With the recent publication of its final rule, the federal government's Financial Stability Oversight Council is now in position to designate certain nonbank firms as "systemically important financial institutions" (SIFIs). There is probably no aspect of the Dodd-Frank Act that will have more damaging effects on competition in the U.S. financial system.

In November 2011, the OCC, FRB, FDIC, and SEC issued a530 page joint proposal to implement Section 619 of the Dodd-FrankAct (the "Volcker Rule") to bar banking entities and their affiliatesfrom engaging in short-term proprietary trading. 

According to recent press reports, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering releasing a controversial proposal to impose additional capital and liquidity regulations on the $2.7 trillion money market fund industry (MMMFs) and to replace the fixed $1 net-asset value ("par value") rule now used by all MMMFs to redeem customer funds with a mark-to-market (NAV) requirement. 

In 2011, the Government Mortgage Complex accounted for 88 percent of all first-mortgage originations in the United States, with the government also controlling an estimated 90 percent of the student loan market. The government’s growing dominance in the home mortgage and student loan categories is cause for concern, posing a threat to private investors, borrowers, and taxpayers.

As a result of the high loan limits and the suppression of private securitization through the obstacles and disincentives listed below, approximately 90% of all originations and 99% of all securitizations are now government guaranteed. This is an ongoing liability for the taxpayers and an unhealthy fiscal position for the United States.

For many years, community financial institutions have been denied fair and equal access to the secondary market. Banks prosper by making prudent loans with an adequate return and maintaining a reasonable cost structure. Today 97 percent of our banks are community banks and they are increasingly finding this business model under siege.

Indian bureaucrats and politicians must overcome short-term thinking and improve India's IP systems by ensuring that deserving products receive patents and making sure trademarks are enforced. Only then will India develop a true innovation economy.

In the latest Financial Services Outlook, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) housing experts Peter Wallison and Edward Pinto explain how decades of government intervention have gravely harmed America's housing market.