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Johnson-Crapo Delayed; CEI-Coordinated Coalition Letter Cited as a Factor
Today, in a surprise move, the Senate Banking Committee postponed the vote it had been set to mark up for Johnson-Crapo. Reports vary as…
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First Ever Constitutional Ruling against Dodd-Frank Voids Destructive “Conflict Minerals” Section
Today’s ruling of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that Dodd-Frank’s "conflict minerals" disclosure mandate violates the First Amendment is the first time ever a court has…
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How Matt Drudge (and Other Obamacare Victims) Can Escape the “Liberty Tax”
Former Competitive Enterprise Institute Research Associate Michael Mayfield provided invaluable assistance with this post. Matt Drudge's widely discussed…
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Draconian Dodd-Frank Durbin Debit Controls Need Not Be More Destructive, Court Rules
As the weather finally turns to spring, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today blew a nice cool breeze of common sense. A bipartisan three-judge…
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Johnson-Crapo Is Phony Fannie-Freddie Reform
Ever since the phrase appeared in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," and its variations, have…
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Obama and Camp’s “Carried Interest” Canard Adds Cost and Complexity to Code
Once again, according to a White House summary of his 2015 budget to be unveiled later today, President Obama will call for "closing loopholes"…
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GW’s Entrepreneurship and Crowdfunding Barriers to Today’s Revolutionary Entrepreneurs
Happy Washington’s birthday, everyone! Although the holiday was on Monday, George Washington’s actual date of birth is tomorrow, February 22, in the year 1732. And…
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No Obamaloans at the Post Office!
While Sen. Elizabeth Warren may proudly brand herself a populist, in her latest crusade, she is casting her lot with fat cats. Warren wants to…
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Target, Retailers Use Dodd-Frank to Skimp on Data Security
Chutzpah, thy name is the National Retail Federation! In the wake of the recent credit and debit card breach at Target that may have compromised…
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“Wall Street” Regs Devastate Main Street Banks and Credit Unions
Again and again, when regulators implement a new Dodd-Frank regulation aimed at "Wall Street," it is Main Street banks and credit unions that are forced…
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The Great Italian Auto Bailout — Courtesy of U.S. Taxpayers
At the beginning of 2014, Detroit may be bankrupt, but they're cheering the five-year-old U.S. auto bailout in Italy. That's because after being the beneficiary…
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Target Breach — Are Dodd-Frank “Swipe Fee” Price Controls to Blame?
Target wants you to know it is oh-so-sorry for any inconvenience its data SNAFU (as OpenMarket is a family blog, please look up the…
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Volcker Rule Overshoots Wall Street to Hit Utah
You might think after the disastrous debut of HealthCare.gov and thousands of insurance cancellations, those who call themselves progressives might just have a little humility…
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The Volcker Winter Storm — Bad Rule, Worse Implementation
On a snowy day in Washington, several federal agencies packed some mean regulatory snowballs that will most likely overshoot their supposed destination of Wall Street…
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Government “Study” on Internet Tax Hides Harmful Small Business Effects
Under presidents of both parties, the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy has produced quality independent studies on the harmful tax and regulatory burden on…
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Twitter, the JOBS Act, and the Return to IPO Normalcy
The headline read that the company's initial public offering price is "high," and "so is its valuation." The accompanying story explained that the latest tech…
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Mel Watt Fails Taxpayer, Privacy, and Transparency Tests
Former Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., failed his procedural confirmation vote today to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the government housing entities Fannie…
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Don’t Let FTC Shut Down Legit Credit Repair Services
Next to the infamous Healthcare.gov, the website that featured the most bugs of the last month was FTC.gov, the site of the Federal Trade Commission. During…
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Shut Down Fannie and Freddie Permanently
Cross-posted from Newsbusters.org “U.S. Government Shutdown Threatening Housing Recovery,” screams the Oct. 2 headline of a shutdown scare screed in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Wade…
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Twitter IPO a Vindication of Bipartisan JOBS Act
Almost two years ago, I wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled, "Making It Legal to Tweet for Investors." In the op-ed, I described bipartisan bills…
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Mississippi Should Tell CFPB to “Stop Spying on Me”
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is coming to Mississippi Wednesday and Thursday with a public forum on "access to information." A vital question for Mississippians to…
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Paul and Udall Push Bipartisan Credit Union Business Lending Regulatory Reform
Today, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) is launching its "Don't Tax Tuesday" in which credit unions and their supporters tweet members of Congress…
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Judge Leon’s Lawless Durbin Amendment Debit Card Decision
Since Judge Richard Leon issued his shocking decision on July 31 that called for even more draconian price controls under Dodd-Frank's Durbin Amendment, some legal commentators…
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Not With Banks, Not With Retailers, But With Freedom
In explaining my policy positions, I often find myself pointing out I am neither pro-business nor pro-bank, but pro-market. My Competitive Enterprise Institute colleagues and I…
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Court Wrong to Make Dodd-Frank Durbin Price Controls More Draconian
Today, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that the Federal Reserve's implementation of the Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, which sets price controls on…
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On Dodd-Frank’s 3rd Anniversary, “North Star” is Further Out of Reach
Over the weekend, President Obama hailed the third anniversary of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank “financial reform.” In his weekly radio address, the president…
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SEC Finally Permits Free Speech for Hedge Funds, VCs, and Entrepreneurs
Today is finally the day that the Securities and Exchange Commission -- one year and three months after it was instructed to do so by…
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More Recognition that Dodd-Frank Harms Main Street Banks, Farmers, and Airline Passengers
In two high-profile forums last week, Dodd-Frank, the financial "reform" law sold as targeting Wall Street, was shown to have a devastating effect on Main…
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Udall-Paul Legislation Spreads Freedom for Credit Unions and Entrepreneurs
By definition, if a bill is sponsored by Sens. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., or any similarly odd ideological couples in the House, it…
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How Online “Marketplace Fairness Act” Could Tax Your 401(k)
Today, the Senate likely will pass the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would force online retailers to collect sales taxes for states in which purchasers reside. Most have heard how this…
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Housing Nominee Watt Flunks Privacy And Transparency Tests
Two prerequisites for any nominee for government posts is dedication to transparency in government and a respect for the privacy of citizens. Before we get…
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Did Hensarling Force Obama’s Hand On “Recess” Appointments?
They called it a "stunt" early last week when House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) refused to allow Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)…
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Dodd-Frank’s Burden On Credit Unions Highlighted At Hearing
At a recent speech before a convention of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), new Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) made the pitch that the Dodd-Frank…
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JOBS Act — What’s Been Implemented — Is Working; Now Implement The Rest!
CEI Research Associate Evan Woodham contributed to this post. Another round of disappointing jobs numbers released last Friday shows more than ever that massive…
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Bipartisan Dodd-Frank Derivatives Deregulation Advances In House — And Main Street Cheers
This afternoon, members of the House Agriculture Committee with strikingly different views on many issues came together to provide much need regulatory relief from the…
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What Cyprus (Initially) Got Right — Remembering The 2008 WaMu Capital “Run”
There's no shortage of criticism of the Cyprus "bail-in" -- the one-time tax the government had proposed levying on insured and uninsured depositors to rescue…
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Dallas Fed’s Fisher And CPAC’s Fishy Too-Big-To-Fail Event
If the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) organizers wanted a speaker or panel on the causes of the financial crisis and what to do about…
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Sequester Show May Not Have Jumped The Shark, But Its Format Has Changed
Are you watching the Sequester Show? In today's Wall Street Jorunal, my friend Kim Strassel says the sequester drama has "jumped the shark," a phrase used when…
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The Real Birthday Of America’s First Entrepreneur
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Payback? Government Targets S&P And Egan-Jones, Not Moody’s Or Fitch
Why not Moody's? Why not Fitch? Of all the questions raised about the U.S. government's strange case against Standard & Poor's—a lawsuit that actually asserts that…
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The Coming Regulatory Recession?
Yesterday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce reported the stunning news the U.S. economy actually contracted by 0.1 percent…
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SEC’s White May Be All Right, But Cordray’s CFPB Still A Constitutional Catastrophe
Today, President Obama will send to the Senate two nominations for two key financial regulatory posts. Noting that both of the nominees subject to Senate…
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Qualified Mortgage Rule Is One Of Many Dodd-Frank Boots To Drop
The first thing that should be said about today's "qualified mortgage" rule is that it is just one of many new regulations the Consumer Financial…
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Basel III Cliff May Be Averted, But Dangers Still Loom For Main Street Banks
After numerous criticisms from U.S. community banks and lawmakers of both parties, the international committee in charge of the Basel III bank capital agreement…
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GM Stock Sale Doesn’t End Damage Of Government Motors
Below is my statement released today on the government’s planned 15-month sale of its remaining General Motors stock: On Wednesday, the government announced a plan to sell its…
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Intrade Is Only The Latest CFTC Outrage
Every so often, a government agency will do something so outrageous it will shock even even everyday critics of "big government," as well as draw…
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Good Riddance! — SEC’s Schapiro Sabotaged Startup Law Supported By Obama
When President Obama appointed Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission four years ago, I kept an open mind and was even cautiously optimistic.
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The Basel Cliff — Basel III’s Poisonous Recipe For The Economy
As if the "fiscal cliff," with its prospects of looming tax hikes, were not enough, big and small banks—and in turn consumers and businesses who…
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Chrysler And The Cratering Credit Rating Of Fiat
My piece yesterday in The Daily Caller, "The Real Fiat Scandal," spotlights the real threat to Chrysler's prospects in the immediate and long term: Fiat's cratering…
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Regulatory Delays May Be Responsible For Slightly Better GDP Growth
This morning, data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed third-quarter growth of gross domestic product (GDP) at 2 percent. This beat expectations slightly as, according to…