Regulation

Fiscal Cliff Scorecard

The “fiscal cliff” is now broadly appreciated as an economic threat, and increasingly viewed as a recipe for a recession. There are seven legislative components of the fiscal cliff. The House has passed four bills addressing portions of this $539 billion disaster, reducing the risk of recession.

Derivatives trading is one of Dodd-Frank’s primary regulatory targets. Many agencies have already proposed or implemented new standards on these financial instruments. On October 18, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its proposed rule seeking to regulate security-based swaps. The pre-publication version is 501 pages.

EPA published its long-awaited final rule for 2017 to 2025 vehicle fuel efficiency standards this week.  The government estimates costs between $61 and $156 billion, with only a few thousand paperwork burden hours.  The rule estimates benefits between $243 billion and $639 billion.

Regulatory Toplines

Stress test rules under Dodd-Frank highlighted a relatively slow week in regulation.  Outside of the normal slate of FAA regulations, the federal government published few paperwork or compliance burdens.

Regulatory Toplines

Report:Health Care Law Imposes $27 Billion in Costs on Private Sector, States

Free Enterprise

Sean Hackbarth

Report:Health Care Law Imposes $27 Billion in Costs on Private Sector, States

Free Enterprise

Sean Hackbarth

U.S. "small businesses", unlike like their "big business" brethren, are the fodder of election year speeches, with political candidates enshrining American entrepreneurs with the true spirit of capitalism. This year is no different, but this year the definition of what political candidates are referring to as a "small business" has changed - at least according to the U.S. Department of Commerce's Small Business Administration (SBA).

The Cost Of Obamacare

Fox Business

October 10, 2012

Obamacare: $27.6 Billion in New Regulations

Washington Free Beacon

Free Beacon Staff

On October 9, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) released the unofficial version of its final rule implementing “stress tests.”  The regulation implements Section 165(i) of Dodd-Frank. The American Action Forum previously examined the proposed version of the rule here.