Wendy Lee Gramm

Wendy Lee Gramm (born 1945) is chairman of the Regulatory Studies Program at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, a free-market think tank based in Washington D.C. She is also the wife of United States Senator Phil Gramm.

Wendy Lee Gramm was born in Hawaii and is of Korean and 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.

In her role at the Mercatus Center, Wendy Gramm generally calls for deregulation of the energy industry.

Previously, Wendy Gramm held several positions in the Reagan Administration, including heading the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. After a heavy lobbying campaign from Enron the CFTC exempted it from regulation in trading of energy derivatives. Gramm headed the commission from 1988 to 1993 following which she resigned and took a seat on the Enron Board of Directors where she was paid 1.85 million dollars. Enron used this lack of federal oversight to engage in its widely publicized accounting scandal. While on the board of directors she received donations from Enron to support the Mercatus Center.

From 1985 to 1988, Gramm was head of the Office of Management and Budget's Information and Regulatory Affairs. In 2002, the OMB drew up a "hit list" of existing federal environmental regulations it believes should be changed or rescinded. Of these, 44 had been suggested by the Mercatus Center.

Gramm also serves as chair of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and a director of the Independent Women's Forum, a conservative women's group. She has sat on the boards of Enron Corporation, Iowa Beef Processors, Invesco Funds, Longitude, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and State Farm Insurance Companies.

Her son, Jeff, heads the likeable indie-rock outfit Aden.

Ronald Reagan called her "My favorite economist."

References

• Wendy Gramm, Mercatus Center
• Article about Gramm from goldsea.com
• Critical report on Wendy Gramm from the Clean Air Trust, January 2002

This article uses content from the SourceWatch article on Wendy Lee Gramm under the terms of the GFDL.