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Wendy Lee Gramm

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Wendy Lee Gramm
Official CFTC portrait (1988)
Member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
In office
April 15, 1985 – April 15, 1995
PresidentRonald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
Bill Clinton
Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
In office
February 22, 1988 – January 22, 1993
PresidentRonald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
Bill Clinton
Preceded bySusan M. Phillips
Succeeded byWilliam P. Albrecht
(Acting)
Personal details
Born (1945-01-10) January 10, 1945 (age 79)
Hawaii, U.S.
SpousePhil Gramm
EducationWellesley College (BA)
Northwestern University (PhD)
OccupationEconomist, scholar

Wendy Lee Gramm (born January 10, 1945) is an American economist who led the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Reagan administration.[1] She is also the wife of former United States Senator Phil Gramm. Gramm has gained notoriety for her role in the Enron scandal.[2]

Early life

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Wendy Lee Gramm was born in Hawaii and is of Korean and Native Hawaiian ancestry. She received a B.A. degree in economics from Wellesley College in 1966 and a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University in 1971.[3][4] In her role at the Mercatus Center, Gramm generally called for deregulation of the energy industry. For eight years, Gramm taught in the Department of Economics at Texas A&M University and later served on the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents.[5]

Career

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Wendy Lee Gramm held several positions in the Reagan administration: executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, head of the White House Office of Management and Budget's regulatory review office, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics,[6] head of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) from 1985 to 1988,[7] and head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 1988 to 1993.[4] After a lobbying campaign from Enron and the election of Bill Clinton, Gramm nearly lost her chair seat, but the CFTC exempted Enron from regulation in trading of energy derivatives. Six days later, she resigned from CFTC, took a seat on the Enron board of directors, and served on its audit committee.[8]

Her husband's 1996 presidential bid was cut short by a political scandal arising from his past investments in the porn industry, which led the New York Post to nickname him "Porno Gramm".[9][10][11]

While on the board of directors, she received donations from Enron to support the Mercatus Center. According to Public Citizen, Enron paid between $915,000 and $1.85 million in salary from 1993 to 2001.[2] Enron also became the biggest donor to Phil Gramm's political actions. Just under $100,000 went to his campaigns between 1999 and 2001. In 1999, the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act was passed, which repealed part of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933, prohibiting any institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and an insurance company. It allowed over-the-counter trading of derivatives, which had previously been restricted to regulated exchanges.[12]

In 1998, she declared "In my view, there are no systemic problems in the OTC derivatives market”.[12] In 1999, she sold her shares of Enron ($300,000), asserting that being a director and a shareholder of the company constituted a conflict of interest.[13]

Prior to George W. Bush's election, Phil Gramm introduced the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which deregulated the trading of derivatives.[8]

After news of the Enron scandal became public in October 2001, Gramm and the other directors of the energy company were named in several investor lawsuits, many of which have been settled. In particular, Gramm and other Enron directors agreed to a $168 million settlement in a suit from the University of California. As part of it, the directors agreed to collectively pay $13 million to settle claims of insider trading.[14] The remainder of the settlement was to be paid by insurance.

After Enron, she became head of the Regulatory Studies Program of the Mercatus Center. She expressed no regrets regarding the Enron debacle, which she considered a success.[13] On November 1, 2007, she became the chairperson of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.[15] In 2011, she appeared on a television spot with her husband, calling on Texans to shoulder the burden of the economic crisis.[16] On October 1, 2019, she resigned as the chairman of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.[17]

Gramm also served as a director of the Independent Women's Forum, a conservative women's group.[18] She has sat on the boards of Enron Corporation, Iowa Beef Processors, Invesco Funds, Longitude, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and State Farm Insurance Companies.

Ronald Reagan once described Gramm as "[his] favorite economist."[19]

Personal life

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Wendy Lee Gramm met her husband when she was interviewed by him as a Ph.D. student for a position at Texas A&M University. Phil Gramm, a senior professor 3 years older than Wendy, expressed his interest in her after the interview. Six weeks later, she arrived on campus, and they wed.[20]

She has two sons: Jeff, who is in the indie-rock band Aden, and Marshall, a professor of economics at the Presbyterian-affiliated Rhodes College.[21][22]

References

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  1. ^ Hershey Jr., Robert D. (1986-02-26). "Working Profile: Wendy Lee Gramm; That Other Gramm Of Power and Sway". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  2. ^ a b Herbert, Bob (2002-01-17). "Enron And the Gramms". The NY Times. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  3. ^ "Wendy Gramm". FRONTLINE | PBS. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  4. ^ a b "Ronald Reagan: Nomination of Wendy Lee Gramm To Be a Commissioner and Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  5. ^ "Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm" (PDF). 2016-04-08. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-08. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  6. ^ "Clean Air Villain of the Month". www.cleanairtrust.org. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  7. ^ "Clinton, Reagan, Bush Administration Regulatory Chiefs Endorse Portman-Warner Reform Bill - Press Releases - Newsroom - Rob Portman". www.portman.senate.gov. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  8. ^ a b "The Whore of Enron". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  9. ^ "'Porn' scandal rocks Gramm". The Independent. 1995-05-19. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  10. ^ "GRAMM SLAMS "PORN" STORY". Time. 1995-05-18. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  11. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1995-06-20). "Gramm, After a Torrid Start, Slips and Slides in 1996 Race". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  12. ^ a b Hoefle, John (24 May 2002). "Miss Enron and Senator Shylock: The Corrupt Saga of Wendy and Phil Gramm" (PDF). EIR. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  13. ^ a b "Wendy Gramm has no regrets". Salon. 2004-01-28. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  14. ^ Davis, Trey (2005-01-05). "UC reaches $168-million settlement with Enron directors in securities fraud case". University of California Office of the President. Archived from the original on 2008-12-11. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  15. ^ "Gramm Elected Chairman of Texas Public Policy Foundation". Texas Public Policy Foundation. 2007-11-01. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
  16. ^ "Airing on TV Now: Phil & Wendy Gramm!". The Texas Observer. 2011-05-05. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  17. ^ "TPPF Announces the Appointment of Thomas Lyles as Chairman of the Board". Texas Public Policy Foundation. 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
  18. ^ Ronnee Schreiber, 'Pro-Women, Pro-Palin, Antifeminist: Conservative Women and Conservative Movement Politics', in Crisis of Conservatism? The Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, & American Politics After Bush, Gillian Peele, Joel D. Aberbach (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 134
  19. ^ "Wendy Lee Gramm 1/4 | Asian American Wonder Women | GoldSea". www.goldsea.com. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  20. ^ "The Red Pill Post # 16874". Investors Hub. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
  21. ^ "MIB: Jeff Gramm on Activist Investing". The Big Picture. 2016-08-20. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  22. ^ Marquardt, Lucas (January 28, 2017). "Gramm Shines as Owner, Handicapper". Thoroughbred Daily News. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
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