Everything about Donald Regan totally explained
Donald Thomas Regan (
December 21 1918 –
June 10 2003) was the 66th
United States Secretary of the Treasury, from
1981 to
1985, and
Chief of Staff from
1985 to
1987 in the
Ronald Reagan Administration, where he advocated "
Reaganomics" and
tax cuts to create
jobs and stimulate production. Regan was criticized for his
Prime Ministerial style of working, for his involvement in the
Iran-Contra Affair, and for his frequent disagreements with
Ronald Reagan's wife,
First Lady Nancy Reagan.
Early life
Born in
Cambridge, Massachusetts and of
Irish Catholic origins, Don Regan earned his
bachelor's degree in
English from
Harvard University in
1940 and attended
Harvard Law School before dropping out to join the
United States Marine Corps at the outset of
World War II. He reached the rank of
lieutenant colonel while serving in the
Pacific theater, and was involved in five major campaigns including
Guadalcanal and
Okinawa.
Wall Street
After the War, he joined
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. in
1946, as an account executive trainee, working up through the ranks, eventually taking over as Merrill Lynch's chairman and CEO in
1971, the year the company went public. He held those positions until
1980.
Regan was one of the original directors of the
Securities Investor Protection Corporation and was vice chairman of the
New York Stock Exchange from
1973 to
1975.Regan was a major proponent of brokerage firms going public, which he viewed as an important step in the modernization of Wall Street; under his supervision, Merrill Lynch had their
IPO on
June 23,
1971, becoming only the second Wall Street firm to go public, after
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
During his tenure in these two positions, Regan also pushed hard for an end to minimum fixed commissions for brokers, which were fees that brokerage companies had to charge clients for every transaction they made on the clients' behalf; Regan saw them as a
cartel-like restriction. In a large part thanks to his lobbying, fixed commissions were abolished in 1975.
Reagan administration
President Ronald Reagan selected Regan in
1981 to serve as Treasury secretary, marking him as a spokesman for his economic policies, dubbed "
Reaganomics." He helped engineer tax reform, reduce income tax rates and ease tax burdens on corporations. Regan unexpectedly swapped jobs with then
White House Chief of Staff James Baker in 1985. As Chief of Staff, Regan was very involved in the day to day management of White House policy, which led
Howard Baker, Regan's successor as Chief of Staff, to give a rebuke that Regan was becoming a "
Prime Minister" inside an increasingly complex
Imperial Presidency. Regan resigned from his post in 1987 due to his involvement with the
Iran-Contra Affair, and frequent clashes with the President's wife,
First Lady Nancy Reagan. Regan was seen as the
fall guy for the affair, and the
tongue-in-cheek saying "Reagan had Regan" echoed throughout
Washington.
Regan's book, (ISBN 0-15-163966-3), exposes his disagreements with First Lady Nancy Reagan including claims that Nancy's personal
astrologer,
Joan Quigley, helped steer the President's speaking decisions.
Retirement
Regan retired quietly in
Virginia with
Ann Buchanan Regan, his wife of over sixty years. Late in life, he spent nearly ten hours a day in his art studio painting landscapes, some of which sold for thousands of dollars and still hang in museums. Regan had four children and nine grandchildren.
Regan died of heart failure at the age of 84 in a hospital near his home in
Williamsburg, Virginia.
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