The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets stated that more than three-quarters of American companies of all sizes report that it is harder to access the financial services they need due to the cumulative effect of the regulatory rules adopted over the past six years.

The report surveyed more than 300 corporate treasurers, controllers, CFOs and CEOs from a wide range of companies with gross revenues from under $100,000 to more than $100 million. The report found the following key impacts of financial regulations on Main Street companies:

  • 79% of the businesses' respondents are affected by changes in the financial services market;
  • 29% have increased prices for customers and consumers as a result of changes to the financial services market (double the level seen in 2013);
  • 39% have absorbed the higher costs;
  • 19% have delayed or cancelled planned investments; and
  • 76% believe that the regulations on the financial services sector will not help their companies' outlook over the next two to three years.

Commentary

The economy is a seamless web. This is not to say that all regulation is bad, but it is to say that the costs of regulation (good regulation, bad regulation, and punitive regulation) are inherently spread throughout the economy, not confined to the particular sector on which the regulation is directly imposed. The results of this survey demonstrate that the political rhetoric asserting that punishing Wall Street will help Main Street is nonsense.

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