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
Cato Institute
The Fate of ‘Never Needed’ Regulations
Parking lots and parking garages have served for decades as venues for clandestine meetings in the movies and often in reality. In the early 1970s,…
News Release
House poised to end Biden-era CFPB overdraft rule: CEI statement
The House is expected today to vote on a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution overturning a Biden era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule to cap…
Issues & Insights
Reviving Community Banking By Lifting Barriers To New Banks
Americans have far fewer banks to choose from than they once did. The American banking industry has consolidated, with the number of U.S. banks falling…
Search Posts
CNS News
Obamacare Provides $7,200 ‘Divorce Incentive,’ $11,000 for Older Couples
In the Obamacare health insurance exchanges, being married can cost you a lot. Get divorced (or avoid getting married, if you live together), and you…
News Release
Consumer Bureau Gets an F in Transparency
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 26, 2013 — As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) defends its right to monitor ordinary citizens’ credit card transactions, it is…
Daily Caller
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accused of violating transparency law
“Just about every time they’re convening, it has to be open to the public . . . and when it’s not open to the public…
Human Events
Stand with Rand on Credit Union Freedom
This week, the nation’s credit unions, member-owned financial services groups, are taking their case to Capitol Hill. On many issues they face, conservatives and libertarians…
Blog
MoveOn admits: “[I]f younger, healthier people don’t participate, then costs will skyrocket and Obamacare will fail.”
MoveOn.org yesterday sent me an appeal asking for $5 to help fund a $250,000 social media campaign supporting ObamaCare targeted to reach young adults. Here’s…
Credit Union Times
Flawed Durbin Ruling Boosts Fed’s Odds:
Since U.S. District Judge Richard Leon issued his shocking decision on July 31 that called for even more draconian price controls under…
Real Clear Markets
Federal Judge Rules Food Stamp Recipients Can Unionize
In a surprise ruling, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion supporting the right of Supplemental Nutrition…
Investor's Business Daily
US Air, AMR Vow To Fight DOJ Lawsuit To Block Merger
"This administration's Department of Justice has a different posture than past DOJs, which had a more conservative approach to antitrust measures," said Marc Scribner, transportation…
Forbes
Caveat Emptor Banking: Peer-To-Peer Lending Challenges Too-Big-To-Fail Status Quo
Imagine a financial institution that the government cannot deem too big to fail, requires no deposit insurance, can never be subject to a run, needs…
Las Vegas Review Journal
Government moves to block airline merger, warns of higher fares, fees
But the open-market-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute called the Department of Justice action “deeply misguided.” “On the heels of the successful Delta-Northwest and United-Continental mergers,…
Forbes
Caveat Emptor Banking: Peer-To-Peer Lending Challenges Too-Big-To-Fail Status Quo
Imagine a financial institution that the government cannot deem too big to fail, requires no deposit insurance, can never be subject to a run, needs…
Legal Brief
District Court grant of motion to dismiss
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by CEI, 11 state attorneys general, and the State National Bank of Big Spring challenging the…
News Release
Adverse District Court Opinion on Dodd-Frank Deeply Flawed, Case Now on Appeal
Washington, D.C., August 2, 2013 – A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by CEI, 11 state attorneys general, and the State National…
News Release
Dodd-Frank Ruling Goes Wrong Way
Washington, D.C., July 31, 2013 – Today, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon struck down debit card price controls in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul as not…
Politico
Summers nomination fear: Market jitters – Has the economy already peaked? – Democrats blur line on tax policy
WSJ’s op-ed by Competitive Enterprise Institute’s John Berlau and Kyle Tassinari: “Here's some good financial news for millions of Americans: The provision in Dodd-Frank that imposed a…
Free Beacon
Harry Reid May Invoke Nuclear Option to Achieve Confirmation of Mel Watt
“Mel Watt’s career has been all about granting government goodies to big banks as well as his favored liberal constituencies,” said John Berlau, senior fellow…
CBN
Detroit Officials Defend Bankruptcy Decision
Is the bankruptcy filing a good thing for Detroit? Bill Frezza, a Boston based venture capitalist and fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, talks about…
Wall Street Journal
In Praise of Banking at Big-Box Stores
Cowritten by Research Associate Kyle Tassinari Here's some good financial news for millions of Americans: The provision in Dodd-Frank that imposed a three-year moratorium on…
Huffington Post
Want to Revive Glass-Steagall? Try This Wall of Separation Instead
A debate is raging on the left, the right, and even in libertarian circles on the best way to escape from the Too-Big-To-Fail quagmire. These…
New Britain Herald
BUSINESS SCENE: Dodd-Frank bill not living up to expectaions
Others aren’t so sure. John Berlau, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said if the president wants to focus on the “north star” of…
News Release
CEI Challenges Cordray to Live Up to His Recess Appointment Claims
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 17, 2013 — Richard Cordray has been approved as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), 19 months after he was…
Newsmax
Free Speech Trumps SEC Advertising Ban
Wednesday was finally the day that the Securities and Exchange Commission — one year and three months after it was instructed to do so by…
News Release
CEI’s Berlau: “It’s About Time” SEC Permits Free Speech for Hedge Funds, VCs, and Entrepreneurs
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 10, 2013 — It took a year and three months after the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act was signed into law,…
Newsmax
In Europe Cutting Taxes and Spending Leads to the Best Results
Matthew Melchiorre, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Warren Brookes Journalism Fellow, has written a report on so-called austerity in Europe showing that many…
Daily Caller
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau compared to NSA
“The CFPB is demanding mounds and mounds of data during the examination process of financial institutions, basically making the implicit threat that they either give…
Forbes
Coming Soon: A Dramatic Downshift In Company Size, Plus Hours Worked
The regulatory state never sleeps, relentlessly working day and night to tilt the economic playing field in favor of the politically connected. The regulations it…
Forbes
Coming Soon: A Dramatic Downshift In Company Size, Plus Hours Worked
A recent study on the impact on business growth of regulatory thresholds built into Italian labor laws is quite instructive of how this works. In…
National Review
Dodd-Frank’s Early Returns
‘Admit it . . . you haven’t read it all either.” Thus said a New York Times op-ed (by Bono, of all people) about…
Investor's Business Daily
Online ‘Fairness’ Tax Could Hit Your 401(k)
Financial transaction tax proposals have prompted much debate over the past year, both in the U.S. and internationally. In February, the European Union proposed allowing…
Forbes
The IRS Fiasco Is Only The Tip Of The Iceberg
You certainly hear some amazing things in congressional testimony. Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS unit that determines whether organizations receive tax-exempt status, claimed…
Blog
Anti-Business and Anti-Freedom: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
In the American Spectator, CEI Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray and Geoffrey McLatchey explain why the Senate should be skeptical of the United Nations Convention…
Forbes
More mischief
Now comes word that the Environmental Protection Agency has been abusing the Freedom of Information Act. Agencies can charge FOIA request makers for the…
Forbes
Self Help Africa: Why Only Profits Can Cure Poverty
The importance of profiting from one’s efforts ought to be an easy concept to embrace. It is why humans no longer live in caves. If…
News Release
Udall-Paul Legislation Spreads Freedom for Credit Unions and Entrepreneurs
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 21, 2013 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based free market think tank, commends legislation introduced by Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and…
New York Times
This Week in Small Business: Small Data
Adam Liptak says this has been the most business-friendly Supreme Court since World War II. The Senate approves an online sales tax bill,…
Forbes
How The Federal Reserve Became History’s Biggest Bad Bank
Every time a plane crashes, a team of engineers and aviation experts jump into action, methodically reconstructing the event to determine the cause—whether mechanical failure,…
The American Spectator
Financial Experts: Dodd-Frank Exacerbates Instability
These were the standout insights from a panel discussion hosted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) on April 11. The gathering focused on the Financial…
The American Spectator
Let’s Lose LOST
When Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech at the Ross Sea Conservation Reception on March 19, he suggested that we should have called…
News Release
Main Street Wins As Dodd-Frank Rules Eased
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 20, 2013 — Today, members of the House Agriculture Committee advanced seven bipartisan bills that would ease derivative rules of the…
Forbes
How To Protect Your Retirement Assets From The Coming Crash
As a chronic prognosticator of doom, I’m often asked, “Do you heed your own warnings?” I sure didn’t the last time the stock market crashed.
Watchdog
Dodd-Frank regulatory flaws stir passion at CPAC
But that’s a point of concern to John Berlau, a financial analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, because this could be taken to mean that…
Blog
Dallas Fed’s Fisher And CPAC’s Fishy Too-Big-To-Fail Event
If the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) organizers wanted a speaker or panel on the causes of the financial crisis and what to do about…
New York Times
Letter to the Editor: JOBS Act Successes
Steven Rattner asserts that “the JOBS Act has little to do with employment” (“A Sneaky Way to Deregulate,” Op-Ed, March 4), but the data…
Wall Street Journal
He’s Still a Player
Many musicians have gotten their start in garages and, in the tech era, so have many entrepreneurs. But Herb Alpert has the rare distinction of…
Free Beacon
The Rural Housing Bubble
John Berlau, senior fellow for finance and access to capital at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agreed. “The government subsidize[s] risky home loans that the private…
Legal Brief
Dodd-Frank State Plaintiffs Opposition to Motion to Dismiss
Eleven states and two private plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This is the states’ response…
Legal Brief
Dodd-Frank Private Plaintiffs Opposition to Motion to Dismiss
Eleven states and two private plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This is the private plaintiffs’…
The American Spectator
At Minimum, a Big Loser
President Obama brought the minimum wage debate back into the news in a big way in his State of the Union address, when he proposed…
PJ Media
Here’s to Austerity: Last Day Until Sequestration
Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute wrote on February 25 that these cuts are good. The Cato Institute describes why most of these cuts…
Forbes
Sequester This! President Obama’s Colossal Media Blunder
President Obama has gone all-in trying to get Republicans to blink and serve up another round of tax increases in lieu of the looming spending…
National Review
A Genuine Conservative Opinion Editor at the Times
No, not the New York Times. That could happen today only under the most bizarre of circumstances. It’s the Times of London, the Thunderer herself,…
National Review
Countdown to Sequester
The hysteria of President Obama, liberals in Congress, and the media over very small cuts in federal spending from…
Free Beacon
Fannie Motors
“It’s becoming Fannie Motors,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute finance scholar John Berlau, referring to the government-backed housing lender Fannie Mae. “They’re still using our tax…
Free Beacon
A Different Standard
Hans Bader, senior attorney and counsel for special projects at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which filed a brief in the St. Paul case, said…
Free Beacon
Eight States Join Challenge of Law That Regulates Financial Industry
The move comes more than four months after three other AGs joined the suit, which was originally filed in June by the State National Bank…
Free Beacon
Georgia joins lawsuit challenging Dodd-Frank
In addition to the community bank, original plaintiffs include the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the 60 Plus Association. Attorneys General from Michigan, Oklahoma, and South…
Legal Brief
Dodd-Frank Second Amended Complaint
News Release
Eight More States Join Constitutional Challenge to Dodd-Frank Act
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 13, 2013 – In an attempt to protect their pension funds, taxpayers and financial stability, the states of Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Montana,…
Free Beacon
Left-Wing Groups Shape Dodd Frank
“That these anti-capitalist agendas are influencing the CFPB is especially troubling, because the CFPB lacks any form of accountability to American voters through Congress,” John…
Letters
Letter to Congress on Nomination of Richard Cordray to the CFPB
CEI and the 60 Plus Association sent a letter urging Congress to take time to consider the re-nomination of Richard Cordray to the CFPB, in…
Free Beacon
Behind the Consumer Confidence Crash
The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the 60 Plus Association are writing Congress “asking the Senate withhold the confirmation of [CFPB director nominee Richard] Cordray until…
Free Beacon
Groups ask Senate to withhold Cordray’s confirmation as CFPB director
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, along with a seniors advocacy group, has sent a letter to Congress asking the Senate to withhold Richard Cordray’s confirmation as…
Free Beacon
Value Destroyers Like Bernanke Fancy Themselves Magician Economists
Economics is not magic. Yet today, many prominent economists insist on pulling off an economic rabbit hat trick when they propose getting something for nothing.
Free Beacon
Plaintiffs from CFPB Suit Urge Cordray Confirmation Delay
The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the 60 Plus Association are urging the Senate to delay confirmation of Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection…
News Release
Spending Cuts Caused Economy to Contract? How About Regulatory Cliff
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2013 — Today, the government reported the stunning news the U.S. economy actually contracted by .1 percent in the fourth quarter…
CBN
If the Economy Is Weak, Why are Stocks Going Up?
Bill Freeza, with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said he expects a tough economic year. "We're not going to see the kind of growth…
LA Times
Court rules Obama’s recess picks are illegal
"We think it's likely his recess appointment is going to meet the same fate," said Sam Kazman, general counsel of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a…
Townhall
Dodd-Frank is an Unconstitutional Disaster
That law, Dodd-Frank, is being challenged in State National Bank of Big Spring v. Geithner. The lead plaintiff is a community bank that has had…
Townhall
Not All Austerity Is Equal
Prominent economists, politicians, and pundits throw around the term “austerity” as if policies by…
News Release
Obama’s Financial Nominees Send Mixed Signals
WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 24, 2013—Today, President Obama nominated two ex-prosecutors for key financial posts. But John Berlau, senior fellow for finance and access to…
Townhall
Why All The Green Pork In A Deal Meant To Avoid The Fiscal Cliff?
When President Obama’s autopen turned the fiscal cliff deal into law, Americans might have thought that the federal government had begun to walk down the…
Real Clear Politics
Obama Blinks: No Emperor’s New Coin
It looks like the American people have been cheated out of a precious teachable moment. Demonstrating their ability to think two moves ahead, something their…
Real Clear Politics
Something for Everybody (To Hate): Rep. Wilson’s Beach House Bailout
But the bill still has some degree of serious support. In 2007, a version actually passed the House of Representatives 286-155 with co-sponsors that included…
Financial Post
Avoiding the ‘Basel cliff’
John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington has called the global bank rules the “Basel cliff” that could decimate many U.S. banks. Banks…
News Release
Eurocrats Delay “Basel III” Albatross on U.S. Banks
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 8, 2013 – Over the weekend, a committee of international regulators and central bankers decided to slightly revise and delay the…
New York Times
Easing of Rules for Banks Acknowledges Reality
“If Basel had been implemented this year as written, it almost certainly would have thrown the U.S. and other economies into a recession more than…
Forbes
Fiscal Justice Trumps Fiscal Sanity, Progressivism Marches On
In his first New Year’s Eve address since taking office, French President François Hollande—progressive poster boy and role model for class warriors the world over—defended his…
Forbes
Happy New Year? Fiscal Cliff, Meet The Costberg
How the largest government on earth plans to expand our liberties in the new year of 2013 by forcing “the rich” to pay somebody’s idea…
News Release
Taxpayers Get Terrible Deal on GM Stock
Washington, D.C. – December 20, 2012 – John Berlau, Senior Fellow for Finance and Access to Capital, had the following to say about the…
CNN
Safety net for business bank accounts at risk
John Berlau, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, argues ending the TAG program is in the nation's best interest. He said the usefulness…
News Release
TAG Bank Bailout Fails in Senate, Taxpayers Win
Washington, D.C. – December 13, 2012 – On behalf of taxpayers and future generations burdened by the nation’s debt, the Competitive Enterprise Institute rejoices at…
Human Events
The Return of Gunboat Diplomacy
Co-authored with Riley Walters. Last September, China deployed six surveillance ships in response to the Japanese government’s attempt to buy the disputed Senkaku islands,…
Letters
Free-Market Coalition Letter Against TAG’s Unlimited Deposit Insurance
As the Senate prepares today to vote on extending unlimited deposit insurance for non-interest bank accounts, 14 leaders and scholars of conservative and free-market groups signed a…
Huffington Post
Transatlantic Free Trade Must Be Done Right
There's a buzz, says Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, in both Berlin and D.C. these days, for free trade as a potential path back to…
News Release
Coalition Tags TAG Bailout as Regressive and Economically Disastrous
Washington, DC, December 10, 2012 – As the Senate prepares today to vote on extending unlimited deposit insurance for non-interest bank accounts, 14 leaders and scholars…
National Review
Do as Reagan Did, And Free Credit Unions
In their post-mortem on the election, National Review’s editors stressed the need to “make the case that conservative policies would make the broad mass of…
Forbes
A Tax Both Ayn Rand And Ralph Nader Could Love
Here is a puzzler worth pondering as Congress scrambles to find enough tax revenue to feed its insatiable appetite for spending. Can you come up…
Letters
Coalition Letter on the Fiscal Cliff and the Taxpayer Protection Pledge
Full Document Available in PDF Dear Republican Members of Congress, We, the undersigned organizations, who represent millions of Americans dedicated to fiscal…
Forbes
Grover Norquist’s Gnomes Duke It Out With The Tax Fairness Fairy
No one seriously believes that federal spending is going to be brought under control any time soon. Regardless of what deals are cut during the…
Appeal Democrat
Taking money off the table
The range of higher taxes looming Jan. 1 as part of the "fiscal cliff" are not the only blow the economy could suffer, John Berlau…
Appeal Democrat
Opportunity And Wealth Remain In America, Not Europe
The presidential election proved Americans have embraced European-style social democracy and that ObamaCare is but the first chapter in a new era of big government.
Legal Brief
Dodd Frank Challenge – Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss
Full Document Available in PDF This lawsuit cobbles together an array of disparate challenges to the constitutionality of three titles of an…
Daily Caller
‘Basel cliff’ looms for community banks
As if the “fiscal cliff” were not enough, banks of all sizes — and in turn the consumers and businesses that rely on their credit…
Blog
The Hostess Bankruptcy And The Threat Of A PBGC Bailout
On Friday, November 16, Hostess Brands announced it was shutting down operations after the Bakers, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), which rejected…
Letters
Coalition Letter on Unintended Consequences of Basel III
Full Document Available in PDF The undersigned organizations, institutions and nonprofits interested in fostering entrepreneurship represent hundreds of thousands businesses, small and…
Trib Live
Chrysler, Fiat deal backfires
John Berlau is the senior fellow for finance and access to capital in the Center for Economic Freedom at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington,…
NJ
Repeal of Durbin Amendment would protect consumers from annual credit card fees
A year ago, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Consumer Protection Act’s Durbin Amendment price controls went into effect, causing consumers to lose free checking and be…
Blog
Sandy Beaches, Meet Hurricane Sandy
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, many reminisce of 2005's Hurricane Katrina. With at least a dozen East Coast states in a declared state of…
The American Spectator
Dodd-Frank’s Mystery SIFI Theater
Following the financial crisis, there was a desire to protect the nation against banks becoming so large that their failure would threaten the entire financial…
Daily Caller
The Real Fiat Scandal
Cowritten by Mark Beatty. The real outrage arising from the 2009 Chrysler bailout is not that its parent company, Fiat, is planning to build…
