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
The Beauty of Regulatory Sunsets
Introduction In 2019, Idaho pioneered zero-based regulation (ZBR), an orderly approach to statewide regulatory reform. Like zero-based budgeting, ZBR starts with the presumption that existing…
Free the Appliances!
Introduction The Department of Energy’s (DOE) appliance efficiency standards program has been in place for decades, subjecting nearly every major home appliance to multiple rounds…
Frack to the Future
Introduction North Dakota is typically known for the Badlands, agriculture, Fargo (thanks, Coen brothers), cold weather, and its flat landscape. Yet, due to technological advancements…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Total boomer luxury communism with Russ Greene
In this week’s episode we talk about Trump’s 10 percent credit card interest proposal (and the dangers of populist economics in general),…
Lots of good in the RSC’s “Restoring America’s Golden Age” Budget Blueprint
The Republican Study Committee’s new 119-page Budget for the 119th Congress, Restoring America’s Golden Age, covers a wide range of policy priorities—notably a 10-year balanced…
The attention wars: Why Netflix is buying the past to own the future
The old “streaming wars” are over; the “attention wars” have begun. In the new battle, Netflix’s strategic acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery makes perfect sense.
News
Statement in Support of Provisions of the RSC’s Budget Reconciliation Framework
I write to commend the Republican Study Committee for certain key deregulatory provisions contained in Making the American Dream Affordable Again: a Framework for…
Inflation rises in December, Trump’s Fed threats raise questions about monetary policy future: CEI analysis
The CPI for December rose 0.3 percent, bringing year-over-year inflation up to 2.7 percent. While the report suggests monetary policy is unlikely to change soon,…
Trump’s criminal investigation of Fed chairman a mistake: CEI analysis
The Trump Justice Department’s newly announced criminal investigation of the Federal Reserve chairman, ostensibly concerning renovations of the Fed’s headquarters, is a mistake. Ryan Young,…
Op-Eds
The Daily Economy
Breakneck: Dan Wang Explores the Strange Symmetry of US and China
The title of Dan Wang’s book Breakneck focuses on the People’s Republic of China (PRC) specifically, but it is really about the self-conscious great-power rivalry…
DC Journal
Public Interest Requires the FCC to Abolish the News Distortion Standard
For decades, the Federal Communications Commission has invoked the public interest to regulate the speech of television and radio stations licensed by the agency. Television…
Law & Liberty
America’s Hidden Judiciary
Unbeknownst to most Americans, federal regulatory agencies have their own court system for adjudicating disputes that businesses and citizens have with regulators. These agencies rely…
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 and Director of Publications
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Regulatory Reform
Iain Murray
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow
- Banking and Finance
- Trade and International
Devin Watkins
Attorney
- CEI Litigation
- Government Transparency
- Legal Studies
David S. McFadden
Attorney
- Law and Litigation
- Legal Studies
Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
James Broughel
Adjunct Fellow
- Deregulation
- Energy and Environment
- Innovation
Patricia Patnode
Research Fellow
- Banking and Finance
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation