Tagged: john berlau

August 29, 2023 @ 5:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

Yesterday, Grayscale received a solid legal victory in its attempt to offer a Bitcoin ETF. A federal court deemed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to block the launch of the exchange-traded product as “capricious”. Grayscale is currently reviewing its options and the SEC has… Read More

July 17, 2023 @ 9:38 am By JD Alois  |  

John Berlau, a policy expert in financial services at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), has shared his thoughts on the recent court ruling regarding the legal battle between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple along with its founders. Berlau notes that XRP was… Read More

June 6, 2023 @ 6:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), Director of Finance Policy, John Berlau, has shared a comment on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement action targeting Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN). Earlier today, the SEC filed charges against Coinbase, alleging that the crypto platform is operating as an unregistered securities… Read More

February 6, 2023 @ 12:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

The House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, part of the Financial Services Committee, will discuss banking and the need to improve the regulatory environment in light of emerging technology. The hearing, Revamping and Revitalizing Banking in the 21st Century, will review ways regulation… Read More

July 29, 2022 @ 12:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a non-profit DC think tank that advocates on behalf of free markets, has published a paper on stablecoins as well as central bank digital currencies. While CBDCs are state-managed digital currencies, perhaps utilizing blockchain technology, stablecoins are issued and managed… Read More

June 9, 2022 @ 11:43 am By JD Alois  |  

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a free market-focused think tank that supports innovation in financial services, has posted a comment letter forward to Senator Patrick Toomey, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee and advocate of the JOBS Act 4.0. Earlier this year on the… Read More

June 7, 2022 @ 4:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

John Berlau, a securities and regulatory expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has shared his initial thoughts on the bi-partisan legislation posted today by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis. Berlau, long a supporter of beneficial Fintech innovation believes the legislation is a solid… Read More

April 5, 2022 @ 3:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

  The JOBS Act of 2012 was signed into law by President Barack Obama ten years ago today, on April 5, 2012. In a rare moment of bipartisanship, Republicans and Democrats joined together to help private firms raise much-needed growth capital via online securities offerings…. Read More

March 9, 2022 @ 10:37 am By JD Alois  |  

Earlier today, the White House posted an anticipated Executive Order on Digital Assets. Currently, the interpretation from industry insiders is cautiously optimistic that the Administration is aiming to balance responsible innovation with the obvious benefits of crypto. The Order was not excessively prescriptive but leaves… Read More

February 20, 2022 @ 2:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

Writing in advance of President’s Day, Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) Senior Fellow John Berlau posits an interesting opinion. Berlau, a frequent commentator on policy that impacts financial services, says George Washington, the first US President and Revolutionary War hero, would have likely had “a fondness… Read More

November 11, 2021 @ 12:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week, CI reported that a damaging clause included in pending legislation had been pulled from the language of the bill. The portion of the legislation was ostensibly designed to halt IRA investors (investment retirement accounts) from holding private securities in these tax-sheltered, retirement vehicles…. Read More

October 26, 2021 @ 4:39 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Earlier this month, John Berlau, a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), wrote an article discussing the controversial $3.5 trillion social spending bill that is currently stuck in the US Senate due to intraparty disagreements. While initially pitched as “infrastructure” or “reconciliation”… Read More

May 29, 2019 @ 5:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Some time ago, I started a small collection of interesting bourbons. A trip to Frankfurt, Kentucky, and a visit to Buffalo Trace, helped to seal my interest. During the trip, I purchased several bottles of 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkel, which I consumed at my leisure… Read More

February 7, 2019 @ 12:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

The House Financial Services Committee is one of the most powerful Congressional committees on the Hill. The Committee oversees not only the entire financial services industry but its policy portfolio also includes other overlapping responsibilities such as Housing, entrepreneurship and international financial organizations. Last election… Read More

May 13, 2018 @ 8:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

Towards the end of April, SEC Commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr. delivered a heartfelt speech in Cleveland about the decline of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the US. While there has been much debate regarding the cause of this decline (with some questioning whether it even… Read More

July 24, 2017 @ 12:27 pm By JD Alois  |  

It is a fact that the number of public companies and the number of companies going public have dramatically decreased over the last 15 years. For private investors like High Net Worth Individuals or Venture Capitalists this has not been an issue. It is arguable… Read More

July 16, 2017 @ 12:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment, part of the Financial Services Committee, has scheduled a hearing to take place next week on the topic of the excessive cost of being public company. The hearing entitled, “The Cost of Being a Public Company in… Read More

July 10, 2017 @ 10:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a new rule to ban financial companies from using mandatory arbitration clauses. The CFPB said these rules have denied people their day in court. Many consumer financial products like credit cards and bank accounts have arbitration clauses in… Read More

January 4, 2017 @ 4:43 pm By JD Alois  |  

Financial regulations are often enacted with little concrete definition, to say nothing of quantification, of their costs and benefits. Regulators and economists have little understanding of causal mechanisms that may provide benefits and incur costs. Worse, they often think they know cause and effect, either… Read More

August 23, 2016 @ 8:47 am By JD Alois  |  

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)recently proposed banning arbitration regarding certain  consumer financial agreements and to allow the legal process to take hold in the case of a dispute. The CFPB posted the proposal this past May, outlined as follows: First, the proposed rule would… Read More