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
RealClear Markets
Book Review: Norbert Michel & Jennifer Schulp’s ‘Financing Opportunity’
America is the wealthiest nation on earth, with financial markets that are the envy of the world. Those markets have contributed to America’s rise for…
Blog
House should follow Senate in slashing BBB’s remittance tax–or eliminate it entirely
President Trump has made it clear that he wants a budget reconciliation package on his desk by July 4. In its final version of the…
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…
Search Posts
Letters
Open Letter to House and Senate Republican Leadership: Preserve the Sequester
CEI has joined a coalition urging Congress to maintain the spending restraint established by the Budget Control Act of 2011(BCA). The BCA established limits on…
News Release
Questions for Yellen
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 – It’s not every day we get a new chair of the Fed. It is a time to check the fundamental bearings…
Study
Questions for Federal Reserve Nominee Janet Yellen
Full Document Available in PDF Janet Yellen is President Obama’s choice to succeed Ben Bernanke as the Federal Reserve Chair. Yellen is…
Citation
How to Fix Too Big to Fail
As the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out in its constitutional challenge to Dodd-Frank, Title I of the law gives the FSOC the ability to…
Forbes
The International Monetary Fund Lays The Groundwork For Global Wealth Confiscation
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) quietly dropped a bomb in its October Fiscal Monitor Report. Titled “Taxing Times,” the report paints a dire picture for…
Human Events
How the Shutdown Can Inform the Debt Ceiling Debate
Co-authored by George Landrith. It’s all-shutdown-all-the-time in Washington these days. But all that talk has obscured the far bigger challenge facing the nation next week,…
Daily Caller
‘Why now?’ Fitch’s downgrade threat raises questions
“My question is ‘Why now?’” John Berlau, an economist at the free market Competitive Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “I just have…
News Release
Ten Questions for Janet Yellen
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 – Janet Yellen is President Obama’s choice to succeed Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve Chair. She has extensive experience with the Federal…
News Release
Yellen Pick Shows Left Unconcerned With Value of The Dollar, CEI Analysts Say
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 – Janet Yellen, now vice-chair of the Federal Reserve, has been selected by President Obama to lead the Fed. She is said…
Washington Examiner
Obama White House closing private businesses to add pain to government shutdown
Obama administration officials are using the government shutdown as an excuse to shut down privately-run tourist attractions, even though doing so costs the government far…
News Release
Twitter – and Investors – Gain from JOBS Act Regulatory Relief
WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 – In its much-anticipated initial public offering filing released Thursday night, Twitter unveiled a company with some room for growth – much…
Washington Examiner
Government Shutdown, Italian Style
Misery loves company, goes the old saying. And in the face of government shutdown, America is not entirely alone. Head to Italy and the average…
Blog
Obamacare Quadruples Rates for Some, Subsidizes Some Wealthy Who Retired Early
Due to Obamacare, North Carolina "will see individual-market" health insurance rates "triple for women, and quadruple for men." In Tennessee, Obamacare will…
Washington Examiner
Lessons from Italy: What happens when businesses are forced to move abroad
Co-written by Emilio Rocca THE 42 employees of Firem, an Italian heating systems maker, returned from their August holidays to find the plant where they…
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,…
