Peter Conti-Brown

Peter ContiBrown is an assistant professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. A financial historian and a legal scholar, ContiBrown studies central banking, financial regulation, and public finance, with a particular focus on the history and policies of the US Federal Reserve System. He is author of the book The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve (Princeton University Press 2016), the editor of two other books, and author or coauthor of a dozen articles on central banking, financial regulation, and bank corporate governance. He received a law degree from Stanford Law School and a PhD in history from Princeton. He is currently at work on two books, both forthcoming from Harvard University Press. The first is a history of bank supervision in the United States from the Civil War to Donald Trump (coauthored with Sean Vanatta), the second a comprehensive political and institutional history of the US Federal Reserve.

ContiBrown is married with three children.

Education

PhD, Princeton University (History, subfields in financial and political history)

JD, Stanford Law School

AB, Harvard College (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa)

Academic Positions Held

Academic Fellow, Stanford Law School's Rock Center for Corporate Governance (20102015)

Visiting Fellow, Harvard Law School Program (2014)

Other Positions Held

Of Counsel, Gupta Wessler PLLC (20132016)

Law clerk, Hon. Stephen F. Williams, US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit (20122013)

Law clerk, Hon. Gerard E. Lynch, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (20112012)

Peter ContiBrown To Fear the Fed or Not, Wharton Magazine.

Peter ContiBrown, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve (2016)

Peter ContiBrown, Behind the Link Between Wall Street and the Fed in Fortune.

Peter ContiBrown, Misreading Walter Bagehot: What Lombard Street Really Says to Modern Central Bankers in The New Rambler.

Peter ContiBrown, What Vanishing Bank Profits Mean for Higher Interest Rates in Fortune.

Peter ContiBrown, Finance By and For the People in The New Rambler.

Peter ContiBrown (2015), The Institutions of Federal Reserve Independence, Yale Journal of Regulation.

Peter ContiBrown, To Fix the Fed, Simplify It in The New York Times.

Peter ContiBrown, Barney Frank's Rules of Order in The New Rambler.

Peter ContiBrown (2015), The Twelve Federal Reserve Banks: Governance and Accountability in the 21st Century, Brookings Institution, Hutchins Center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy.

Past Courses

LGST101 LAW AND SOCIAL VALUES

This course presents law as an evolving social institution, with special emphasis on the legal regulation of business in the context of social values. It considers basic concepts of law and legal process, in the U.S. and other legal systems, and introduces the fundamentals of rigorous legal analysis. An indepth examination of contract law is included.

LGST223 SECURITIES REGULATION

The course examines the federal securities laws and the operation of the Securities Exchange Commission. The legal responsibilities of corporate managers, accountants, underwriters, and brokerdealers, occasioned by the securities regulatory scheme, will be investigated. Students will be encouraged to evaluate, from a managerial perspective, the various aspects of securities regulation studied. The course will discuss the recent financial crisis and ask the question whether enhanced securities regulation will prevent such a crisis in the future. The material covered in the course will provide familiarity with the basic legal structure of securities regulation and will assist in understanding the current policy issues in securities law. The course should help students to develop the ability to read and learn further in the field and to improve their effectiveness of communication with attorneys. It will also suggest ways of detecting instances in which an attorney should be consulted. The course is particularly useful for those students pursuing careers in corporate finance, investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, sales and trading, venture capital, private equity, entrepreneurship, accounting, corporate management, and real estate.

LGST299 SEMINAR IN LAW & SOCIETY

A study of the nature, functions, and limits of law as an agency of societal policy. Each semester an area of substantive law is studied for the purpose of examining the relationship between legal norms developed and developing in the area and societal problems and needs.

LGST612 RESPONSIBILITY IN BUS.

This course introduces students to important ethical and legal challenges they will face as leaders in business. The course materials will be useful to students preparing for managerial positions that are likely to place them in advisory and/or agency roles owing duties to employers, clients, suppliers, and customers. Although coverage will vary depending on instructor, the focus of the course will be on developing skills in ethical and legal analyses that can assist managers as they make both individuallevel and firmlevel decisions about the responsible courses of action when duties, loyalties, rules, norms, and interests are in conflict. For example, the rules of insider trading may form the basis for lessons in some sections. ,Group assignments, roleplays, and case studies may, at the instructor's discretion, be used to help illustrate the basic theoretical frameworks. Course materials will highlight industry codes and professional norms, as well as the importance of personal and/or religious values. ,Format: class participation, quiz, group report, and final paper or exam. Materials: coursepack. Prerequisites: none.

Wharton Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2017 Stephen M. Kellen Term Member, Council on Foreign Relations, 2015 John R. Irwin Fellowship, Princeton University, Department of History, 2014 Junior Faculty Scholarship Prize, GW Law School Center for Law, Economics, and Finance, 2013

“Trump wants to dismantle DoddFrank. Could he make it happen?”, Philadelphia Inquirer 02/24/2017 OpEd: The Most Powerful Man in Washington You’ve Never Heard Of, Wall Street Journal 02/17/2017 Fed’s Tarullo Stepping Down as Top Regulator of Wall Street, Bloomberg 02/10/2017 Markets need to find vigilance in era of Trump populism, Financial Times 01/27/2017 Book review: The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve, CFA Institute 01/04/2017 Tweeterinchief Trump faces test after Yellen’s rate decision, Chicago Tribune 12/13/2016 Interviewed on the Fed during the presidential election, The Atlantic 11/02/2016 Interviewed on big bank profits, Marketplace 10/19/2016 Oped on Donald Trump and the Fed, Fortune 10/06/2016 Oped on bank supervision and Wells Fargo, Law360 10/04/2016 Quoted on Wells Fargo and small business loans, Reuters 10/04/2016 Quoted on political attacks on the Fed, New York Times 09/28/2016 Interviewed on Donald Trump and the Federal Reserve, Wall Street Journal 09/21/2016 Quoted on political attacks on the Fed, Bloomberg 09/19/2016 book highlighted in “Four Ways to Reform the Fed”, Bloomberg View 08/30/2016 book highlighted in “It’s going to be one heck of an election year, folks”, Financial Times 08/23/2016 book review, “Peter ContiBrown on the Fed”, Seeking Alpha 07/24/2016 Let these books kick off your summer economics education with style, substance, Financial Post 07/02/2016 interviewed in Marketplace on interest rates, NPRMarketplace 06/15/2016 book reviewed, Financial Times 06/15/2016 cited in The Economist, The Economist 06/09/2016 book review, R Street 06/09/2016 cited in Wall Street Journal article, Wall Street Journal 05/31/2016 quoted in article on Sen. Sanders’s plan for Puerto Rico, Think Progress 05/20/2016 book reviewed by Abu Dhabi newspaper, The National 04/07/2016 book reviewed at online symposium, Yale Journal on Regulation 04/04/2016 TV interview on Fed independence, Yahoo! Finance 03/14/2016 Podcast on Fed independence, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/07/2016 Book review of The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve, Wall Street Journal 03/04/2016 Interviewed on Sen. Sanders’s Wall Street reform proposals, Daily Pennsylvanian 02/26/2016 Quoted in news article about the Fed and the marijuana industry, Sacramento Bee 02/13/2016 Radio interview on dark pools and high frequency trading, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/12/2016 Interviewed on legal challenges to negative interest rates, Wall Street Journal 02/10/2016 Quoted on problems facing the Fed, International Business Times 01/22/2016 Radio interview on Fed interest rates, CBS Radio 12/16/2015 Oped on Federal Reserve governance, Fortune Magazine 12/16/2015 Newspaper interview on Fed interest rates, Philadelphia Inquirer 12/16/2015 News interview on Fed interest rates, International Business Times 12/16/2015 Oped on Bank Profits and Monetary Policy, Fortune 11/15/2015 Research Profiled in Knowledge@Wharton, Knowledge@Wharton 11/05/2015 Interviewed on Marketplace regarding Fed messaging, NPR/Marketplace 10/28/2015 Quoted on lawsuit against Fed to permit marijuana bank, Associated Press 10/22/2015 Quoted on Fed interest rate hikes, American Banker 09/18/2015 Television interview on Fed rate hikes, CCTVAmerica 09/17/2015 Quoted on Bank of America’s corporate governance, Wall Street Journal 08/19/2015 Quoted on new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Bloomberg News 08/18/2015 Quoted on Banking Issues in the Marijuana Industry, The New York Times 07/30/2015 OpEd on Reforming the Federal Reserve, The New York Times 07/29/2015 Research cited on governance of Federal Reserve, Reuters 07/02/2015

Knowledge @ Wharton

How a Rollback of DoddFrank Would Impact Wall Street, Knowledge @ Wharton 06/16/2017 Will the Fed and U.S. Monetary Policy Ever Get Back to ‘Normal’?, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/30/2017 Predicting Financial Reform Under a Trump Presidency, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/30/2017 Repealing DoddFrank: What’s the Likely Fallout?, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/10/2017 Can Wells Fargo Repair Its Image Through Arbitration?, Knowledge @ Wharton 12/02/2016 Will the Crisis of Confidence at Deutsche Bank Spread?, Knowledge @ Wharton 10/04/2016 Why the Wells Fargo Hearing Raises More Questions Than It Answers, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/23/2016 The Wells Fargo Scandal: Is the Profit Model to Blame?, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/13/2016 Why Federal Regulation Isn’t Enough to Buffer Against Bank Failures, Knowledge @ Wharton 05/19/2016 Why the ‘Living Wills’ of Top U.S. Banks Failed the Test, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/18/2016 Behind the Mysteries of the Federal Reserve, Knowledge @ Wharton 03/07/2016 Will the New Light on Wall Street’s ‘Dark Pools’ Bring Stronger Regulation?, Knowledge @ Wharton 02/12/2016 The Intersection of Everything: Unmasking the Mystery of the Federal Reserve, Knowledge @ Wharton 11/05/2015 Can the Bank of England’s New ‘Ringfencing’ Rules Work?, Knowledge @ Wharton 10/20/2015 What’s Behind the Fed’s Interest Rate Decision?, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/21/2015