Peter J. Wallison

Peter J. Wallison

PETER J. WALLISON is the Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a policy organisation in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Between 1985–1986, he was White House Counsel for President Ronald Reagan. Before that, between 1981 and 1985, he was General Counsel of the US Treasury. He was a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission,a group created by the US Congress to report on what caused the financial crisis of 2008. He writes frequently on financial regulatory matters, US housing policy and related matters.

US GOVERNMENT HOUSING POLICIES, THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE DODD–FRANK ACT

The  2008  financial  crisis  was  a  major  event,  equivalent  in  its  initial scope – if not its duration – to the Great Depression of the 1930s. At the time, many commentators said that we were witnessing a crisis of capitalism, proof that the free market system was inherently unstable. These