallich (1914–1988) was an American economist and central bank

Central bank

A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is a public institution that usually issues the currency, regulates the money supply, and controls the interest rates in a country. Central banks often also oversee the commercial banking system of their respective countries...

er. He was a professor of economics at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 and a member of the Council of Economic Advisors during the Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

 administration. He was an economic collumnist for Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

magazine, from 1965. For a period he wrote one week in three, with Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician, academic, and author who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades...

 and Paul Samuelson

Paul Samuelson

Paul Anthony Samuelson was an American economist, and the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The Swedish Royal Academies stated, when awarding the prize, that he "has done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in...

.

He was appointed by President Nixon as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System

Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913 with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely in response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in 1907...

, in 1974 and served until 1986, resigning due to poor health.

Witty, precise, extraordinarily diligent and somewhat austere, he was known for his strong opposition to inflation. He once wrote, Like burglary, inflation is an extralegal form of redistribution, Unfortunately, many economists share with politicians the habit of always regarding inflation as the lesser of any alternative evils.

Education is what remains when all the details [of the learning process] are forgotten.
Henry Wallich—In address to the Graduation Class of Fordham Graduate School of Business

Fordham Graduate School of Business

The Fordham Graduate School of Business Administration is a business school within Fordham University in the United States. It is a graduate school focused on business administration, and should not be confused with the University's undergraduate Gabelli School of Business...

, NY, NY June 28, 1978.

Mr. Wallich was born in Berlin on June 10, 1914, to Paul

Paul Wallich

Paul Wallich was a German banker and son of the banker Hermann Wallich. An assimilated Jew, who considered himself Christian, he rose to become a partner in the bank Dreyfus & Co. As the Nazis rose to power, the international business of the bank sharply declined...

and Hildegard Rehrmann Wallich. His father and paternal grandfather were both bankers. The younger Mr. Wallich had a brother, Walter, and a sister, Cristel.

Works

• The Mainsprings of the German Revival (1955)
• The Cost of Freedom, Conservatives and Modern Capitalism, The Case For A Free Economy (1960)