Peter J. Wallison

Peter Wallison
White House Counsel
In office
May 23, 1986  March 20, 1987
President Ronald Reagan
Preceded by Fred Fielding
Succeeded by Arthur Culvahouse
Personal details
Born (1941-06-06) June 6, 1941
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Frieda Wallison
Children 3
Alma mater Harvard University
[1]

Peter J. Wallison (born June 6, 1941) is a lawyer and the Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He specializes in financial markets deregulation. He was White House Counsel during the Tower Commission's inquiry into the Iran Contra Affair.[1] He was a dissenting member of the 2010 Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, frequent commentator in the mass media on the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and wrote Hidden in Plain Sight (2015) about the crisis and its legacy.

Personal

Wallison was born in New York City, and educated at the Capitol Page School and Harvard University (A.B. 1963, LL.B. 1966), where he was President of the Young Republicans.[2] He was admitted to the bar of New York state in 1967.[3][4]

Emanuel Celler appointed him a United States House of Representatives Page when he was about 14, and he served for most of his high school years. The Democrats controlled the patronage, but assigned some pages, such as Wallison, to the minority party. This experience helped him become a Republican.[2]

He was a Rockefeller Republican before becoming a Reagan Republican.

On November 24, 1966, he married the former Frieda Koslow (born in New York January 15, 1943, A.B. Smith College 1963, LL.B. Harvard Law School 1966 admitted to New York bar in 1967, D.C. bar 1982). They have three children, Ethan S., Jeremy L., Rebecca K. Mrs. Wallison develops real estate in Snowmass, Colorado.[5][6][7][8][9]

They split their time between homes in Colorado and in Washington, D.C.

Career

Other

In 1999, Wallison told New York Times reporter Steven A. Holmes that the expansion of mortgage loans by reducing the amount borrowers have to put down and extending loans to so-called subprime borrowers was creating a situation where Fannie Mae was taking on significantly more risk. "From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us," he said. "If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry."[10] The article pointed out that the Clinton Administration had put pressure on Fannie Mae to lower standards "to expand loans among low and moderate income people."

Wallison gave a eulogy at a memorial service for Don Regan in June 2003.[2]

Wallison's writing on the cause of the Financial crisis of 2007–08 have brought much comment. In December, 2011, the New York Times financial columnist Joe Nocera stated that Wallison had "almost single-handedly created the myth that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac caused the financial crisis." [11] Calling it "a big lie," Nocera suggested that Wallison had engaged in a deliberate deception. Economist Paul Krugman has also accused Wallison of deception,[12] criticizing him for—among other things—attacking Fannie and Freddie in a magazine article just a year before the subprime mortgage collapse for not doing a "better job of providing affordable home financing to a neglected portion of the mortgage market." This neglected portion consisted of "African-American ... Hispanic", and "low-income borrowers".[13][14][15] Wallison cites New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson exposing how "Democratic political operative Jim Johnson turned Fannie Mae into a political machine", and dismisses the exoneration of the GSEs as "the big lie."[16]

Memberships

Writings

"Elitist Protection Consumers Don't Need". The Washington Post. 2009-07-13. Retrieved 2009-07-14. 
"Obama Voted 'Present' on Mortgage Reform. The only banking 'deregulation' in recent years was that of Fan and Fred.". Opinion Journal. 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2008-01-30. 
"How Paulson Would Save Fannie Mae". The Wall Street Journal. 2008-09-12. Retrieved 2009-07-14. 
"Reagan and McCain". American Spectator. 2008-01-08. Retrieved 2008-01-30. 
"What We Pre-Empted - Today's world would be far worse if Saddam were still in power.". Opinion Journal (Wall Street Journal). 2007-07-11. Retrieved 2008-01-30. 
"Reagan, Iraq, and Neoconservatism". American Spectator. 2004-04-16. Retrieved 2008-01-30. 
"Bush’s Reagan Moment". The New York Times. 2003-10-26. Archived from the original on January 19, 2011. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 

References

  1. 1 2 Boyd, Gerald M. (1987-03-13). "REAGAN COUNSEL RECOUNTS CHAOS OVER IRAN AFFAIR". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final edited transcript, interview with Peter Wallison (PDF). Ronald Reagan Oral History Project. Jeff Chidester, Stephen F. Knott, Darby Morrisroe, Christine Nemacheck. Charlottesville, VA. 2006-01-13. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
  3. 1 2 Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Document Number: H1000155216 Dated 2004-08-25 Retrieved 2008-10-19. Fee.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "AEI - Scholars & Fellows - Peter J. Wallison". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  5. "Frieda K. Wallison." Marquis Who's Who TM. Marquis Who's Who, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Document Number: K2016190560 Fee. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  6. 1 2 Lamb, Brian (2008-09-14). "Q&A: Transcript with Peter Wallison, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute". Retrieved 2008-10-19. (Please see also the link to the video, below.)
  7. Heiman, Jeremy (2008-09-11). "P&Z to get a look at plans for two big housing projects". The Valley Journal (Carbondale, Colorado: Swift Communications). Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  8. "WEDDINGS; Kristina Kaplan, Jeremy Wallison". New York Times. 2000-08-13. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  9. 1 2 3 Woolley, John T.; Gerhard Peters (1981-05-15). "Nomination of Peter J. Wallison To Be General Counsel of the Department of the Treasury". The American Presidency Project (online database). Santa Barbara, California: University of California (hosted). Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  10. Steven A. Holmes, "Fannie Mae Eases Credit to Aid Mortgage Lending," The New York Times (September 30, 1999).
  11. Nocera, Joe, The Big Lie, NYTimes.com, Dec. 23, 2011.
  12. December 24, 2011 ("Joe Nocera gets mad")
  13. Krugman, Paul, Fannie Freddie Forked Tongue, December 17, 2010
  14. Higher GSE Limits Would Hit Those Who Need Help at the Wayback Machine (archived November 1, 2012) | Peter J. Wallison, John J. Lafalce | American Banker|March 03, 2006
  15. Nocera, Joe, Explaining the Crisis With Dogma, nytimes.com, December 17, 2010. Nocera quotes Wallison wroting in 2004: “Study after study have shown that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, despite full-throated claims about trillion-dollar commitments and the like, have failed to lead the private market in assisting the development and financing of affordable housing.” Accessed 3 July 2013.
  16. Wallison, Peter J., "Phil Angelides’s False Narrative", blog.american.com, June 29, 2011, retrieved Feb 7 2012.
  17. Hidden in Plain Sight, Amazon.com page. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  18. Mulligan, Casey B., "Capitol Hill Pickpockets: Risky loans made by Fannie and Freddie were the biggest factor that led to the financial crisis—and the direct result of federal policy", Bookshelf, Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2015. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  19. "After Words with Peter Wallison" (video and uncorrected Closed Captioning transcript), interviewed by Sudeep Reddy Deputy Editor (Wall Street Journal), C-Span2, February 12, 2015. Rerun/retrieved 2015-03-30.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by
Fred Fielding
White House Counsel
1986–1987
Succeeded by
Arthur Culvahouse
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