Author, lawyer and American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholar Peter Wallison will discuss "Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World's Worst Financial Crisis and Why It Could Happen Again" at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, in Chase Community Center at Vermont Law School. Presented by the VLS Federalist Society, the lecture is free and open to the public and press.
Wallison's lecture is titled after his recent book. "Hidden in Plain Sight" (Encounter Books, 2015) contests the conventional narrative that the 2008 financial crisis was caused by Wall Street greed and insufficient regulation of the financial system, and suggests that there is evidence that financial regulations like the Dodd-Frank Act have slowed the economy's recovery.
The author offers a competing narrative about what caused the financial crisis, contending that the crisis was caused by government housing policies. 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, Wallison says, they drove down housing prices and weakened banks and other mortgage holders, causing the crisis.
Wallison holds the Arthur F. Burns Chair in financial policy studies and is co-director of AEI's program on financial policy studies. Prior to joining AEI, he practiced banking, corporate, and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., and New York. He 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.
The Federalist Society at Vermont Law School exists to educate students about Federalist principles—individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law—facilitate conscientious discussion about applying those principles in their personal and professional lives, and encourage students to become valuable contributors to the VLS community. The VLS Federalist Society adheres to the purposes and principles set forth by The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, and seeks to "promote the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be."
For more information about the upcoming Peter Wallison lecture, or about the Federalist Society at VLS, email IvanZdravkovic@vermontlaw.edu.
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