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
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…
Forbes
Paul Krugman’s Stimulus Batters The East Coast, Fueling Economic Growth
Mainstream economists, corporate executives, politicians, and pundits are still totaling up the windfall boost to the nation’s GDP, but most agree that the benefits from…
Forbes
Markets of Government: Whom Do You Trust?
Free-market advocates have the deck stacked against them in the marketplace of ideas (ironically) for a very simple reason: Markets are impersonal, intangible things, whereas…
Forbes
European Politics Increasingly Resemble Halloween
Politics in Europe is beginning to resemble Halloween. Trick-or-treaters like Greece and Spain come to the doorstep of Germany and the European Union for bailout…
Forbes
President Obama Reverses Course, For Now, and We’re Better Off For It
“We’ve come too far to turn back now.” That’s been President Obama’s response, in his weekly address and elsewhere, to the jobs numbers from last…
Forbes
Distorted Government Statistics Endanger Our Economic Health
What is the real inflation rate, calculated using an accurate technique that doesn’t change with time? What is the real unemployment rate, one that counts…
Politico
Dems Opposing Dodd Frank
Competitive Enterprise Institute’s John Berlau in National Review: “[E]ven members of the president’s own party are coming to realize Dodd-Frank is actually too tough on…
Letters
Letter Opposing Misnamed ‘Taxpayer Protection Act’: Another Beach House Bailout
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of the millions of citizens represented by the undersigned groups, we write in strong opposition…
National Review
More Democrats Diss Dodd-Frank
‘For some reason, some Republicans in Congress are still waging an all-out battle to delay, defund, and dismantle these commonsense new rules.” That was, in…
Bio-IT World
Can Private Jets For The Poor Save Health Care Dollars?
Few perks of wealth are more widely demonized than the private jet. Yet these very symbols of power and luxury could save health care dollars…
Forbes
Hey Romney, Here’s A Comeback To Obama’s $5 Trillion Tax Cut Canard
Framing a debate is half of winning it—especially when neither facts nor reason are on your side. The Obama campaign’s repeated claims that, if elected…
Forbes
Letter to the Editor: The Fed Helps Wall Street at the Expense of Main Street
Mr. Bernanke’s description of QE3 as a “‘Main Street’ policy” is incorrect. The Fed distributes its newly created money by…
News Release
Jobs Report Doesn’t Tell Full Story
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 5, 2012 – Unemployment fell below 8 percent for the first time in four years last month, according to the September…
Forbes
Jobless youth – southern Europe’s ticking time bomb
BRUSSELS – As Europe hangs on every public statement about the possibility of more bailouts from the European Central Bank or German Chancellor Angela Merkel,…
News Release
Durbin Bank Fees: An Unhappy One-Year Anniversary
Washington, D.C., October 2, 2012 – One year ago this month, the Durbin Amendment debit card price controls from the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” law went…
The American Spectator
Happy Durbin Day
On Oct. 1, 2011, one year ago today, Dodd-Frank's Durbin Amendment price controls went into effect, causing consumers to lose free checking and be soaked…
News Release
Report on Spanish Banks Underestimates Cost of Potential Bailout
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1, 2012 — A report last week said Spain’s banks could require as much as 53.74 billion euro in bailout funds,…
The American Spectator
Study blasts federal economic development initiatives
From Brian Pederson’s article in Lehigh Valley Business: A new study blasts the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) and calls for its abolishment,…
The American Spectator
The Federal Department of More Spending and Higher Local Taxes
“We believe in the free enterprise system,” President Obama said at a recent campaign stop. “But we also believe we’ve got obligations to one another.”…
Legal Brief
Dodd-Frank Challenge – Amended Complaint
Full Document Available in PDF…
News Release
Three States Join Constitutional Challenge to Dodd-Frank
Washington, D.C., September 20, 2012 – The states of Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Michigan today joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Wall…
Study
The Case for Abolishing the Economic Development Administration
EDA investments do little more than shift resources from one area of the country or the economy to another. EDA’s funding should be immediately revoked,…
News Release
New Study Makes Case Against Economic Development Administration
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 18, 2012 — It is the mission of the Economic Development Administration (EDA) “to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting…
Fox News
To Save Obama, Clinton Ignores his Own Deregulation Moves
MacKenzie: “Did you know it was Bill Clinton who repealed Glass-Steagall?” Will: “Everybody knows that.” Conversation on HBO’s “The Newsroom,” originally broadcast July 22, 2012…
Fox News
Why Liberals Should Love Low Taxes
You can say two things for certain about modern liberals — they love spending government (read: your) money, and they hate the wealthy. Which makes…
Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: Yet Another Dodd-Frank Albatross
Jack Gerard is spot on in pointing out that Dodd-Frank's Section 1504, requiring lengthy disclosures of payments by U.S. energy firms to foreign governments, will…
Investor's Business Daily
Capitalism’s Record Of Success Beats The Government Option
From Steve Stanek's article in Investor's Business Daily: John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has noted the government's claimed number of "jobs…
Fox News
Taxpayer losses tied to auto bailout rise
From Doug McKelway's article on Fox News: John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute argues the stock decline reflects the liability of the…
Forbes
As Liberty Fades, Contemplate The Wisdom Of The Olive Tree
It’s easy to despair watching the flame of liberty flicker and die. To accept the sad fact that our Founders’ vision of limited government could…
Letters
Coalition Letter to the U.S. Senate on Tax Competition
Full Document Available in PDF CEI co-signed a coalition letter to the U.S. Senate urging support for Senator Rubio’s S.J.Res. 46, which…
Forbes
Angela Merkel’s Bismarckian Euro Diplomacy
German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to be channeling her 19th century predecessor, Otto von Bismarck, in a striking way; engineering a diplomatic balancing act…
Forbes
Obama’s Jobs Council a Total Flop
When President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness last gathered in January, he boasted, “This has not been a show council. This has been…
Study
The Marketplace Fairness Act Would Create a State Sales Tax Cartel and Hurt Consumers
The Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 1832) seeks to capture more tax revenue for states on Internet purchases. Traditional retailers, states, and localities have urged Congress…
Daily Mail
America’s Real Choice: Cronyism or Capitalism
America appears to be at war with itself, if the Presidential campaign is anything to go by. The adverts that have saturated the airwaves over…
