A Book Event with Peter Wallison

Chicago Lawyers Chapter

Speaker: 

• Peter Wallison, Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

Speaker: 

• Peter Wallison, Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

Join The Federalist Society
and
The Heartland Institute
for a book event with Peter Wallison

Hidden in Plain Sight:
What Really Caused the World’s Worst Financial Crisis 
and Why It Could Happen Again

About the Book:
The 2008 financial crisis — like the Great Depression — was a worldwide historical event. Its cause will be debated for years, if not generations. The conventional narrative is the financial crisis was caused by Wall Street greed and insufficient regulation of the financial system. That narrative produced the Dodd-Frank Act, the most comprehensive financial-system regulation since the New Deal. There is evidence, however, that the Dodd-Frank Act has slowed the economy’s recovery. If insufficient regulation caused the financial crisis, then the Dodd-Frank Act will never be modified or repealed; proponents will argue that doing so will cause another crisis.
A competing narrative about what caused the financial crisis has received little attention. This view, which is accepted by almost all Republicans in Congress and most conservatives, contends the crisis was caused by government housing policies, and it is well-documented in this book. Wallison explains that in June 2008, before the crisis, 56 percent of all mortgages in the United States were subprime or otherwise low-quality. Of these, 76 percent were on the books of government agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. When these mortgages defaulted in 2007 and 2008, they drove down housing prices and weakened banks and other mortgage holders, causing the crisis.
No one will be able to claim the financial crisis was caused by insufficient regulation, or defend Dodd-Frank, without coming to terms with the data this book contains.
 
About the Author:
Peter J. Wallison holds the Arthur F. Burns Chair in financial policy studies and is co-director ofthe American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) program on financial policy studies. Prior to joining AEI, he practiced banking, corporate, and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, DC and New York. Wallison has held a number of government positions. From June 1981 to January 1985, he was general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan administration’s proposals for deregulation in the financial services industry. During 1986 and 1987, Wallison was White House counsel to Reagan, and between 1972 and 1976, he served first as special assistant to New York Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and subsequently as counsel to Rockefeller when he served as vice president of the United States.
Wallison is licensed to practice before the courts of New York and the District of Columbia, and he is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1963 and law degree from Harvard Law School in 1966.

Wallison is the author of Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency, published in December 2002 by Westview Press. On financial and regulatory matters, he is the author of Back From the Brink, a proposal for a private deposit insurance system, and co-author of Nationalizing Mortgage Risk: The Growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; The GAAP Gap: Corporate Disclosure in the Internet Age; and Competitive Equity: A Better Way to Organize Mutual Funds, all of which were published by AEI.
Wallison is also the editor of Optional Federal Chartering and Regulation of Insurance Companies, and Serving Two Masters, Yet Out of Control: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, also published by AEI. On the subject of campaign finance, he is the author, along with Joel Gora, of Better Parties, Better Government (AEI Press 2009) and Bad History, Worse Policy: How a False Narrative about the Financial Crisis Led to the Dodd-Frank Act (AEI Press 2013). His most recent book is Hidden in Plain Sight: What Caused the World’s Worst Financial Crisis and Why it Could Happen Again (Encounter Books 2015).
Wallison testifies frequently before committees of Congress, and is a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and other print and online journals. He has been a speaker at many conferences on financial services, housing, the causes of the financial crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act, accounting, and corporate governance. He has served as a member of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee, the Council on Foreign Relations, the SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting, the Pew Financial Reform Task Force, and the congressionally authorized Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. In May 2011, for his work in financial policy, Wallison received an honorary doctorate from the University of Colorado.

Register at this secure online site or contact Tonya Houston at 312 377-4000 or THouston@heartland.org. 

Price:
$15.00 registration & lunch;

$35.00 registration, lunch and a copy of Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World’s Worst Financial Crisis and Why It Could Happen Again;

$20.00, I can’t make the event, but would like a signed copy of the book

Click here.