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
Center Square
After rate hike, economists weigh tariffs’ role in inflation
CEI’s Senior Economist Ryan Young was quoted by Center Square in their analysis of tariffs impact in inflation. Ryan Young, senior economist…
News Release
Federal Reserve raises interest rates, eyes on future economic policy: CEI analysis
Today, the Federal Reserve has decided to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, the first increase in over three years. The decision…
Blog
Why the 5 percent Treasury bond interest rate matters
The recent rise of the 10-year Treasury yield to 5 percent has set off alarm bells among economists, policymakers, and investors. While the…
Search Posts
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
Staff & Scholars
John Berlau
Senior Fellow and Director of Finance Policy
- Banking and Finance
- Deregulation
- Financial Regulation
Iain Murray
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow
- Banking and Finance
- Trade and International
Steve Swedberg
Finance and Monetary Policy Analyst
- Banking and Finance
- Deregulation
- Financial Regulation