Featured Posts
Reason
Instead of Vote-Buying Tax Promises, Let’s Have Real Plans for Tax Relief
Reason cited CEI’s expert on exempting overtime pay On a more serious note, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Sean Higgins thought exempting overtime pay “wouldn’t necessarily be…
Politico
Biden DOJ slaps Visa with antitrust suit over debit card dominance
Politico cited CEI on Visa and Mastercard issues Retail groups including the National Retail Federation and the Merchant Payments Coalition, which have long pushed for…
Citation
The Bob Harden Show
CEI’s senior economist was on The Bob Harden Show to discuss the Fed’s recent interest rate decision.
Search Posts
Fox Business
Payday Loan Regulations Rollback is Win for Business, Consumers
Chalk up another win for President Trump’s deregulatory agenda - the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week announced a plan to reconsider an Obama-era regulation…
Blog
VIDEO: Operation Choke Point Sets Dangerous Precedent
Our friends at the Federalist Society have an interesting new video out on legal businesses being targeted for government harassment because their products have become politically…
Fox News
Super Bowl – Here’s Why it’s a Big Deal That You Can Place Your (Legal) Bets on the Big Game
For the first time since 1992, Americans outside of Nevada can legally wager on the outcome of the Super Bowl. This comes thanks to a recent…
Blog
Fintech: A Bipartisan Priority for the 116th Congress
While the 115th Congress did not achieve all that was hoped for with regards to financial services reform, it did make important progress to achieving…
Blog
Rep. Waters Reiterates Support for JOBS Act 3.0
In a major speech to a liberal group outlining her priorities as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) sharply criticized…
Daily Mail
Chips are Down for Online Gamblers as US Moves Toward New Ban
Daily Mail cited Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on online gambling: But Michelle Minton, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the…
News Release
Trump Justice Department Pits 1961 Law Against Online Gambling
In an effort to strike at online gambling, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel this week issued a new opinion that will allow…
News Release
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Lawsuit Challenging CFPB Constitutionality
The Supreme Court today declined to hear a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Reason
The DOJ Shouldn’t Reignite the Fight Against Intrastate Gambling
Reason cited research by Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on state gambling regulations and the Department of Justice. Research into a history of the Wire…
Blog
Agenda for the 116th Congress: The Second Decade of Crypto-Blockchain
As cryptocurrency and the associated blockchain celebrate their tenth birthdays, CEI’s new “Free to Prosper” agenda for the 116th Congress aims to ensure bureaucratic red…
Blog
Year in Review 2018: Consumer Financial Protection
2018 was a big year for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (also known, for a while, as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection). The past year…
The Hill
Supreme Court Should do What Congress Won’t: Rein in the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
This April, something remarkable happened in Washington D.C. The acting head of a federal agency told Congress that the agency he directs “is far too…
News Release
CEI: Rumored DOJ Memo to Restrict States’ Power to Regulate Intrastate Gambling Would be “Dangerous Precedent”
According to reports, the Department of Justice is considering releasing a memo that reverses a 2011 decision by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) which…
Blog
Year in Review 2018: Operation Choke Point
Every Halloween, there exists the temptation for commentators to describe routine events in the news with adjectives like “scary” and “frightening.” Sensitive to sounding clichéd…
Blog
Five Priorities for New BCFP Director
Kathleen Kraninger was confirmed as director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. She has promised to implement a free market reform agenda, focusing on…
News Release
CEI Hopes New Director of Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Will Continue Tough-But-Fair Approach to Regulation
Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow John Berlau praised today’s Senate confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to head the powerful Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP)…
Blog
Senate Democrats’ Report Misses Mark on Mulvaney
While President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, Kathleen Kraninger, awaits a final confirmation vote in the Senate, Senate Democrats have…
IA InsideARM
Senate Vote On Kraninger To Lead BCFP Expected Tomorrow
IA InsideARM cited CEI’s Senior Fellow John Berlau and Policy Analyst Daniel Press on BCFP nominee Kathleen Kraninger. As insideARM reported earlier,…
Blog
Lame Duck Session Should Undo Crippling Rules on Middle-Class Investors and Entrepreneurs
Next year, with Congress divided once again, bipartisan legislation will be the order of the day. Indeed for passage of both chambers, it will be…
Blog
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Needs to Rewrite Payday Loan Rule
Last week, I wrote a blog post on how the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection could go about narrowly rewriting the payday loan rule. This would…
Blog
How to Rewrite the Payday Loan Rule
Last Friday, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection announced that it will be reconsidering its’ controversial Payday, Vehicle Title, and High-Cost Installment Loan rule.
Blog
Promise and Pitfalls of Treasury Fintech Report
July 31st, 2018, was one of the most exciting days for financial technology regulation in recent memory. Around 10 a.m. that morning was when the…
Comment
Testimony of Michelle Minton on Post-PASPA: An Examination of Sports Betting in America
Chairman Sensenbrenner, Ranking Member Jackson Lee and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to present comments on behalf of my organization, the…
The Washington Examiner
A Decade after the Financial Crisis, the Government Fuels Another Housing Bubble
Ten years ago this month marks the anniversary of one of the most dramatic events of the 2008 financial crisis: the collapse of Lehman Brothers,…
Blog
Congress Should Stay out of Sports Betting Regulation
For the first time in twenty-five years, Americans can legally wager on the outcome of sporting events outside of Nevada. Thanks to a Supreme…
Blog
The Financial Crisis 10 Years Later: What’s Changed?
Ten years ago, the United States plunged into a financial crisis that would bring the world economy to the brink of collapse. The housing bubble…
Blog
Democratic Attorneys General Wrong on Fair Lending Laws
On Wednesday, a coalition of fourteen Democratic attorneys generals wrote a letter to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection urging the acting director, Mick…
Blog
Supreme Court Should Decide if Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Is Unconstitutional
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute is asking the Supreme Court to hear the lawsuit we filed challenging the constitutionality of the Bureau of Consumer Financial…
News Release
Supreme Court Asked to Hear Challenge to Constitutionality of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The State National Bank of Big Spring, Texas, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), and the 60 Plus Association on September 6 petitioned the United States…
Blog
Securities and Exchange Commission Seeks to Liberalize ‘Accredited Investor’ Standard
Great news for middle-class investors and start-up businesses alike—on Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton announced that the SEC is looking…
Forbes
Let Middle-Class Investors Join the ‘Accredited’ Club
With the increasing focus on inequality and cronyism on both Left and Right, one would think that politicians and bureaucrats would rush to get rid…
Blog
Australian Government Calls for Interchange Fee Ban
One would expect that years of failing policy would force policymakers to reconsider the wisdom of their actions. But not for the Australian Productivity Commission,…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter in Support of the Death Tax Repeal Act
The undersigned organizations support your bill, the Death Tax Repeal Act. We appreciate your work to lead the country towards a common sense tax code that…
Products
CEI Joins Coalition Letter in Support of H.R. 5470
On behalf of our organizations and Americans we represent, we write to express support of your legislation, H.R. 5470. This legislation will eliminate the Office…
Blog
Confirm Kraninger, Rein in Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
Today, the Senate Banking Committee will likely vote to send the nomination of Kathleen Kraninger for director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection to…
News Release
CEI Endorses Trump Nominee for Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow John Berlau expressed CEI’s support for President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection:…
Blog
California Supreme Court Rules Interest Rates May Be ‘Unconscionable’
Last Monday, the California Supreme Court ruled that interest rates on loans over $2,500 could be deemed ‘unconscionable’ even if usury laws permit them. In…
Blog
Elizabeth Warren’s Hypocrisy on Financial Regulation: Part 1
As far as politicians’ transgressions go, I usually don’t get that riled up about hypocrisy. In the course of voting on and debating so many…
Blog
Securities and Exchange Commission Drops Probe of ExxonMobil over Climate Risk
The Wall Street Journal reported late last Friday that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulators have “decided against trying to penalize the energy giant over its…
Blog
Looking Back at the Success of ‘Free Enterprise Fund’
In the last decade there has been a kind of separation of powers renaissance in the courts. Previously, separation-of-powers cases were rare and usually occurred…
Blog
Securities and Exchange Commission Bests Labor Department ‘Fiduciary Rule,’ But Still Adds Red Tape
In March, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals killed the Obama administration’s “fiduciary rule,” a prime example of the “bureaucrats know best” type of…
Blog
Federal Charters May Remove Interest Rate Uncertainty for Fintech Firms
The July 31 policy statement by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announcing that it will now grant “special purpose national…
Blog
Finance Regulators Create New National Charter for Innovative ‘Fintech’ Companies
After years of speculation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced Tuesday that it would begin considering applications for special purpose…
Blog
New York State’s Flawed Online Lending Report
Earlier this month, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) released a study of online lending, including findings and recommendations for changes in…
Blog
Appeals Court Rules Federal Housing Finance Agency Unconstitutional
Big news out of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals—the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is unconstitutionally structured. The FHFA was created in the wake…
Blog
In U.S. and Australia, Payment Card Price Controls Create Many Unhappy Returns
Eight years ago this month, the Democrat-controlled House and Senate passed and President Barack Obama signed into law the so-called Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and…
Blog
Five Questions for Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Nominee Kathy Kraninger
Kathy Kraninger, President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (formerly known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB), will…
Blog
Trump Reorg Plan One Step Forward, Two Steps Back on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
My colleagues Trey Kovacs and Iain Murray and, in Forbes, Wayne Crews, give mixed reviews to President Trump’s long-awaited executive branch reorganization…
Blog
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Must Define New Rulemaking Powers
When Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, there was an unprecedented allocation of power to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP—previously known as…
Comment
CEI Comments on the CFPB’s Request for Information Regarding Adopted Regulations and New Rulemaking Authorities
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), we are pleased to provide the following comments on the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s (Bureau or…