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
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…
The National News Desk
Inflation steady in February, but war risks new price surge
The National News Desk cited CEI’s expert on CPI data “The longer the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the greater the upward pressure on energy…
Search Posts
Blog
Ted Kennedy’s Deregulatory Legacy on Airlines and Trucking
Tributes are pouring in for Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, who lost his battle with brain cancer late Tuesday evening at the age of 77.
Blog
CEI’s RRM Suggests Additional Questions for Florida Insurance Commissioner
Yesterday in a press release from CEI's Center for Risk, Regulation, and Markets, the Center raised many questions that should be brought to Florida Insurance…
Newsletter
Healthcare Complexity, Union Politics and Insurance Markets
Critics question the unwieldy complexity of current healthcare legislation. A compromise version of the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” gains momentum in Congress. Florida Rep.
Op-Eds
Government Run-Health Coops Would be Different
Re: "The insurance co-op is already in your neighborhood," Aug. 19 State Farm is an admirably run insurer, but its structure may…
Washington Examiner
Nanotechnology: Innovation vs. Corporate Welfare
For the sake of consumers, nanotech firms should compete in the marketplace, not in Washington. Otherwise a vibrant, dynamic, and innovative sector risks…
News Release
CEI Suggests Questions for Florida Insurance Commissioner
Scholars at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank, today urged Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty to accept Rep. Scott Plakon’s invitation to…
Washington Examiner
New Credit Card Law Punished Responsible People
If your credit is good, or your credit card balance is low, you may soon pay more on every credit card bill. Why? Congress…
Washington Examiner
The Anticipated Consequences of Credit-Card Reform
Study
Principles for Property Mitigation Discounts
Legislators should be wary of efforts to mandate specific mitigation discounts without paying attention to the myriad other factors that can play a major role…
Washington Examiner
Closing Reinsurance Tax Loophole Proposed in Congress
Washington Examiner
Don’t Ban but Expand Them
In proposing his new financial regulations this summer, President Obama pledged to get tough on the big Wall Street banks whose risky practices are…
Newsletter
Swiss bank settlement, Hurricanes, Healthcare debate continues
UBS agrees to turn over to the IRS the names of 4,450 U.S. account holders. …
Washington Examiner
Regulators Tangle With Think Tank Over Fla. Market Picture
Newsletter
The Future of Coal, Rose Friedman and Florida Insurance
Environmental activists try to shut down and limit the use of coal-fired power plants. Economist and author Rose Friedman dies at age 98. Florida’s insurance…
News Release
UBS Settlement Only a Partial Victory for the Feds
The following is the statement of John Berlau, Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in reaction to…
Blog
Legal Experts and Civil Rights Commission Attack Obama Health-Care Plan As Unconstitutional
Constitutional law professor Rob Natelson argues that Obama’s health-care plan is unconstitutional in four different ways. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights…
Washington Examiner
State Farm Wants to Make More Money From Florida
News Release
CEI Critiques FL. Commissioner McCarty’s Insurance Report
CEI CRITIQUES FL. COMMISSIONER MCCARTY’S INSURANCE REPORT “The Same Misinformation in a New Package” TALLAHASSEE, August 17, 2009 – Florida Office of Insurance Regulation…
Blog
Tim Carney on State-Level Insurance Protectionism
In one regulated area of the economy after another, it’s exasperating to hear journalists and pundits claim that, “The market has failed,” when in fact…
Newsletter
TARP Transparency, Stimulating Recession and Union Arrogance
Congress cites a lack of financial transparency in a report sharply critical of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout. The economies of Germany and…
Washington Examiner
Florida Lawmaker Rips Insurance Commissioner, Vows to Bring Back Rate Deregulation Bill
Newsletter
Banking Privacy, Media Bias and Sports Betting
Federal officials reach a bank privacy agreement with Swiss bank UBS. The death of news anchor Walter Cronkite sparks debate over the ideal of journalistic…
Washington Examiner
Lesson From France-Recession Ends Without US-Style Stimulus
Washington Examiner
Lesson From France-Recession Ends Without US-Style Stimulus
The recession has ended in France, which avoided adopting a massive stimulus package like Obama’s $800 billion stimulus package. France’s conservative President…
News Release
Federal Officials Reach Bank Privacy Agreement with UBS
Statement of John Berlau, director of the Center for Investor and Entrepreneurs at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, on a reported deal between the United States…
CEI Planet
TARP Transparency: A Good Start, but Not Enough
Herbert Allison is President Obama’s newly-confirmed head of the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Stability. On Thursday, June 25, he promised to “emphasize transparency so…
Newsletter
EU Antitrust Rebuke, Record Deficit Numbers and the Costs of Global Warming Policy
European competition regulators get chastised for hiding evidence in a case against Intel. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the federal…
CEI Planet
Insurance Against Terrorism
After hijackers destroyed the World Trade Center on 9/11, taxpayers ended up spending a lot of money to aid the injured, rebuild public infrastructure, improve…
CEI Planet
Insurance Against Terrorism
CEI Planet
Limited Government Role Seen in Tackling Catastrophe Risks
Q: What role should the federal government play in setting natural catastrophe policy? The federal government certainly has a role to play…
CEI Planet
Overhaul State’s Mitigation-Discount System
State Farm’s decision to reduce government-mandated mitigation discounts seems severe. But it’s unlikely the company would have made it — and dealt with the…
News Release
Think tank questions denial of State Farm mitigation discount rate filing request
The Florida Insurance Project of the Competitive Enterprise Institute today questioned state insurance regulators’ decision to deny State Farm’s request to reduce mandatory discounts for…
Newsletter
Microhoo Scrutiny, Terrorism Insurance and Cooling Global Temperatures
Microsoft and Yahoo face antitrust scrutiny for their recently announced 10-year search agreement. The White House proposes scaling back a federal…
News Release
CEI Announces Second Annual ‘Out of the Storm’ Conference on Insurance Reform
The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Risk, Regulation, and Markets (RRM) announced today that they will be co-hosting a conference in New Orleans along with…
CEI Planet
Neal Reintroduces Offshore Reinsurance Tax Bill
CEI Planet
Health Reform Can’t Copy Auto Insurance
Republicans and Democrats have looked to auto insurance as a model for reforming an expensive health care system that leaves millions without coverage and…
Newsletter
Apple under Investigation, CEO Pay Limits and Hurricane Safety
The Federal Communications Commission investigates Apple and AT&T over the decision to spurn Google Voice on the iPhone. The House of Representatives passes a bill…
CEI Planet
Bermuda Insurers Hit Back at Controversial Neal Bill
CEI Planet
Changing Winds Aim at Insurance
Blog
Policy Translated: The Homeowners’ Defense Act
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmzVgg0tpmo 285 234]…
News Release
Bonus Pay Bill: CBO Predicts Huge Costs to Private Sector, Broad Swaths of Employees Affected
Bonus Pay Bill: CBO Predicts Huge Costs to Private Sector, Broad Swaths of Employees Affected Statement of John Berlau, Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs Washington,…
CEI Planet
US Reinsurance Tax Bill Branded “Anti Consumer”
CEI Planet
Pay Me Later
CEI Planet
Bill Closing Tax Loophole for ‘Offshores’ Introduced
News Release
Hurricanes, Dan Rather’s Media Plan and New Insurance Taxes
Global hurricane activity reaches a 30 year low, confounding predictions of more hurricanes caused by global warming. Retired CBS newsreader Dan…
CEI Planet
Beach Houses: Owned by the Rich, Paid for by Everyone
News Release
CEI Blasts Rep. Neal’s Reinsurance Tax Bill
A Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank, today blasted Rep. Richard Neal’s (D-MA) introduction of a bill to impose…
Blog
Obama Health-Care Plan Will Harm People With Insurance, and Raise Taxes, Obama Adviser Says
Obama’s health-care plan is drawing criticism from one of his own advisers, Harvard University’s Martin Feldstein. In today’s Washington Post, Feldstein warns that…
Blog
Dems’ Health Care Bill Looking Weaker by the Day
For the Democrats still supporting the health care overhaul, the blows just keep coming. As if the financial problems I described in a previous…
Blog
Health Insurance Reform: look at what does and doesn’t work already
“One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and…
Newsletter
Cutting Back on Healthcare, Online Privacy and Front-Running on Wall Street
House Democrats debate how to cut healthcare costs as part of their effort to pass major new legislation. Online advertisers back voluntary industry guidelines for…
CEI Planet
Protection Is a Team Effort
Floridians, don't let the current lack of hurricane activity lull you into a false sense of security. As a low-lying peninsula jutting out into the…
Blog
Our Colleague Julie Called it “Subprime Healthcare”
I think that about sums it up.
CEI Planet
Auto Insurance Works – So Why Doesn’t Health Insurance
Those looking for solutions to America’s health insurance bills can see a lot to admire in the auto insurance market. Auto coverage purchasers throughout…
Blog
Obama Health-Care Plan Destroys Cheap Health-Care Options, Raises Taxes, Breaks Promises
In 2008, Obama promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. But he is now breaking that promise by…
Letters
Coalition Letter on Optional Federal Chartering
Full Letter Available in Word As Congress moves towards a debate over sweeping reform of the nation’s financial regulations, we urge you to…
Newsletter
Labor Politics, Government Paternalism and Tobacco Profits
Labor unions push to establish “binding arbitration” in contract negotiations. The nomination of law professor Cass Sunstein to oversee new federal regulations moves forward. Cigarette…
Blog
Obama Rejects Reality as “Politics of the Moment,” Embraces Politics of Fear
Listening to President Barack Obama and other top Democrats on the subject of health care, one could be forgiven for thinking commercial medicine itself is…
Newsletter
Paulson’s Testimony, Ken Burns on National Parks and Obama’s Surgeon General Nominee
Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson testifies before the House Government Reform Committee on his handling of the banking crisis. Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns announces his…
Blog
House Dems Would Ban New Private Health Insurance
"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first…
CEI Planet
Beach Plan Fix Would Require Another Fix Later
Although thoughts of hurricane season conjure up images of devastated trailer parks, fearsome storm surges, and ruined roads, North Carolina has more to worry…
Study
Free Market Strategies for Insurance Reform
Two major proposals to regulate insurance federally have appeared. The first, the National Insurance Consumer Protection Act. The second proposal stems from the Obama administration.
News Release
Paulson Must Be Held Accountable for Alleged Bank of America Threats
Paulson Must Be Held Accountable for Alleged Bank of America Threats Statement by CEI John Berlau Washington, D.C., July 15,…
CEI Planet
Obama Administration = Waste, Corruption, Corporate Welfare
Rapidly-rising Medicare spending already threatens “to crush the federal budget,” and much Medicare spending is wasteful, yet the Obama Administration claims it can somehow…
Newsletter
Chemical Safety, Global Warming Balance Sheets and Hybrid Smugness
Canadian officials find that the presence of bisphenol A, a chemical used in plastic food containers, poses “no health or safety concerns.” The Securities and…
Blog
Will Climate Thuggery Capture the SEC?
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may require corporations to assess and disclose the impacts of global warming and climate change policy on their bottom…
Newsletter
Sotomayor in the Senate, The New GM and State Farm in Florida
Judge Sonia Sotomayor prepares for her confirmation hearings in the Senate. A slimmed-down General Motors emerges from bankruptcy. Florida’s insurance commissioner claims to have “a…
CEI Planet
Former National Security Official Champions Bill for National Catastrophe Fund
Blog
“It would be hard to devise a surer formula for economic catastrophe.”
It may not be in a debacle like California’s, but I still find it galling to see my home state of Florida go from being…
Newsletter
Safe Bottled Water, a Second Stimulus and Keeping Government out of Insurance
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) questions the safety of the U.S. bottled water industry. Officials consider putting together a second stimulus package to follow the $787…
News Release
CEI Questions FL Insurance Commissioner’s ‘gut feeling’ on State Farm
The Florida Office director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Insurance Project today questioned the basis for Commissioner Kevin McCarty’s “gut feeling” that State Farm will…
CEI Planet
Worst Idea of the Year
Later today [1:00 p.m. Thursday 7-9-9] former FEMA administrator James Lee Witt and former Coast Guard head James Loy –America’s two most trusted emergency…
News Release
CEI Questions ProtectingAmerica.org Insurance Study
Analysts at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank, criticized protectingamerica.org’s continued advocacy for a federal insurance backstop.
Newsletter
AIG in Court, Mobile Phone Competition and the Future of Solar Power
A federal jury rules in favor of Hank Greenberg, the former CEO of AIG, in a $4.3 billion stock dispute. The Department of Justice considers…
Blog
Ex-CEO Hank Greenberg hits home run against AIG and Spitzer
Once again, the team of politicians and corporate bureaucrats pursuing the witchhunt against former American International Group CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg have struck out.
News Release
Hank Greenberg Wins One in Court, Hits Homerun against AIG and Spitzer
Washington, D.C., July 7, 2009—A federal jury today found in favor of ousted AIG Chairman Hank Greenberg today, in a case brought by the company…
Newsletter
Shareholder Rights, EPA Censorship and Honduran Democracy
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduces the “Shareholder Bill of Rights.” The Environmental Protection Agency censors an inconvenient study on global warming by career analyst Alan…
CEI Planet
Sink Schumer’s dangerous ‘Shareholder Bill of Rights’: It’s micromanaging madness
If deceptive labeling of bills in Congress were punishable by government agencies, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Maria…
CEI Planet
Washington Post Sells White House Access to Lobbyists
Until it was publicly-exposed, the Washington Post was selling its access to the White House to lobbyists. As Politico reported, “For $25,000 to $250,000,…
CEI Planet
Ayn Rand at 100: When Will Businessmen Learn Her Lessons About Politicians?
She called businessmen "America’s persecuted minority." And today—as has been the case at least since the start of the Industrial Revolution—many businessmen and -women…
News Release
CEI Blasts Klein Hearings On Homeowners’ Defense Act
Contact: Eli Lehrer, 202.615.0586 Christian Camara, 305.608.4300 CEI Blasts Klein Hearings On Homeowners’ Defense Act Plan Would Spend Taxpayer Money…
CEI Planet
Why The Madoff Sentence is Too Long
Bernard Madoff is an evil con man. He should spend the nearly all the rest of his miserable life in prison. But the 150-year…
CEI Planet
Florida Veto Could Send P-C Insurers fleeing, Policy Group Says
Blog
Strange Bedfellows? Maybe Not
Many lawmakers support policies that provide concentrated benefits to their constituents while dispersing the costs among the populace, and insurance policy is no exception. When…
CEI Planet
Media Ignore Negative Aspects of Obama Agenda
Mark Tapscott is right that much of the media are “in the tank for Obama.” That’s why they failed to report on how his stimulus…
CEI Planet
If Big One Hits, the State Could Go Bankrupt
Newsletter
Energy Taxes, Tap vs. Bottled Water and Gov. Crist’s War on Florida Homeowners
Debate intensifies over the Waxman-Markey climate bill. Minneapolis launches an advertising campaign to persuade residents to drink tap water in stead of bottled water. Florida…
CEI Planet
Crist rejects bill that aimed to lure property insurers to Florida
CEI Planet
State Farm Vows to Leave Fla. as Gov. Crist Vetos Unregulated Rates
CEI Planet
Standing Athwart Nationalization
My organization, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has frequently been accused of being "in denial" regarding important issues. It’s a charge we most often wear…
CEI Planet
Case of Denial
Newsletter
Political Science at EPA, Climate Legislation in the House and Consumer Insurance Reform
The Environment Protection Agency suppresses an internal study on global warming for political reasons. The House of Representatives prepares to consider the Waxman-Markey climate bill.
CEI Planet
Greens, libertarians team up
CEI Planet
Crist Vetos Fla. Insurance Deregulation Bill
News Release
CEI Fellow Blasts Florida Governor Crist’s Veto of Consumer Choice Insurance Bill
The head of the insurance project at the Competitive Enterprise Institute attacked Gov. Charlie Crist’s decision to veto the Consumer Choice Insurance Bill.
CEI Planet
Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Untouched in Financial Overhaul
The mortgage crisis was caused largely by the reckless government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and by federal affordable-housing mandates. But Obama’s…
CEI Planet
Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Untouched in Financial Overhaul
The mortgage crisis was caused largely by the reckless government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and by federal affordable-housing mandates. But Obama’s…
Blog
Hearings Open on Coercive and Counterproductively Costly Health Care Bill
Congressional Democrats are pushing hard to complete their health care bill before next week’s recess, but their hopes for a quick passage and the…
Newsletter
Burning Rivers, Broadband Price Controls and Beach House Bailouts
Residents of Cleveland observe the 40th anniversary of the infamous Cuyahoga River fire. Congress considers a bill to regulate the pricing of broadband Internet service.
News Release
CEI Launches Information Site Devoted to National Regulatory Modernization for Insurance
The Competitive Enterprise Institute today announced the formal launch of a new website devoted to news and information about the National Insurance Consumer Protection Act…
