Featured Posts
News Release
Energy and oil prices driving force behind March inflation increase: CEI analysis
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for March shows a 0.9 percent increase across all sectors, mainly driven by significantly higher energy and oil…
News Release
Federal Reserve keeps interest rates steady, higher inflation likely to continue: CEI analysis
The Fed has decided to keep interest rates steady, with inflation still too high to warrant rate cuts. With Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s term…
News Release
SEC to seek end to quarterly reporting mandate: CEI analysis
The Securities and Exchange Commission will propose to end mandatory quarterly reporting for public companies, and give companies the option to file semi-annually instead, according…
Search Posts
Op-Eds
Hoover Spent Big
Wherever did some Canadian economists get the strange idea that U.S. president Herbert Hoover “helped plunge his country into the Great Depression through austerity measures”…
Citation
Dodd Frank and the End of Free Checking
Op-Eds
Austerity Hardly To Blame
Re: “Harper rejects warnings austerity will spark recession,” The Journal, Sept. 28. Former U.S. president Herbert Hoover did not practice austerity, so it is…
Citation
Farewell Free Checking?
Op-Eds
Capital Gains Tax Far Too High
Warren Buffett was wrong to suggest that capital gains taxes are too low (“Calling Buffett’s bluff,” Comment & Analysis, Monday). They are actually much too…
Op-Eds
Today’s Red Tape Would Have Killed Home Depot’s IPO
Your editorial “The Anti-Solyndras” (Sept. 22) is right on target in detailing the devastating impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on job and…
Op-Eds
Debit Durbin
Read the headlines — and your bank statement — and weep, but don’t say TAS didn’t warn you. As I detailed here in February…
News Release
Free Checking’s Demise: Blame Big Retailers and Big Government
Washington, D.C., September 28, 2011—“Free checking is going the way of the free checked bag,” declared USA Today this week. And for more than…
Citation
White House Wants Bailout Tax
Citation
D.C. Summit Focuses on Consumer Credit
Comment
CEI Submits Comments on Conflict Minerals Rules of Dodd-Frank
The Competitive Enterprise has submitted comments regarding the implementation of Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which attempts to…
Citation
Public Symposium on Capitol Hill Focuses on Acute Credit Needs
Citation
Public Symposium On Capitol Hill Focuses On Acute Credit Needs
Op-Eds
Obama the Greek
Greece is in economic meltdown. Its economy has become so biased towards the public sector that it is now literally unsustainable. It cannot afford to…
Op-Eds
Putting the Jobs Cart Before the Growth Horse
Among the colossal fallacies that keep our economy mired in unemployment, few loom as large as the notion that “creating” jobs leads to growth and…
Op-Eds
Is Obama Ready to Drop Sarbanes?
In U.S. President Barack Obama’s 33-minute speech to Congress on job creation, one sentence was worth nearly all the rest of his 4,000 words. In…
Op-Eds
Will Obama and Congress Slay the Sarbox Job-Killing Monster?
In President Obama’s 33-minute-long speech to Congress on job creation, one sentence was worth nearly all the rest of his 4,000 words. In the…
News Release
CEI Praises Obama’s Review of Sarbanes-Oxley Overregulation
Washington, D.C., September 14, 2011—Hours before President Obama’s address to Congress last week, scholars from the Competitive Enterprise Institute presented a “Ten-Point Plan…
Citation
Did Feminist Groups Derail the Stimulus Bill?
Citation
A Plan Better than Obama’s to Create Jobs
Citation
Obama Administration Planning to Freeze Foreclosures
Citation
Obama’s Costly, Unaffordable, Harmful New Stimulus: The “American Jobs Act”
National Review
What the President Should Say Tonight
National Review
Obama’s Jobs Agenda: An Infrastructure Bank that Robs You
I stopped by our bank Friday to get something notorized, and, damn, they were all out of free Jolly Ranchers. For a moment, I’d forgotten…
National Review
Justice’s New War Against Lenders
National Review
Letter Writer Wrong About Hoover’s Tactics
A recent letter writer erred in claiming that Herbert Hoover cut taxes and government spending in the Great Depression (“O’Reilly Missed Lesson on Great Depression,”…
National Review
Hoover’s Budget Wasn’t Balanced
David Elbert made the dubious claim that President Herbert Hoover “was a firm believer in balanced budgets” (“Obama’s Situation Looking a Bit Like Hoover’s,”…
National Review
S&P’s Regulatory Politics
Within 24 hours, the Obama administration went from attacking Standard & Poor’s first-ever downgrade of U.S. debt to almost embracing it. On the Friday night…
News Release
Court Strikes Down Dodd-Frank Proxy Rule
The Competitive Enterprise Institute hails today’s decision of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals striking down the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) proxy…
National Review
One Year Later: Frank-Dodd “Reform” Leaves Fannie and Freddie Intact
National Review
Let’s Not Repeat Mortgage Mistakes
You write that the Obama administration decided last year to let “the market sort things out” regarding America’s housing woes in lieu of government intervention.
Washington Times
Employers Doubt Obama’s Vow of Less Red Tape
The Washington Times references Wayne Crews's study on the size of the federal regulatory burden. Mr. Kovacs noted that the Government Accountability Office…
Washington Times
Obama Urges Use of Foreign Capital Boost
Washington Times
Liberate ATMs and Credit Unions to Jumpstart Jobs
“ATMs don’t destroy jobs,” tweeted Davd Burge of the Iowahawk blog in response to Obama’s now-infamous “Today Show” explanation of unemployment. “Politicians who…
Washington Times
GOP’s ‘Durbin Dozen’ Keeps Dodd-Frank Price Controls
Anywhere but the Senate, getting 54 votes out of 100 is a victory. And Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 54 Senators responded to concerns from…
Washington Times
Let’s Face the Truth: The Stimulus and Bailouts Failed
You’d think last Friday’s terrible jobs numbers would cause honest elected officials to admit that their economic policies have failed. They would tell the American…
Washington Times
Obama’s Funny Auto-Jobs Math
‘The auto industry has added 113,000 jobs over the past two years.” So proclaimed President Obama in his speech Friday at the Chrysler-Fiat…
News Release
Depressing Unemployment Numbers Today Exacerbated by Crushing Regulations, Obama Labor Union Agenda
Washington, DC, June 3, 2011 – Bad news for the American economy and the Obama administration comes today in the form of paltry job growth…
Washington Times
Real Beneficiaries of the ‘Stimulus’
It was depressing but not surprising to read that tax cheats received $24 billion in stimulus money (“Stimulus recipients found to be tax cheats,” Page…
Washington Times
Stimulus Took More Jobs Than It Created
Investor's Business Daily
Reform Sarbox To Galvanize High-Tech IPOs
Silicon Valley is teeming with budding startups whose user bases and valuations are skyrocketing. As these companies seek breathing room to grow, they will…
Investor's Business Daily
Not So Much Separation of Powers in New Jersey
Investor's Business Daily
Banking On National Economic Suicide
Investor's Business Daily
Obama Administration Pressures Banks to Make Risky Loans
The financial crisis happened partly because of loosened lending standards, which resulted in risky loans to people with bad credit and no money for a…
News Release
IRS Global Data Sharing Threatens Bank Solvency, Privacy and Human Rights
Contact: Lee Doren, 202-331-2259 Nicole Ciandella, 202-331-2773 Washington, D.C., May 18, 2011 – A proposed rule from the Internal Revenue Service…
Investor's Business Daily
The Midnight Ride of Standard & Poor’s
Three cheers for Standard & Poor’s (S&P). On Monday, the rating agency issued a critical warning that America’s debt burden is growing too great. By…
Letters
Coalition Letter Against Mandatory Implementation of E-Verify
Full Document Available in PDF We, the undersigned free-market advocacy groups and public interest organizations, write to share our concerns…
News Release
Obama Budget Fails On Regulatory Reform
Washington, D.C., February 14, 2011 — President Barack Obama has submitted a $3.73 trillion spending budget blueprint for fiscal 2012, blowing well past President George…
Investor's Business Daily
Obama’s Nanny-State Control of Business Will Crimp Growth
At 11:30 on Monday, in a much-anticipated speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Obama used analogies from the Super Bowl to urge American…
Investor's Business Daily
Freddie, Fannie May Be Finished, But What Comes Next?
Investor's Business Daily
Bulldog is still fighting
Investor's Business Daily
No, There Was No Public Offering Made (Letter to the Editor)
In attempting to defend Massachusetts’s censorship of hedge-fund speech to the public, Mike Liles Jr. (Letters, Jan. 22) makes a circular argument that mischaracterizes my…
Investor's Business Daily
Rolling Back Red Tape: 20 Regulations to Eliminate
Investor's Business Daily
Life’s Tough for $144,000 Garbage Collectors
Study
Suspend Mark-to-Market Rules and Make Accounting Regulators Accountable
Liberate to Stimulate Index The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was hauled before Congressional hearings and members of both parties expressed concern…
News Release
Repeal Senseless and Job-Destroying Volcker Rule from Dodd-Frank
Contact: Christine Hall, 202-331-2258 Lee Doren, 202-331-2259 Washington, D.C., January 18, 2011 – Today, the Financial Stability Oversight Council is issuing recommendations for implementing…
Investor's Business Daily
Financial Stability Council Violates the Constitution (Letter to the Editor)
C. Boyden Gray’s Dec. 31 Washington Forum commentary, “Wall Street reform that flouts the law,” rightly criticized the secrecy, unchecked bureaucratic power and constitutional…
Investor's Business Daily
Debit Card Restrictions Bad News for Consumers
Investor's Business Daily
Future FSA, HRA charges to fund ObamaCare
News Release
Federal Reserve’s Interchange Price Controls: Gift to Retailers, Lump of Coal for Consumers
Washington, D.C., December 16, 2010 – This afternoon in a public meeting, the Federal Reserve will release draft rules to implement Dodd-Frank’s Durbin Amendment, which…
Study
Roll Back Burdensome Sarbanes-Oxley Accounting Rules
Full Document Available in PDF “How can we have these levels of fictions…
Investor's Business Daily
Feds Use New Tool to Target Ex-CEO
Letters
Coaliton Letter on Credit Union Regulatory Relief
Full Document Available in PDF Along with this letter please find a new advertisement, signed…
Investor's Business Daily
GM Shares Are Artificially Inflated (Letter to the Editor)
The Examiner was right to note that General Motors’ supposed “success story” is actually a money-loser for taxpayers. Not only did GM’s recent sale of…
Investor's Business Daily
What’s Good for New GM Is Bad for the Rest of America
Investor's Business Daily
GM’s Stock Offering Goes Well, But Some See Nothing to Cheer
Investor's Business Daily
Halfway Between Sanity and Bedlam
Investor's Business Daily
What’s Good for GM Is Now Terrible for America
Investor's Business Daily
What’s Good for GM Is Now Terrible for America
In his 1953 confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense in the incoming Eisenhower administration, former General Motors CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson was asked how…
Investor's Business Daily
Wall Street to GM: Let’s Put Those Bad Days Behind Us
News Release
Small Businesses Not Growing? That’s Because Regulations Are
The U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship will hold a hearing Thursday, November 18, on “Assessing the Regulatory and Administrative Burdens on…
Investor's Business Daily
Fannie & Freddie Don’t Deserve Any More Tax Dollars (Letters to the Editor)
The Examiner was right to oppose more taxpayer bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are expected to receive between $73 billion and $215…
Investor's Business Daily
Morning Scan – Free Checking
Investor's Business Daily
The Free Checking Restoration Act
Having largely abandoned attempts to defend ObamaCare in the run-up to next week’s election, President Obama and his allies are now warning that opponents will…
Investor's Business Daily
Free Checking – How ‘Bout Them Democrats
Investor's Business Daily
SEC ‘Proxy Access’ Rule Could Empower Unions, Political Activists
Investor's Business Daily
Obama’s War on Free Checking
“Free checking as we know it is ending,” says the lead paragraph of a widely read and tweeted story from The Associated Press. Noting…
Investor's Business Daily
The Free Checking Restoration Act of 2010
Investor's Business Daily
The GM IPO
Investor's Business Daily
Ms. Warren Should Take Aim at Confusing Federal Laws (Letters to the Editor)
Todd Zywicki is right to criticize President Obama for appointing a consumer-lending czar without submitting the appointment to the Senate for an up-or-down vote…
Investor's Business Daily
SEC “Proxy Access” Rule Could Empower Unions, Political Activists and Undermine Investors
Investor's Business Daily
Washington Ideas Forum
Study
Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB: Narrow Separation-of-Powers Ruling Illustrates That the Supreme Court Is Not ‘‘Pro-Business’’
Full Document Available in PDF Chief Justice John Roberts has often been depicted as an advocate of narrow rulings and a judicial philosophy…
Investor's Business Daily
No Regulation Without Representation
Having excoriated the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress — on this site and elsewhere — for falling short of principles on TARP…
Investor's Business Daily
Galoots!
Investor's Business Daily
Wayne Crews on the Regulatory State
Vice President for Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute discusses the regulatory state. He advocates removing regulations that cost the taxpayers too much money.
Investor's Business Daily
Sen. Baucus Pushes Small Business Jobs Act
Investor's Business Daily
CEI: Small Business Jobs & Credit Act – another ‘Big Government boondoggle’
Investor's Business Daily
MBL featured in Spectator, Gazette over weekend
Investor's Business Daily
Credit Card Regulation: Big Government vs. Small Business
Investor's Business Daily
Tightening Credit Hurts Small Businesses
The Sept. 1 editorial “On better terms” conceded that overall interest rates have risen on credit cards after the passage of the Credit…
Investor's Business Daily
CBO Says Stimulus Will Increase Deficit (Letter to the Editor)
In his Commentary column, “The Recovery Act Worked,” Michael Cassidy wrongly denies that the $800 billion stimulus package “will make the federal deficit worse.” It…
Investor's Business Daily
John Berlau discusses the General Motors IPO
Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau discusses the General Motors IPO. Will investors have any recourse to sue?…
Newsletter
Kagan Confirmed, Ford Motor’s Finances and Critiquing Obama’s Economic Policy
The U.S. Senate confirms Elena Kagan to be the next member of the Supreme Court. President Obama announced a $250 million government loan to Ford…
Investor's Business Daily
Obama Cripples Ford’s Funding, Then Subsidizes It
At the 1986 White House Conference on Small Business, President Ronald Reagan offered these famous remarks about politicians’ views on business in the 1970s. Reagan…
Jacob Grier
Markets are for Consumers
Jacob Grier
Recent Developments in Fair Value Accounting
Jacob Grier
Kagan and the Agency-Exhaustion Doctrine: A Response to Media Matters
Well, who’da thunk it? George W. Bush’s Justice Department is now considered a citadel of wisdom by the legal eagles at Media Matters for America.
Jacob Grier
In Defending Kagan, Media Matters Embraces Bush Justice Department
Well, who woulda thunk it?! George W. Bush’s Justice Department is now considered a citadel of wisdom by the legal eagles at the liberal Media…
Newsletter
Online Gambling, Offshore Drilling and the Complexity of Obamacare
The House Financial Services Committee passes the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. Today the House of Representatives will vote on an energy…