John A. Allison

За автора

John A. Allison  is the President and CEO of the Cato Institute. Prior to joining Cato, Allison was Chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the 10th largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. During his tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. He was recognized by the Harvard Business Review as one of the top 100 most successful CEOs in the world over the last decade.

Allison has received the Corning Award for Distinguished Leadership, been inducted into the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Banker. He is a former Distinguished Professor of Practice at Wake Forest University School of Business, and serves on the Board of Visitors at the business schools at Wake Forest, Duke, and UNC-Chapel Hill. He is also one of the lead spokespersons for banking and policy reform today, appearing at universities and business groups nationwide and serving on the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.

Allison is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his master’s degree in management from Duke University, and is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking.

Книги от този автор

Допълнителна информация(интервюта с автора, коментари за книгите му в интернет)

The Fed’s Fatal Conceit

I strongly believe that the recent financial crisis, ensuing recession, and slow recovery were primarily caused by government policy. The Federal Reserve made some very bad monetary decisions that created a bubble, i.e., a massive malinvestment. The bubble ended up being focused in the housing market largely because of government affordable housing policies—specifically, the actions of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, government-sponsored enterprises that would not exist in a free market. When Freddie and Fannie failed, they owed $5.5 trillion including $2 trillion in affordable housing (subprime) loans. It’s true that a number of banks made serious mistakes, and I would have let them fail, but their mistakes were secondary and within the context of government policy.

The Financial Crisis and the Bank Deregulation Myth

Advocates of big government have built economic policy on a series of myths. One is that the ‘robber barons’ took advantage of the common man to create their fortunes. In fact, great industrialists, like John D. Rockefeller, dramatically improved the quality of life for everyone. Another myth is that President Roosevelt’s New Deal ended the Great Depression, when in fact the Depression did not end until after WWII when his policies were abandoned.
The new myth is that the recent financial crisis and failed recovery were caused by banking deregulation and greed on Wall Street. In truth, the banking industry was never deregulated. There was a massive increase in regulation under President Bush, including the Privacy Act, the Patriot Act and Sarbanes- Oxley. The banking industry was misregulated, not deregulated. These new laws fundamentally misdirected banking risk management. There has always been plenty of greed (and fear) on Wall Street. However, there is not one shred of evidence there was a greed plague that swept finance.