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 (age 84) New York City,New York, U.S.
Party	Republican
Spouse	Frieda Wallison
Children	3
Education	Harvard University (BA,LLB)

Peter J. Wallison (born June 6, 1941) is an American lawyer and the Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies at theAmerican Enterprise Institute.^[1] He specializes in financial markets deregulation. He wasWhite House Counsel during theTower Commission's inquiry into theIran Contra Affair.^[1] He was a dissenting member of the 2010Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, frequent commentator in themass media on thefederal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the2008 financial crisis and wroteHidden in Plain Sight (2015) about the crisis and its legacy.

Wallison was born inNew York City, and educated at theCapitol Page School andHarvard University, where he received hisB.A. in 1963, anLL.B. in 1966, and was the president of theYoung Republicans.^[2]He wasadmitted to the bar ofNew York state in 1967.^[3][4]

Emanuel Celler appointed him aUnited States House of Representatives Page when he was about 14, and he served for most of his high school years. TheDemocrats controlled the patronage, but assigned some pages, such as Wallison, to theminority party. This experience helped him become aRepublican.^[2]

He was aRockefeller Republican before becoming aReagan 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 inSnowmass, Colorado.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

They split their time between homes inColorado and inWashington, D.C.

• 1966–1971 Associate,Rogers & Wells, New York, NY
• 1971–____ special assistant,Governor of New York Nelson A. Rockefeller^[2]
• 1971–1981 Partner, Rogers & Wells, New York, NY
• 1972–1976 Special assistant toNelson Rockefeller^[9]
• 1973–1974 Counsel to theCommission on Critical Choices for Americans^[9]
• 1975–1976Counsel toVice President of the United States Nelson Rockefeller.Dick Parsons was his deputy.^[2]
• 1976 Campaign staff,Bob Dole's vice-presidentialcampaign
• 1981–1985General Counsel for the Department of the Treasury, underDon Regan. Early in his tenure he supervised the preparation of the report on theSecret Service and theReagan assassination attempt in 1981. He was important in developingReagan administration proposals to deregulate financial services that, with some changes, became law in 1999. Wallison recounts that he counseled against theReagan administration's decision to oppose theFourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that theCarter administration'sInternal Revenue Service revocation ofBob Jones University's tax exempt status because its prohibition against inter-racial dating by students violated public policy. Even if the IRS had determined policy, beyond its authority in deciding, opposing this case would be politically foolish. In the event he was recalled to theUnited States from a banking conference to be present for the Treasury's announcement; when he arrived he found that his seniors were all absent and he was required to announce this choice. Treasury andDepartment of Justice had worked this out between themselves, andWhite House staff were furious. A political firestorm followed, and efforts to mitigate it were unsuccessful. (TheSupreme Court of the United States subsequently held, inBob Jones University v. United States, that the IRS did have this power even though petitioner had complied with the language of the statute).^[2]
• 1985–1986 partner,Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher^[4]
• 1986–1987White House Counsel toPresident of the United StatesRonald Reagan. In the aftermath of theIran Contra affair he came under investigation byLawrence E. Walsh but was not indicted. (He believes his diary persuaded theindependent counsel that he had not manipulated the President's testimony.)^[2]
• 1987–1998 partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher^[4]
• 1999–present American Enterprise Institute, codirector of AEI's financial markets deregulation project.^[4]

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 amemorial service for Don Regan in June 2003.^[2]

Wallison's writing on the cause of the2008 financial crisis have brought much comment. In December, 2011, theNew York Times financial columnistJoe Nocera stated that Wallison had "almost single-handedly created the myth thatFannie Mae andFreddie Mac caused the financial crisis."^[11] Calling it "a big lie," Nocera suggested that Wallison had engaged in a deliberate deception. EconomistPaul 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 columnistGretchen Morgenson exposing how "Democratic political operativeJim Johnson turned Fannie Mae into a political machine", and dismisses the exoneration of the GSEs as "the big lie."^[16]

• Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee
• Council on Foreign Relations^[3]
• Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee (past member) underDepository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act (1980) withWilliam Isaac amongst others
• District of Columbia bar
• District of Columbia bar association
• MGICboard of directors, untilFannie Mae applied pressure.^[6]
• President's Advisory Council on Executive Organization, also called theAsh Commission^[2]
• Delegate,1976 Republican National Convention
• Member and dissenter onFinancial Crisis Inquiry Commission (2010–11)

• (With John D. Hawke, Jr.)The State Banking Revolution and the Federal Response: New Frontiers of Financial Service Expansion, Law and Business/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (Clifton, NJ), 1984.
• State Banking Regulation and Deregulation, Law and Business/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (New York, NY), 1985.
• Back from the Brink: A Practical Plan for Privatizing Deposit Insurance and Strengthening Our Banks and Thrifts, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 1990.
• (With Bert Ely)Nationalizing Mortgage Risk: The Growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 2000.
• (With Robert E. Litan)The GAAP Gap, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 2000.
• (Editor)Optional Federal Chartering and Regulation of Insurance Companies, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 2000.
• "Statement for Roundtable Discussion on H.R. 3703"(PDF).House Banking Committee Subcommittee on Capital Markets. 2000-09-06. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2003-05-06. Retrieved2008-10-19.
• (Editor) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Public Purposes and Private Interests, Volume 1: Government Subsidy and Conflicting Missions, Volume 2: Prospects for Controlling Growth and Expansion, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 2000,ISBN 0-8447-7137-6 (alk. paper),ISBN 0-8447-7138-4
• (Editor) Serving Two Masters, Yet out of Control: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 2001,ISBN 0-8447-4166-3 (pbk.)
• Serving Two Masters, Yet Out of Control: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Peter J. Wallison, editor.American Enterprise Institute. 2001.ISBN 978-0-8447-4166-6. Retrieved2008-10-19.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) 2 volumes of papers delivered at a conference on March 24, 1999 at the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C.
• Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Westview Press. 2003. p. 106.ISBN 978-0-8133-4046-3. Retrieved2008-10-19.wallison dunn crutcher.
• "A Man Apart: Reagan had the right principles – and he stuck to them".nationalreview.com. 2004-06-05. Archived fromthe original on 2004-06-18. Retrieved2008-10-19.
• Competitive Equity: A Better Way to Organize Mutual Funds (AEI Press, 2007).
• "Escape from New York".The American.American Enterprise Institute. 2008-02-20. Archived fromthe original on 2008-03-14. Retrieved2008-10-19.
• Contributor to periodicals, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post.

"Elitist Protection Consumers Don't Need".The Washington Post. 2009-07-13. Retrieved2009-07-14.

"Obama Voted 'Present' on Mortgage Reform. The only banking 'deregulation' in recent years was that of Fan and Fred".Opinion Journal. 2008-10-15. Archived fromthe original on 2008-10-15. Retrieved2008-01-30.

"How Paulson Would Save Fannie Mae".The Wall Street Journal. 2008-09-12. Archived fromthe original on 2008-09-14. Retrieved2009-07-14.

"Reagan and McCain".American Spectator. 2008-01-08. Archived fromthe original on 2008-10-24. Retrieved2008-01-30.

"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. Retrieved2008-01-30.

"Reagan, Iraq, and Neoconservatism".American Spectator. 2004-04-16. Archived fromthe original on 2008-10-23. Retrieved2008-01-30.

"Bush's Reagan Moment".The New York Times. 2003-10-26. Archived fromthe original on January 19, 2011. Retrieved2009-07-13.

• Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World's Worst Financial Crisis and Why It Could Happen Again (Encounter Books; January 13, 2015), 432 pages;ISBN 1-5940-3770-1;ISBN 978-1-5940-3770-2^[17][18][19]

• American Banker, August 14, 1992, Claudia Cummins, "Former Reagan Official Still Fighting for Banks, " p. 2.
• Banker Monthly, September, 1990, Andrew Gray, review of Back from the Brink: A Practical Plan for Privatizing Deposit Insurance and Strengthening Our Banks and Thrifts, p. 87.
• Journal of Economic Literature, June, 1991, review of Back from the Brink, p. 688.
• Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2002, review of Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency, p. 1604.
• Publishers Weekly, November 18, 2002, review of Ronald Reagan, p. 50.
• Wall Street Journal, December 24, 2002, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, review of Ronald Reagan.
• Women's Wear Daily, February 19, 2003, Aileen Mehle, review of Ronald Reagan, p. 6.

• Appearances onC-SPAN

• 1941 births
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