The primary focus of the Competitive Enterprise Institute since its founding in 1984 has been to promote deregulation. Government regulation of the economy blocks innovation and wealth creation. It also encourages damaging behavior such as rent-seeking and cronyism. Finally, it crowds out more effective forms of regulation such as market discipline.
The beneficial effects of deregulation were plain in the airline and freight rail industries. Deregulation begun in the Carter administration led to more flights at lower cost and to better rail infrastructure and much lower shipping costs. Yet, since the 1990s, successive administrations of different political stripes have piled on regulations, burdening the economy needlessly. We chart this problem every year in our Ten Thousand Commandments report.
The power of regulators now raises constitutional concerns. Regulators are often unaccountable, and their insulation from the checks and balances of the constitutional system suggests that they may in effect form a fourth branch of government. The use of guidance documents to avoid rulemaking procedures, for instance, can amount to government by decree. Deregulation is therefore essential to restore good constitutional order.
CEI advocates for both overall regulatory reform – changing the ways in which rules are made to make them more transparent and easier to remove – and for specific regulatory changes. Recent successes include recognition of our concerns in Executive Orders promoting deregulation and curtailing the use of guidance, and in the reflection of our comments in rules promulgated by agencies such as the Department of Labor and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Deregulation Issue Areas
Featured Posts
Allies
Antitrust and the Federal Trade Commission in 2023
Excerpt from Mark Jamison’s piece, Antitrust and the Federal Trade Commission in 2023 in the Washington Examiner. “Generally, Republicans have a limited appetite for…
Study
Terrible Tech Bills from the 117th Congress
Congress is considering an onslaught of legislation targeting the largest tech platforms in the U.S., addressing topics such as mobile apps, advertising, merger review,…
Blog
This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The big news is that the Food and Drug Administration is poised to follow several other countries’ lead in approving one or more coronavirus vaccines.
Studies
Ten Thousand Commandments 2024
The hidden tax of regulation has proved appealing to lawmakers who feel the pressure of a national debt topping $34 trillion. Off-budget regulations requiring private…
Congress, Not Agencies, Should Answer Major Policy Questions
Many of the biggest policy decisions affecting the lives of Americans are made by federal agencies, not Congress. During the Biden administration, this has included…
Restoring Good Guidance Practices
Executive summary Federal agency guidance documents form a large and expanding part of the administrative state’s regulatory universe. These informal documents including memoranda, bulletins, and…
Blog
A cry for Yelp or crocodile tears?
Online review platform Yelp filed a private antitrust suit against Google last month, accusing the tech company of monopolizing the “local search services market”…
Regulatory relief, not subsidies, can make housing more affordable
Housing affordability has become a major issue – and for good reason given skyrocketing home prices and high mortgage rates coming at a time when…
Scaling deregulation: Can Trump achieve a 10-for-1 rule elimination?
In a speech at the Economic Club of New York, Donald Trump pledged if re-elected to eliminate—not two rules for every one added as he…
News
August CPI report shows housing prices driving up inflation: CEI analysis
Today’s Consumer Price Index report for August shows an overall inflation increase of 0.2 percent, mostly driven by rising housing prices. CEI senior economist…
Unemployment rate edged down in August, all eyes on Fed’s next move: CEI analysis
August’s jobs numbers show an addition of 142,000 jobs to the economy, edging the unemployment rate down to 4.2 percent compared to July’s 4.3…
Report: New York’s need for straightforward environmental permitting reform
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report evaluates how the state of New York is handling its system of environmental permitting, the regulatory process that…
Op-Eds
National Review
How Partisan Bureaucrats Weaponized Financial Regulation
The main goal of financial regulation in the United States is supposed to be the protection of consumers, investors, and their businesses from deception and fraud.
DC Journal
Counterpoint: Harris’ Price Controls Won’t Tame Inflation
Right problem, wrong solution. It’s one of the most familiar stories in politics. Thanks to inflation, every American is paying higher prices for groceries and…
Washington Examiner
Congress needs to end regulation without representation
Taxation without representation is the antithesis of freedom and runs counter to the basic principles guiding our nation. So why is regulation without representation not…
Staff & Scholars
Kent Lassman
President and CEO
- Capitalism
- Deregulation
- Innovation
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Ryan Young
Senior Economist
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Regulatory Reform
Iain Murray
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow
- Banking and Finance
- Trade and International
Dan Greenberg
General Counsel
- CEI Litigation
- Legal Studies
- Property Rights
Devin Watkins
Attorney
- CEI Litigation
- Government Transparency
- Legal Studies
David S. McFadden
Attorney
- Legal
- Legal Studies
Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
James Broughel
Senior Fellow
- Deregulation
- Energy and Environment
- Innovation