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
Blog
Are stablecoins already delivering what CBDCs promise?
Many proposals for a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a digital form of the US dollar issued by the Federal Reserve, have circulated…
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…
Search Posts
Study
Business Must Fight for Economic Freedom
Business Must Fight for Economic Freedom Fred L. Smith, Jr. President, Competitive Enterprise Institute Written Remarks For the…
Blog
Beach House Bummer: State-Run Insurance Fuels Risky Coastal Development
Wouldn’t we all like to have a beach house? A large number of Americans have a dream of living near the sea, but few of…
Blog
Hospital Cost-Shifting Leads to More Expensive Car Insurance
Lawmakers’ policies are making your car insurance higher than it should be. Rather than solving the problems that government intervention is causing, however, politicians would…
Op-Eds
Fannie & Freddie Don’t Deserve Any More Tax Dollars (Letters to the Editor)
The Examiner was right to oppose more taxpayer bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are expected to receive between $73 billion and $215…
Citation
Morning Scan – Free Checking
Op-Eds
The Free Checking Restoration Act
Having largely abandoned attempts to defend ObamaCare in the run-up to next week’s election, President Obama and his allies are now warning that opponents will…
Blog
Insurance Lessons from Alabama
While Alabama certainly has some ambiguous laws and archaic regulations, the federal government ought to take a lesson from Alabama when it comes…
Citation
Free Checking – How ‘Bout Them Democrats
Citation
SEC ‘Proxy Access’ Rule Could Empower Unions, Political Activists
Op-Eds
Obama’s War on Free Checking
“Free checking as we know it is ending,” says the lead paragraph of a widely read and tweeted story from The Associated Press. Noting…
Study
Reforming Michigan’s Auto Insurance Industry
Michigan auto insurance premiums are among the highest in the nation. Rather than attempting to regulate insurance company and individual behavior, Michigan legislators would much…
Insider Online
Reforming Michigan’s Auto Insurance Industry: Some Concrete and Practical Proposals
Insider Online
The Free Checking Restoration Act of 2010
MacLeans
Burning Down the House
MacLeans discusses Iain Murray's article for the Washington Examiner on private insurance companies. That could be why the fire incident, far from discouraging…
MacLeans
The GM IPO
Blog
Obamacare Results in 47 Percent Premium Hike
Obamacare has just led to a 47 percent increase in some health insurance premium rates in Connecticut: The state’s largest insurer has been approved to…
Blog
Judge Rejects Obama Administration’s Motion to Dismiss Challenge to Obamacare
A judge in Florida has rejected the Obama administration’s motion to dismiss challenges to Obamacare brought by 20 state attorneys general and the…
MacLeans
New Obama healthcare plan relies on imaginary savings, costs $2 trillion, explodes budget deficits
MacLeans
Ms. Warren Should Take Aim at Confusing Federal Laws (Letters to the Editor)
Todd Zywicki is right to criticize President Obama for appointing a consumer-lending czar without submitting the appointment to the Senate for an up-or-down vote…
Reason
Let it Burn or Not? Fulton Fire Department Follow-up: Updated with Mangu-Ward Video!
Reason discusses Iain Murray's Washington Examiner article on insurance companies. For some counter-perspective, here is Iain Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writing…
Blog
If You Like Your Health Plan, You May Lose It Anyway
Another major employer, 3M, has decided to “eventually stop offering its health insurance plan to retirees, citing the federal health overhaul as a factor.”…
Blog
Obamacare May Force McDonald’s to Drop Health Coverage for Employees
Michelle Malkin points out that “McDonald’s has notified the feds that it may be forced to drop health insurance for some 30,000 workers due…
Reason
Fish Enough for All
Ron Arnold alleged yesterday that Jane Lubchenco and the bureaucrats at NOAA are killing the New England fishing industry. Averse as I am to…
Reason
SEC “Proxy Access” Rule Could Empower Unions, Political Activists and Undermine Investors
Reason
Washington Ideas Forum
Study
Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB: Narrow Separation-of-Powers Ruling Illustrates That the Supreme Court Is Not ‘‘Pro-Business’’
Full Document Available in PDF Chief Justice John Roberts has often been depicted as an advocate of narrow rulings and a judicial philosophy…
Blog
22,000 Lose Their Health Insurance Due to Obamacare
Approximately 22,000 senior citizens just lost their health plan with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which dropped its Medicare Advantage Program due to “cuts in…
Reason
Pledge Takes On Overregulation
Though much of the commentary on the GOP’s “Pledge to America” has forcused on the areas of taxes and spending, the provision that may contain…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: Congress Should Liberate to Stimulate
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features John Berlau's debate with Heather Boushey from the Center for…
Reason
No Regulation Without Representation
Having excoriated the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress — on this site and elsewhere — for falling short of principles on TARP…
Blog
Insurers Drop Children’s Health Insurance Due to Obamacare
Insurers have stopped writing children-only health insurance policies due to mandates in Obamacare that ignored basic principles of economics. So if…
Blog
Insurance Regulators Approve Increases Based on Obamacare
In Connecticut, insurance rate regulators have approved hikes in insurance premiums of up to 20 percent, agreeing with insurers that…
Reason
Galoots!
Reason
Wayne Crews on the Regulatory State
Vice President for Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute discusses the regulatory state. He advocates removing regulations that cost the taxpayers too much money.
Reason
Sen. Baucus Pushes Small Business Jobs Act
Reason
CEI: Small Business Jobs & Credit Act – another ‘Big Government boondoggle’
Reason
How Regulations Accumulate as a Small Business Grows
The Senate votes this week on a small business tax-break bill which also contains controversial provisions to boost community-bank loans to small business. That is,…
Blog
Obama to Insurers: Stop Telling the Truth
During the fight for health insurance reform earlier this year, opponents of the bill (aka Obamacare) claimed that the proposal would increase the cost of…
Reason
A Real Small Business Assist
In his 45-minute lecture/speech in Cleveland last week — which mostly consisted of blaming his predecessors for the state of the economy and…
Reason
MBL featured in Spectator, Gazette over weekend
Products
Tightening Credit Hurts Small Businesses
The Sept. 1 editorial “On better terms” conceded that overall interest rates have risen on credit cards after the passage of the Credit CARD…
Reason
Credit Card Regulation: Big Government vs. Small Business
Reason
Tightening Credit Hurts Small Businesses
The Sept. 1 editorial “On better terms” conceded that overall interest rates have risen on credit cards after the passage of the Credit…
Reason
CBO Says Stimulus Will Increase Deficit (Letter to the Editor)
In his Commentary column, “The Recovery Act Worked,” Michael Cassidy wrongly denies that the $800 billion stimulus package “will make the federal deficit worse.” It…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: Post-Spill Moratorium Worse than the Spill
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI’s fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in…
Forbes
Hurricane Katrina, Houston And The Humanitarian Case Against Zoning
On a Monday morning in late August 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the…
Blog
Government Insurance: Guaranteed to Fail
Few observers were shocked when the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) asked for a nearly $20 billion bailout of its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
Forbes
Flood Plan
Forbes
John Berlau discusses the General Motors IPO
Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau discusses the General Motors IPO. Will investors have any recourse to sue?…
Newsletter
Kagan Confirmed, Ford Motor’s Finances and Critiquing Obama’s Economic Policy
The U.S. Senate confirms Elena Kagan to be the next member of the Supreme Court. President Obama announced a $250 million government loan to Ford…
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