CEI has fought excessive regulation in the financial sector from laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank. We have scored major bipartisan victories for deregulation. These include the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, signed by President Obama in 2012, that lifted or relaxed some of the biggest burdens preventing small and midsize firms from raising capital and going public; and the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, signed by President Trump in 2018, that lifted some of Dodd-Frank’s crushing burden on community banks and credit unions. We continue to fight to remove regulatory barriers that limit choices and increase costs for entrepreneurs, investors, and consumers.
Banking and Finance Issue Areas
Featured Posts
Daily Calller
Social Security Now Headed For Insolvency Even Sooner Than Expected
Daily Caller cited CEI’s experts on Social Security spending Congress can’t keep dodging entitlement reform. Social Security’s $28 trillion in unfunded liabilities is about the…

Blog
GENIUS Act needs free market fixes before it graduates to law
Yesterday, the US Senate voted to approve a regulatory regime for stablecoins. This vote represents one of the most significant milestones for cryptocurrency since the…

News Release
Courts should allow CFPB to vacate case against small mortgage firm
U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama on June 12 denied a request by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to vacate a Biden-era settlement against the Chicago-based mortgage…
Search Posts
InsideSources
Critics Get ‘Whiff of Racism’ in Progressive Attempts to Shut Down Tribal Lenders
InsideSources cites CEI Director of Financial Policy and Senior Fellow John Berlau on interest rates: John Berlau, Director of Finance Policy…
Blog
Crypto Volatility Heightens with Panic-Driven Regulation
In reaction to the volatile events of the last few weeks, both the stock and cryptocurrency markets have taken a deep dive. While this downturn…
Blog
CPI Slightly Up, Inflation Slightly Down?
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May increased to an annualized 8.6 percent rate over the last year, reaching another new 40-year high. Even so,…
Comment
CEI Comments to Senate Banking Committee on JOBS Act 4.0
Senator Pat ToomeyRanking Member, Senate Banking Committee455 Dirksen Senate Office BuildingWashington, D.C 20510Dear Senator Toomey,On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), it is our…
News Release
Bipartisan Cryptocurrency Bill Takes Good Steps for American Innovation
Today, Senators Lummis and Gillibrand released their much anticipated bill on cryptocurrency regulation. CEI financial policy expert John Berlau praised aspects of the bill…
Blog
The Stablecoin Contagion That Wasn’t
A rare, recent real-life test case allowed observers to contrast government warnings with real-world events. Reining in cryptocurrency markets has become a key priority for…
News Release
SEC Climate Disclosure Mandate Exceeds Agency’s Statutory Authority, Raises Constitutional Concerns
WASHINGTON—The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) plan to mandate companies disclose energy use and planning for climate change-related financial risks lacks authorization from Congress, infringes…
Study
The SEC’s Costly Power Grab
The concept known as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing has gained an increasingly high profile in recent years, with advocates producing a large volume…
Forbes
Inflation And Biden’s Whole-Of-Government Price Hike
The Trump era saw countless news stories quoting unnamed officials speaking disapprovingly of their boss “on the condition of anonymity.” Because of …
Blog
George Washington, George Jarkesy, and the Administrative State’s Lack of Fundamental Justice
The recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Jarkesy v. SEC is a victory for limited constitutional government…
Wall Street Journal
A Judicial Ruling Challenges the SEC’s Illegal Power
The Fifth Circuit says the agency violates the Constitution by acting as prosecutor, judge and jury. The U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers was meant to…
Blog
Fifth Circuit Upholds the Right to A Jury Trial Against the SEC
John Thomas Financial CEO Thomas Belesis was riding high, having been awarded the 2011 Businessman of the Year Award from the New York Republicans. While…
Blog
Credit Union Liberalization Bill Clears Away Never-Needed Red Tape
When I testified last July at a high-profile hearing on financial inclusion, I urged members of the House Financial Services Committee to liberalize regulations…
Blog
Terra Troubles Should Not Spur Stablecoin Regulation
The crypto market is suffering a severe correction. One asset feeling the pinch is LUNA, which, along with its related nonprofit the Luna Foundation Guard…
News Release
Inflation Still 4x Higher than Target Rate, New Government Numbers Show
The inflation rate isn’t much changed from last month’s high figure, 8.3 percent compared to 8.5 percent, new government data shows. CEI Senior Fellow Ryan…
Blog
What Is Core Inflation?
The new inflation numbers are out, and they aren’t pretty. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) went up 0.3 percent during April, and is up…
Blog
Biden’s Inflation Speech: Top Domestic Priority
President Biden gave remarks on Tuesday declaring inflation his top domestic priority. Like many people, he seems not to understand that inflation is a…
Forbes
Congress Is Causing Rising Regulatory Burdens. That Needs Fixing
Mid-terms are approaching, and that means market-oriented policy groups, classical liberals, libertarians and others will resume the tradition of dusting off, polishing and updating …
Blog
Countries Move Forward with CBDCs Despite Public Mistrust
New research from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reveals that countries are plowing ahead with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) despite little public…
Blog
CEI Joins Groups in Telling SEC to Stay Away from Private Markets
It’s bad enough that Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have made it so costly for smaller companies to go and stay public…
Blog
Environmental and Social Factors in Investing too Vague for Legal Definitions
Recently, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Gary Gensler released a video explaining his concerns about investment products that market themselves using terms like…
Blog
Fed Hikes Interest Rate: Bigger News on Bond Portfolio Mostly Neglected
The Fed this week announced a half percentage point hike in its federal funds rate. This is the right thing to do, but it…
Blog
GDP Shrinks: The Good and the Bad
The advance estimate for 2022’s first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) is in, and the news is not good. Adjusting for inflation, GDP shrank…
Blog
Crypto and Crowdfunding Could Spur U.S. Economy
Crypto and equity crowdfunding (Reg CF) are two relatively new concepts that are combining to create new economic models that could overtake current economic paradigms.
Blog
SEC’s War on Crypto Savers Continues
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler claims he is “animated every day” to protect working families through securities laws. It’s a nice…
Blog
Lisa Cook’s First Amendment Problem Should Concern Senators
As early as Tuesday, the U.S. Senate could vote on the nomination of Lisa Cook to be a governor of the Federal Reserve, along with…
Comment
Joint Comments on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Incursion into Private Markets.
RE: Private Fund Advisers; Documentation of Registered Investment Adviser Compliance Reviews (SEC Release Nos. IA-5955; File No. S7-03-22) Dear Ms. Countryman: The undersigned organizations appreciate…
Blog
My Response to the CFPB’s “Junky” Regulatory Inquiry on Fees
In response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) “request for information” on what its Director Rohit Chopra has labeled as “junk fees” on financial…
Blog
Protecting Pensions from Politicized Mismanagement
Recently the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization of state legislators from across the country, unveiled model legislation aimed at protecting the retirement…
Blog
Members of Congress Push Back on SEC Climate Proposal
Skeptical members of Congress have begun weighing in on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent climate disclosure proposal, and their objections are significant.
FOX Business
Biden Administration Moves on Taxing, Regulating Cryptocurrency
FOX Business cites Senior Fellow John Berlau on the Biden Administration’s recent moves to tax cryptocurrency: Thanks to a provision in the…
Blog
Inflation Rises to 8.5 Percent: Straining for Optimism
High inflation will likely be with us for a while, which means I’ll be writing a lot of posts like this. So, for the sake…
Blog
Rep. Van Duyne Confronts Excesses of Climate Policy at SEC
Last week Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) and a dozen co-sponsors introduced the Stopping Excessive Climate Reporting Act (H.R.7355) to prevent the Securities and Exchange…
Comment
Comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on its Request for Information on “Junk Fees”
Dear Director Chopra: On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), I respectfully submit the following comments in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s…
Blog
Celebrate Decade of JOBS Act as Deregulatory Success
10 years ago, a GOP-controlled House, a Democrat-controlled Senate, and a Democratic president came together to lighten the regulatory burden on America’s upstart job creators.
News Release
Biden Budget ‘Billionaire Tax’ Constitutionally Troubling
The newly released details of the White House budget for fiscal year 2023 marks a failure in spending restraint and regulatory accountability, say CEI experts.
Blog
White House Confiscatory Tax Proposal Underlines Why CEI Is Challenging Provision of 2017 Tax Reform
Today President Biden previewed his proposed fiscal year 2023 budget. I am in complete agreement with the first five words: “Budgets are statements of values.” …
Blog
Inflation and the Biden Budget
It is good that the Biden administration is beginning to take inflation seriously. Unfortunately, however, there isn’t much that the president and Congress can…
Blog
Why Cannabis Banking Liberalization Would Indeed Increase U.S. Competitiveness
As war continues in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, interest by policy makers and the media has spiked in competitiveness bills passed separately…
Blog
Climate Police Occupy Wall Street
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, March 21, released its proposed rule to require every “registrant” (i.e., publicly-traded company) to provide more…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter on Durbin Amendment
Dear Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Toomey, Chairwoman Waters, and Ranking Member McHenry: The undersigned organizations write in opposition to any legislation that would expand or…
The Washington Examiner
Biden’s Executive Order Marks the Government’s Initial Foray into Cryptocurrency
The regulatory future of cryptocurrency looks uncertain in Washington, but there is growing acceptance that blockchain finance is here to stay. President Joe Biden issued…
News Release
In Order to Counter Inflation, Federal Reserve Should End Bond Buying Spree
The Federal Reserve announced today it would raise benchmark interest rates by a quarter percentage point with the aim of counteracting the effects of…
News Release
After Bloom Raskin Withdrawal, Biden Should Nominate Someone Focused on Financial Stability, Monetary Policy
President Biden’s nominee to be Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew her nomination from consideration today, after it became clear that…
USA Today
What Did Biden Get Wrong on Crypto? His New Order Threatens to Smother Innovation
President Joe Biden released an executive order Wednesday that could curtail opportunities that cryptocurrency provides for economic advancement, notwithstanding the order’s hopeful tone about…
CoinDesk
The First Crypto War May Lead to Lasting Peace
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the first crypto war. The digital asset front follows only the actual fighting in importance. Crypto has been a…
News Release
CEI Statement: Biden Executive Order to Target Crypto for Regulation
The White House is set to release an executive order today regulating cryptocurrency. CEI Senior Fellow John Berlau expressed concerns about the order and the…
Blog
Stablecoins Come of Age in Ukraine-Russia Conflict
Across the globe, people living under oppressive regimes are already familiar with stablecoins—digital assets pegged to a stable monetary value, usually the U.S. dollar. Now,…
Blog
Don’t Raise Accredited Investor Thresholds
The gulf between Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler’s rhetoric and the results of his leadership continues to widen. In interviews and…
The New York Sun
Regulations Stymie New York in Crypto Competition vs. Miami
New York City and Miami are the clear frontrunners to become the preeminent home of American cryptocurrency, and the cities’ mayors — Eric Adams of…