Cato Institute Event Podcast
By The Cato Institute
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Podcast Description
Podcast of policy and book forums, Capitol Hill briefings and other events from the Cato Institute
Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
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1 |
The Relationship between Intelligence and Policy | At the heart of recent national security controversies, including 9/11 and the war in Iraq, lies the troubled relationship between intelligence and policy. Two timely new books shine a spotlight on the problem. In Fixing the Facts, Joshua Rovner chronicles major episodes in the history of American foreign policy that have been closely tied to the manipulation of intelligence estimates and considers how these have affected military strategy, and the conduct of foreign policy. In Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy, Paul R. Pillar challenges the belief that intelligence drives major national security decisions, and he casts doubt on fixes intended to prevent future failures. He believes such efforts often waste critical resources and divert attention away from more sensible reforms. Please join the authors as they discuss their books, with comments by intelligence veteran and scholar Mark Lowenthal. | 10/31/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
2 |
Engineering the Financial Crisis: Systemic Risk and the Failure of Regulation | (http://www.amazon.com/Engineering-Financial-Crisis-Systemic-Regulation/dp/0812243579/?tag=catoinstitute-20)The financial crisis revealed the most significant danger of modern government: it homogenizes the behavior of the people subject to its regulations. If the regulators make a mistake, the entire system is at risk, because everyone has had to behave in line with the regulators' fallible opinions. In this light, the supreme advantage of capitalism is that it allows the heterogeneous opinions of fallible people to compete with each other, eliminating mistakes over time. This is the best solution available to ubiquitous human error. Jeffrey Friedman and Wladimir Kraus argue that the financial crisis exemplified the danger of regulatory homogenization. Banking regulations penalized banks that did not buy mortgage-backed securities rated AAA. For that reason, a housing crisis turned into a banking crisis. Even now, banking regulations are spawning a second financial crisis in Europe, because the same set of rules penalizes banks that lend to businesses or consumers instead of governments. Please join us for an all too timely examination of the unintended — and sometimes disastrous — effects of regulation on complex economies. | 10/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
3 |
Is Liberty Losing Ground in America? | America is widely known as the land of the free, but is it also true that liberty has been yielding ground to government power? Two recent books maintain that civil liberties have dramatically eroded here in recent years. ACLU president Susan Herman argues that our constitutional system of checks and balances is breaking down because of exaggerated claims of presidential power in our war against al Qaeda terrorists. That shift in power has made it difficult for the courts to fully examine whether certain policies are constitutional. Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Shipler does not dispute the erosion of liberty since the 9/11 attacks, but he says the Bill of Rights has also deteriorated because of the war on drugs. His book relates numerous stories of searches without warrants, punishments without due process, and other unreasonable procedures. In criminal justice as in counterterrorism, Shipler argues, the executive branch has grabbed immense power and distorted the process of determining guilt or innocence. Join us for a discussion of these legal trends and what can be done to correct them. | 10/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
4 |
How Much Ivory Does This Tower Need? | It is often asserted that taxpayer support for higher education is dwindling, endangering the nation's economic future and forcing higher tuition prices. In reality that is far from the truth. Almost any way you slice it the taxpayer burden for America's ivory tower has been on the rise, while the returns on investment have been at best indeterminate and at worst significantly negative. Please join us for this important discussion of why the federal role in higher education needs to be seriously reexamined. | 10/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
5 |
How Much Homeland Security Is Enough? | (http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Security-Money-Balancing-Benefits/dp/0199795762/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316809993&sr=8-1?tag=catoinstitute-20)Americans tend to evaluate homeland security by asking, "Does it make us safer?" That, however, is the wrong question. Even the most extravagantly wasteful security measures enhance physical safety from attack, however microscopically. The better question is, "Are the gains in security worth the funds expended?" John Mueller and Mark Stewart's new book, Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security, uses cost-benefit analysis to show that for the vast majority of U.S. homeland security and counterterrorism policies, the answer to this question is a resounding "no." Though the analytic approach employed in the book is common in regulatory agencies charged with protecting public safety, the Department of Homeland Security still neglects it. Mueller and Stewart will discuss the findings in their book and the U.S. government's curious disinterest in them. | 10/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
6 |
James Madison | (hhttp://www.amazon.com/James-Madison-Richard-Brookhiser/dp/0465019838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317137015&sr=8-1?tag=catoinstitute-20)James Madison led one of the most influential and prolific lives in American history. Although sometimes overshadowed by his more celebrated contemporaries, Madison helped to shape our country as perhaps no other Founder did: collaborating on the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights; assembling one of the nation's first political parties (the Republicans, who became today's Democrats); and taking to the battlefield during the War of 1812, becoming the last president to lead troops in combat. More than just a figure from history, Madison today inspires a continued desire for liberty and limited government. What might his legacy mean for Americans today? Please join us to hear historian Richard Brookhiser discuss his new book about the "Father of the Constitution," an accomplished, yet humble, statesman who nourished Americans' fledgling liberty and vigorously defended the laws that have preserved it to this day. | 10/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
7 |
ECPA at 25: How to Modernize the Law to Better Protect Electronic Privacy | In 1986, when cellular phones were brick-sized novelties and most Americans had never even heard of "electronic mail," Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Yet after 25 years of innovation, ECPA has fallen badly out of step with the way Americans use information technology. Now, the law hinders innovation by failing to give sensitive e-mails and personal documents stored in the "cloud" the same strong protection they would enjoy under the Fourth Amendment if kept on a personal hard drive. Courts have struggled with how to regulate police access to the increasingly detailed location-tracking data generated by mobile devices. Perhaps most disturbing, the public and Congress have been left with little sense of how frequently law-enforcement demands access this sensitive information. Join us as a panel of experts discusses how to provide strong protection for the privacy of citizens — as well as clarity and consistency for both technology companies and law enforcement. To take part in the discussion on Twitter, use hashtag #ECPA (http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23ECPA). | 10/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
8 |
Mexico and the War on Drugs: Time to Legalize | Mexico is paying a high price for fighting a war on drugs that are consumed in the United States. More than 40,000 people have died in drug-related violence since the end of 2006 when Mexico began an aggressive campaign against narco-trafficking. The drug war has led to a rise in corruption and gruesome criminality that is weakening democratic institutions, the press, law enforcement, and other elements of a free society. Former Mexican president Vicente Fox will explain that prohibition is not working and that the legalization of the sale, use, and production of drugs in Mexico and beyond offers a superior way of dealing with the problem of drug abuse. | 10/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
9 |
Is Islam Compatible with the Free Market? | Islamist literature rejects central features of modernity common in the West, including capitalism. Many Muslim countries restrict economic freedoms necessary to sustain other liberties. Author Mustafa Akyol will describe how the theological attitude and historical experience of Islam toward business and profit-making is, in fact, consistent with an embrace of free markets. He will also discuss the un-Islamic origins of Islamic radicalism, pre-Islamic traits that have long characterized the Middle East and have left their mark on the religion, and how Turkey's conservative masses are experiencing a socio-economic boom due to that country's market reforms. Kris Mauren will compare the history of liberalism in Islam with that of Christianity. | 10/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
10 |
Frédéric Bastiat: Campaigner for Free Trade, Political Economist, and Politician in a Time of Revolution | Frédéric Bastiat was a pivotal figure in French classical liberalism in the mid-19th century. He suddenly emerged from the southwest province of Les Landes to assume leadership of the fledgling French free trade movement in 1844, which he modelled on that of Richard Cobden's Anti-Corn Law League in England. Bastiat then turned to a brilliant career as an economic journalist, debunking the myths and misconceptions people held on protectionism in particular and government intervention in general, which he called "sophisms" or "fallacies." When revolution broke out in February 1848, Bastiat was elected twice to the Chamber of Deputies where he served on the powerful Finance Committee and struggled to bring government expenditure under control. He confounded his political opponents with his consistent libertarianism: he denounced the socialists for their economic policies, but he took to the streets to prevent the military from shooting them during the riots that broke out in June 1848. Until his untimely death in 1850, Bastiat was an indefatigable foe of political privilege, unaccountable monarchical power, the newly emergent socialist movement, and above all, the vested interests benefited from economic protectionism. He was a giant of 19th century classical liberalism, and Liberty Fund is publishing a six-volume collection of his work. | 10/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
11 |
The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment and Evidence-Based Health Reform | The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment is the first study ever to measure the effects of health insurance by randomly assigning subjects to receive Medicaid coverage or no coverage. At this forum, lead investigator Katherine Baicker will present the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment's first set of results and what additional data this experiment will produce. The discussants will examine the effects of health insurance and what the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment means for medicine, Medicaid, and health care reform. | 10/6/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
12 |
Abolish the Transportation Security Administration | Ten years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, federalized aviation security has proven costly, reactive, and an intrusive failure. Restoring security responsibility to airports and airlines would provide numerous benefits to the traveling public without compromising security. Join us for a discussion of why Congress should privatize airport security and abolish the Transportation Security Administration. For recent published work of the speakers, see: "Does Risk Management Counsel in Favor of a Biometric Traveler Identity System? (http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/does-risk-management-counsel-in-favor-of-a-biometric-traveler-identity-system/)" by Jim Harper and "Abolish the Department of Homeland Security (http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13650)," by David Rittgers. | 9/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
13 |
Publication Practices for Transparent Government: Rating the Congress | Despite good-faith effort, transparency promises from political leaders like President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have yet to produce the burst of information that informs stronger public oversight of government. One reason for this is the absence of specifically prescribed data practices that will foster transparency. A quartet of data practices would support greater transparency: authoritative sourcing, availability, machine discoverability, and machine readability. Join us for the release of a study of data transparency, an assessment of Congress's publishing practices, and a discussion of how Congress can make itself more transparent.Follow the event on Twitter with the hashtag #RateCongress (http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23RateCongress). | 9/23/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
14 |
Panel I: Elections, Video Games, Scholarships: Another Big Year for the First Amendment | 9/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes | |
15 |
U.S. Debt and the Millennials: Is Washington Creating a Lost Generation? | It is a tumultuous time to be a young American. The national debt is accruing at a record pace, more than doubling in the past decade to reach $14.6 trillion today, and future liabilities threaten to drive government spending even higher. Job growth has been tepid, with unemployment persistently over 9 percent. For soon-to-be college graduates and early professionals looking to find jobs and plot their futures, many are at a loss for what to expect and how to move forward. How will mounting deficits impact today's young people in the years to come? Some argue that government spending is necessary to ensure the future by providing school loans, unemployment insurance, infrastructure investments, and other social provisions. Others hold that government spending cripples the future due to massive welfare commitments, misaligned economic incentives, and polluted market signals. Join us to hear from a panel of young wonks and journalists as they discuss the pending outlook for Millennials. | 8/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
16 |
Puritans, Politicians, and Paternalism: Can We Take Back Control of Our Own Lives? | We were promised a government that would protect our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But H. L. Mencken said that Puritanism is "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy," and politicians on both left and right certainly demonstrate that. In today's world there is practically no aspect of life left free from government intervention — ranging from restrictions on the food on our plates to the cars we drive, where we smoke, what video games we can play, and whom we can marry. Both conservatives and liberals fall prey to the idea that they need to protect us from our own vices and weaknesses. Is the notion of personal responsibility and freedom still politically and culturally viable? What can be done to extend the vision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to more people and more aspects of our lives? And how can politicians and staffers help get us back on that track? | 8/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
17 |
The Ethics of Voting | (http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Voting-Jason-Brennan/dp/0691144818/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309529031&sr=8-1/?tag=catoinstitute-20)Nothing is more integral to democracy than voting. Most people believe that every citizen has the civic duty or moral obligation to vote, that any sincere vote is morally acceptable, and that buying, selling, or trading votes is inherently wrong. Jason Brennan argues that voting is not a duty for most citizens — in fact, he argues, many people owe it to the rest of us not to vote. Bad choices at the polls can result in unjust laws, needless wars, and calamitous economic policies. Brennan shows why voters have duties to make informed decisions in the voting booth, to base their decisions on sound evidence for what will create the best possible policies, and to promote the common good rather than their own self-interest. They should vote well — or not vote at all. He argues that voting is not necessarily the best way for citizens to exercise their civic duty, and why some citizens need to stay away from the polls to protect the democratic process from their uninformed, irrational, or immoral votes. In a democracy, every citizen has the right to vote. Come hear Jason Brennan reveal why it's sometimes best if they don't. | 7/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
18 |
A Better Congress: Change the Rules, Change the Results | (http://www.amazon.com/Better-Congress-Proposal-Citizens-Legislative/dp/1587332337/?tag=catoinstitute-20) Public trust in Congress has declined over the past few years. Generally, Congress is trusted less than the other two branches of government, a disturbing thought concerning the institution that was intended to be the most representative of all. What is wrong with Congress? What might improve its image and effectiveness? A Better Congress: Change the Rules, Change the Results (http://www.amazon.com/Better-Congress-Proposal-Citizens-Legislative/dp/1587332337/?tag=catoinstitute-20), by Joseph Gibson, an Independent Book Publishers Association's Benjamin Franklin Award (http://ibpabenjaminfranklinawards.com/) nominee, is a comprehensive look at the reasons that Congress does not work well and real solutions that can make Congress work better. Gibson has worked in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government, including serving as chief antitrust counsel and chief minority counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. He also brings to the book a deep knowledge of the scholarship on Congress, which is presented in a clear and accessible fashion. Please join us for an engaging look at the prospects for improving representative democracy in the United States. | 7/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
19 |
Immigration Reform, Yes; E-Verify, No | Once immigration reform aligns the law with the needs of the American economy and people, the pressures that have driven some to pursue greater "internal enforcement" will be relieved. Congress should not dragoon employers further into immigration-law enforcement by making the "E-Verify" government background check a national mandate. Dan Griswold will discuss the changes to immigration law that will make draconian enforcement measures unnecessary. Jim Harper will show how E-Verify would lay the groundwork for a national ID and even greater government control over all Americans' lives. | 7/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
20 |
Helping Students or Ballooning College Profits: What's Federal Money Doing? | President Obama wants the United States to lead the world in college attainment by 2020. Arguably the biggest obstacle standing in the way of that is rampant tuition inflation, which pushes prices to increasingly astronomical heights. Ironically, as a new Cato analysis (http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13172) by Professor Vance Fried lays bare, federal programs intended to make college more affordable are likely fueling this hyperinflation, enabling all colleges — both for-profit and putatively nonprofit — to make big bucks off of undergrads. Please join us for a frank discussion about the effect of federal funding in higher education and how to make the ivory tower as lean and effective as possible. | 7/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
21 |
The No-Tax-Hike Pledge: Does It Help or Hurt the Fight for Smaller Government? | With record levels of government spending and rising amounts of red ink, there is considerable debate about whether a "grand compromise" budget deal is needed to restore fiscal sanity in Washington. Proponents of this approach specifically say that the no-tax-hike pledge is hindering a budget agreement and thus ruining an opportunity to reduce the burden of government spending. Opponents counter by pointing out that the problem is the result of too much spending and that spending restraint is the obvious solution. Moreover, past experience demonstrates that promised spending cuts in budget summit agreements quickly evaporate, but the tax increases are permanent. Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute and Kevin Williamson of National Review will debate whether the no-tax-hike pledge helps or hinders the fight for fiscal responsibility. | 7/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
22 |
Transportation Reauthorization: The Privatization Option | As Congress considers its options for surface transportation, the big question is, How will we pay for all of our transportation needs? One answer is transportation privatization. Shirley Ybarra, former secretary of transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia, will describe actual examples of public-private partnerships. Gabriel Roth will discuss the pros and cons of highway privatization, and Randal O'Toole, author of Gridlock: Why We're Stuck in Traffic and What to Do about It (http://www.cato.org/store/books/gridlock-why-were-stuck-traffic-what-do-about-it-hardback), will focus on transit privatization. | 7/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
23 |
The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America | (http://www.amazon.com/Declaration-Independents-Libertarian-Politics-America/dp/1586489380/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308259335&sr=8-1/?tag=catoinstitute-20)Reason editors Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch introduce their new book with a multimedia presentation in the Hayek Auditorium. "In a world where our [political] choices are limited to John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, the survivors envy the dead," they write. But that's not the world they actually see. They argue that despite our stunted politics, despite national bankruptcy, despite the war on drugs, revolutionary innovators have changed our world over the past 40 years: Vaclav Havel and the Plastic People of the Universe, Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines, Tiger Woods and the breakdown of categories, the personalization of media, and much more. It's just politics that is resisting freedom and choice. And now millions of voters are trying to break out of stagnant political choices. Gillespie and Welch see a "future so bright, we gotta wear shades." At Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen writes, "This is the up-to-date statement of libertarianism. Not warmed-over right-wing politics, but real, true-blooded libertarianism in the sense of loving liberty and wanting to find a new path toward human flourishing." Come see if he's right. | 6/30/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
24 | BookletDominoes on the Durand Line?Overcoming Strategic Myths in Afghanistan and Pakistan | Joshua Rovner and Austin Long | 6/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
25 |
Turning the Page in Afghanistan | After nearly 10 years of war in Afghanistan and with Osama bin Laden at the bottom of the ocean, can the United States fundamentally scale back its objectives in that country? Joshua Rovner, coauthor of a new Cato study, says yes. He argues for significantly changing America's mission in ways that would allow for drawdowns of between 80,000 and 90,000 U.S. troops. Malou Innocent will discuss approaches to regional diplomacy that could facilitate a large-scale drawdown. Joshua Foust will discuss the prospects for negotiations with elements of the Taliban as a way to implement strategic change. Drawing on his recent travels to the region, Michael O'Hanlon will describe his more favorable and supportive view of the current strategy in Afghanistan as compared to the alternatives. | 6/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
26 |
Panel 1: An Ounce of Prevention: Limiting the Scope for Collateral Damage in the Early Stages of an Antidumping Investigation | If the Obama administration and Congress are truly concerned about U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and increasing export opportunities, then antidumping policy must be reformed. Imports of raw materials, intermediate goods and capital equipment — products consumed by U.S. producers — account for the majority of U.S. import value. Meanwhile, those kinds of manufacturing inputs are subject to 4 out of every 5 antidumping measures imposed. The case is clear that current U.S. antidumping policy undermines U.S. manufacturing competitiveness at home and abroad, and reform is imperative. In light of the Obama administration's efforts to facilitate export growth and help improve U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, three panels of experts will discuss various features of U.S. antidumping law that undermine those objectives and offer proposals for reform. 2:30pm—3:00pm Registration 3:00pm—3:15pm Opening Remarks: Antidumping and U.S. Competitiveness: Something Has Got to Give Dan Ikenson, Associate Director, Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute 3:15pm—4:15pm Panel 1: An Ounce of Prevention: Limiting the Scope for Collateral Damage in the Early Stages of an Antidumping InvestigationLax standards for initiating antidumping investigations conspire with an asymmetric injury analysis that ignores the consequences of duties on consuming industries and the economy at large to produce externalized costs. Panelists will discuss the imperative of adding rigor to case initiation standards; granting legal standing to firms in consuming industries; requiring the results of an analysis of the economic costs and benefits of any prospective antidumping measures to be considered; and more. Moderator: Lewis Leibowitz, Esq., Hogan Lovells and Chairman, National Association of Foreign Trade Zones Panelists: Erik Autor, Vice President, International Trade Counsel, National Retail Federation Dr. J. Michael Finger, Trade Economist and Author, Former Lead Economist and Chief of the World Bank's Trade Policy Research Group Gary Horlick, Esq., Law Offices of Gary N. Horlick, Former International Trade Counsel, U.S. Senate Finance Committee, and Former Head of Import Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce 4:15pm—4:30pm Break 4:30pm—5:30pm Panel 2: Just Because It's Legal Doesn't Mean It's Right: Reining in Rough Justice at the Commerce DepartmentImport Administration at the Commerce Department employs calculation procedures and methods that unequivocally inflate dumping margins, hence the rates of duty imposed. Some of those procedures serve no legitimate analytical purpose. Others can be conducted in manners that are less likely to produce skewed results. Panelists will discuss some of the more egregious methodological quirks and offer some commonsense solutions. Moderator: Gary Horlick, Esq., Law Offices of Gary N. Horlick, Former International Trade Counsel, U.S. Senate Finance Committee, and Former Head of Import Administration, U.S. Department of CommercePanelists: Robert La Frankie, Esq., Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and Former Senior Attorney, Office of Chief Counsel, Import Administration. U.S. Department of CommerceMatt Nicely, Esq., Thompson Hine LLP and Adjunct Professor, "The U.S. Trade Regime," American University, Washington College of LawDaniel Porter, Esq., Winston & Strawn LLP 5:30pm—6:30pm | 6/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
27 |
Cash for Care? | Can Medicare vouchers, such as the proposal authored by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) that has passed the House of Representatives, restrain Medicare spending without harming the health of enrollees? Health economist Lorens Helmchen suggests that cash payments to patients, either through a lump sum or negative co-payments, could allow Medicare to "spend less by paying more." Health care experts will discuss the benefits and difficulties of such payments, particularly how they affect Medicare spending, patient choice, incentives for cost-effective treatment, and medical innovation. | 6/27/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
28 |
Uncle Sam and Big Business: Enemies or Allies? And What Does that Mean for Young People? | Some politicians claim to be both "pro-business" and "pro-market" — as if they're the same thing. Yet today's largest corporations have mastered the art of working with government officials at every level to stifle market competition. They reap billions of dollars through a complex web of high taxes, strict regulations, and government handouts. Are Big Business and Big Government enemies or allies? Can regulation reliably check corporate abuses, or are agencies too prone to "regulatory capture"? In an economy where 3.6 million young people are out of work, will more government/business "partnerships" stoke employment — or further stifle competition? Please join us for a lively discussion of these issues. | 6/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
29 |
Getting "No Child Left Behind" Right | The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is long overdue for reauthorization, and pressure is mounting to get it done before NCLB labels the vast majority of our schools as failures. But there's much that must happen to fix NCLB, and to get federal-education policy overall working as it should. Neal McCluskey, associate director of Cato's Center for Educational Freedom, and Lindsey Burke, education policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, will provide a detailed overview of what Washington can and can't do in education, and will discuss competing proposals for reauthorizing this very intrusive — and troubled — law. | 6/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
30 |
Resolved: America Should Legalize Drugs | Forty years ago this month, President Richard Nixon launched a "war against drugs." It has turned out to be America's longest war; and yet the policy is not seriously debated by members of Congress. More than $1 trillion has been spent on the war effort—police, prosecutors, and prisons—but the black market trade is thriving as never before. Tens of millions of Americans break the law and use drugs each year. Clearly, these are not the results that were expected in 1971. Is it now fair to compare the drug war to our disastrous experience with alcohol prohibition and confess the error? Join us for a debate on this hotly contested subject. | 6/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
31 |
Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics | (http://www.amazon.com/Why-Leaders-Lie-International-Politics/dp/0199758735/?tag=catoinstitute-20)How frequent is lying in international politics? Which types of leaders lie the most, and to whom do leaders most frequently lie: other states, or their own people? Is all deception lying, or should we think of lying as distinct from other sorts of subterfuge, like spinning and concealment? Moreover, is lying a useful tool of statecraft? What happens when lying goes wrong? Best-selling author and leading international relations scholar John Mearsheimer takes on these questions in his new book, Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics. Please join the author and two discussants for an examination of this fascinating and under-studied topic. | 6/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
32 |
Which States Are Most Free? | In the new edition of their study "Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom," published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, political scientists Jason Sorens and William Ruger comprehensively rank the American states on their public policies that affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. Two intriguing findings of the statistical analysis are that Americans are voting with their feet and moving to states with more economic and personal freedom and that economic freedom correlates with economic growth. | 6/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
33 |
The Korea, Colombia, and Panama FTAs: Promoting Growth and Jobs through Trade | After years of delays, Congress will likely soon consider free-trade agreements (FTAs) with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama. Critics say the agreements expose U.S. workers to unfair competition, while supporters say the agreements will expand trade, level the playing field, and create well-paying jobs in U.S. export industries. William Lane, a representative of one of America's most successful multinational exporters, will join Dan Griswold, a Cato trade expert, to discuss the benefits of trade and the economics and politics of the three pending free-trade agreements. | 6/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
34 |
Competition and Innovation | Michele Boldrin, Juan Correa, David Levine, Carmine Ornaghi, Andy Atkeson, Sam Kortum, Mark Ramseyer, Eric Rasmusen, Frank Buckley, Efraim Benmelech, Rafael Di Tella, Juan Dubra, Glenn Loury, Justin McCrary, Lee Ohanian, Kyle Herkenhoff, Robert Hall, John Leahy | 6/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
35 |
India Twenty Years after Reform | Twenty years ago this summer, India introduced major economic reforms that have led to sustained high growth, reductions in mass poverty, and an ongoing transformation of Indian society. Swaminathan Aiyar will describe the key reforms and why they were politically possible. Surjit Bhalla, one of the world's leading experts on growth and poverty, will discuss the social impact of liberalization, including the dramatic rise of the middle class. Arvind Panagariya will stress the need for further modernization and highlight pressing items on India's unfinished reform agenda. All three speakers will assess the probability of future high growth and reform. | 6/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
36 |
Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids | (http://www.amazon.com/dp/046501867X/?tag=catoinstitute-20)Bryan Caplan tells us in his new book, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, that parents today are overinvesting in each child they have, and consequently deciding to have fewer children. He argues that twin and adoption studies show nature is far more important than nurture, and the "tiger mom" approach to parenting has very little impact on the life outcomes of children. So relax, and have more children! Even Caplan recognizes there is a large environmental impact on life outcomes, but he claims families don't matter. Why, and what does? And if families don't matter, what are the implications for libertarian prescriptions in public policy? How might the scientific debate over soft genetic determinism and "parenting-lit" impact policy debates about population and economic growth, health care policy, or education reform? Join us to hear Murray and Caplan discuss the place of parents and families in society and how these issues inform public policy. | 5/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
37 |
Limiting Government: What Washington Can Learn from Minnesota | In the face of a looming fiscal catastrophe, our federal government must make significant and immediate spending cuts. Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty will talk about his work to limit the size of Minnesota's government — efforts that earned him an "A" on Cato's "Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors: 2010 (http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/PA668.pdf)." He will also provide specific ideas on how Congress should cut spending and reduce the size of the federal government. | 5/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
38 |
The Case for Marriage Equality: Perry v. Schwarzenegger | The 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia ended state bans on interracial marriage in the 16 states that still had such laws. Now, 44 years after Loving, the courts are once again grappling with denial of equal marriage rights — this time to gay couples. Two California couples have filed suit against Proposition 8, the 2008 initiative that limited marriage to opposite-sex couples. The American Foundation for Equal Rights engaged David Boies and Ted Olson to lead the legal challenge. The plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger won in federal district court, and the case is now on appeal. Plaintiffs argue that Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the U.S. Constitution and impermissibly singles out gay and lesbian individuals for a disfavored legal status. The speakers on our panel believe that the principle of equality before the law transcends the left-right divide and cuts to the core of our nation's character. | 5/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression | (http://www.amazon.com/Peddling-Protectionism-Smoot-Hawley-Great-Depression/dp/069115032X/?tag=catoinstitute-20)More than 80 years after its passage, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 still resonates in today's debate over trade policy. Advocates of trade blame the law for deepening the Great Depression and warn of the economic damage from a reversion to protectionism. Skeptics of trade say its impact has been exaggerated. Economist and historian Douglas Irwin tells the messy and, at times, amusing story of how Congress dramatically raised tariffs in 1930 just as the world was plunging into depression, and analyzes the economic consequences of the most infamous trade bill ever enacted by Congress. Irwin then draws important lessons that can help today's trade policymakers avoid the costly mistakes of the past. | 5/17/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Leashing the Surveillance State: How to Renew and Reform Patriot Act Surveillance Authorities | In the panicked aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Congress moved with dizzying haste to enact the USA Patriot Act, a sprawling overhaul of American intelligence law. Nearly a decade later, three important counter-terror surveillance powers are up for renewal, giving lawmakers an opportunity to review their work. The three expiring powers — "lone wolf" surveillance authority, roving intelligence wiretaps, and orders for the production of "tangible things" — as well as the FBI's controversial power to issue National Security Letters — are analyzed in a new Cato study, which argues that it is possible to strengthen the safeguards that protect the constitutional liberties of American citizens while preserving the tools investigators need to detect and apprehend terrorists. Cato scholars Julian Sanchez and David Rittgers, joined by former FBI agent and ACLU policy analyst Michael German, will survey what we've learned from a decade of the Patriot Act and offer concrete proposals for reform. | 5/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Why Are We at War in Libya? | President Obama offers various justifications for his decision to intervene in Libya's civil war. He argues that humanitarianism required that we act, that the credibility of the United States and United Nations in standing up to dictators was on the line,and that Qaddafi had forfeited his legitimacy and Americans must support democratic movements. Are these sensible reasons to make war? Do our tactics in Libya serve these goals? And what is the role of Congress in asking these sorts of questions? | 5/13/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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America's Allies and War: Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq | (http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Allies-War-Kosovo-Afghanistan/dp/0230614825/?tag=catoinstitute-20)The United States pledges to defend our NATO allies under Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty. Why, and in what ways, do the allies reciprocate? Jason Davidson will present evidence from his unique analysis of transatlantic burden-sharing to explain why Britain, France, and Italy provide or refuse military support for U.S.-led uses of force. Sixty original interviews with top policymakers and analysts provide insight into allies' decisions regarding the Kosovo War (1999), Afghanistan (2001), and the Iraq War (2003). Davidson shows that such decisions reflect a combination of factors such as alliance value, threat, prestige, and electoral politics. Join us for a discussion that will include recommendations for how U.S. policymakers can increase the allies' contributions to global security, and shift some of the burdens of defense off the shoulders of American taxpayers. | 5/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Moral Implications of Deficits, Debt, and the Budget Battles Ahead | With deficits, debt, and budget battles dominating our politics for the foreseeable future, and much of the debate centering on what to do about the entitlements that are consuming ever-greater portions of the federal budget, more questions are arising about the social contract, the nation's first principles, and the moral issues that are just below the surface in the budget battles. Amitai Etzioni, for example, wrote recently in Dissent (http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=450) that many of the cuts being proposed for our social safety nets are "highly immoral" since there are numerous ways in which they can be avoided. More recently still, Roger Pilon argued in the Wall Street Journal (http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12969) that the federal budget itself is infused with immoral provisions that not only are unconstitutional but have brought on these deficits and debt. Please join us for what should be a lively debate over contrasting visions of where we go from here. | 5/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Arab Awakening and Its Implications | The mass uprising that began in Tunisia has since spread throughout the Arab world, serving as the catalyst to Hosni Mubarak's downfall in Egypt and Muammar el-Qaddafi's crackdown and subsequent United Nations intervention in Libya. Given these momentous events, will more Arab governments respond to demands for reform? Has the impact of social networking been revolutionary or overblown? Will the oil-rich Persian Gulf States be able to rely on their substantial wealth as a safety valve in times of crisis? And how do these developments enhance or diminish America's ability to exert influence in the region? Please join us as we tackle these and other questions. | 5/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Climate Coup: Global Warming's Invasion of Our Government and Our Lives | (http://www.cato.org/store/books/climate-coup-global-warming-s-invasion-our-government-our-lives)Despite consistent evidence that climate change does not portend an apocalyptic future, global-warming alarmism is invading nearly every aspect of our lives. The newly published book Climate Coup is an antidote to this, confronting the exaggerations, opportunism, and myths about global warming that are altering the shapes of our lives and deeply impacting decisions about health, education, law, national defense, international development, trade, and academic publishing. Is any alarmism justified? Are all of the claims being made unrealistic and unsupported? What is the role of government? This special book forum will offer perspectives from two experts gifted in their ability to communicate their different points of view on global-warming policy to the public. We hope you can join us for what promises to be an exceptionally vigorous discussion of the evidence and impact of global warming.Speakers: Richard Lindzen is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at MIT, where he pursues groundbreaking research on the sensitivity of temperature to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. He is recipient of the American Meteorological Society's Meisinger and Charney Awards and the Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union — three of the most prestigious prizes in atmospheric science. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences; a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Meteorological Society; and a corresponding member of the National Academy of Science Committee on Human Rights. Dr. Lindzen holds AB, SM, and PhD degrees from Harvard University. Bob Ryan is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and holds the Charles Franklin Brooks award from the Society for outstanding service. Well known in the Washington metropolitan area, Bob Ryan is a meteorologist for WJLA / ABC 7 News. In 1996, he was elected president of the AMS and he has also served the Society as Chair of the Committee of Broadcast Meteorology, Commissioner of Professional Affairs, and member of the Council of the Society. He is chair of the AMS Development Committee and most recently held an AMS Presidential Forum on the communication of weather and climate information. As a highly visible and very active communicator on climate change, Bob Ryan is uniquely qualified to comment on the interaction between government and climate science. He holds BS and MS degrees from SUNY-Albany. Patrick J. Michaels (moderator) is senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, a Distinguished Senior Fellow in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, and a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists. He has authored and co-authored numerous books on climate change, including Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media and Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know. | 5/4/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights against Progressive Reform | (http://www.cato.org/store/books/rehabilitating-lochner-defending-individual-rights-against-progressive-reform)No Supreme Court decision concerning economic liberty has been more emblematic of the alleged errors of the "old," pre-New Deal Court than Lochner v. New York, decided in 1905. Upholding contractual freedom against a New York statute that limited the hours that bakers might work, the decision has been reviled by both liberals and conservatives as an egregious example of judicial malfeasance — cited today most often for the prescient dissent of the sainted Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Yet the story of Lochner is not over. In a new book that examines the history and background of the case, David Bernstein argues that the decision has been widely misunderstood and unfairly maligned, that it was well grounded in precedent, and that subsequent battles over segregation laws, sex discrimination, civil liberties, and more owe much to the limited-government ideas of Lochner's proponents. Please join us for what is bound to be a lively discussion about this important new book. | 5/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Future of Chinese Land Rights | China now has one of the largest rural-urban income gaps in the world, with the vast majority of its 120 million extreme poor living in the countryside. A fundamental cause of enduring rural poverty is that many Chinese farmers do not have secure property rights to land. Roy Prosterman and Keliang Zhu will review the findings of Landesa's recent large-scale survey of the status of farmers' land rights. They will describe advances in the protection of such rights, the emergence of a land transactions market, and the growth of long-term investments by farmers. They will also discuss significant, ongoing violations of farmers' property rights and the impact on Chinese stability and food production. Xiaobo Zhang will comment on China's uneven protection of property rights. | 4/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Constitution of Liberty: The Definitive Edition | Bruce Caldwell, Richard Epstein, George Soros, Ronald Hamowy | 4/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The False Promise of Green Energy | (http://www.cato.org/store/books/false-promise-green-energy)Renewable energies such as wind, solar, and biomass, along with energy-efficiency initiatives like building retrofits — so-called "green energy" — are all the political rage in America today. Proponents contend that we are in the midst of a transformative green-energy revolution. The Obama administration goes so far as to argue that this new "green economy" will be one of the key building blocks for economic growth and global competitiveness in the 21st century and proposes production mandates and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars to make it so. A new book entitled The False Promise of Green Energy (Cato, 2011) warns that the government's campaign to promote green energy is built upon a mountain of wishful thinking, misleading accounting, and bad economics. Andrew Morriss, one of the book's several co-authors, contends that the case for green energy has somehow managed to escape critical examination. Kate Gordon, on the other hand, argues that experiences at the state level and in other countries, as well as a number of reports and studies on the potential for job creation in the green economy, demonstrates that the political faith in green energy is well-founded. | 4/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Civil Resistance and Revolution in the Arab World | What explains the swift collapse of what were considered some of the most stable regimes in the Arab world? Drawing on scholarship and his Center's experience in supporting pro-democracy activists in Egypt and around the world, Peter Ackerman will describe factors — such as strategy and careful planning — that are common to successful civil resistance movements. According to Ackerman, nonviolent campaigns have a better record at bringing down dictators than violent confrontations. Jack Goldstone will describe the conditions that give rise to revolutions, highlight the vulnerabilities of "sultanistic" dictatorships, and identify which Middle Eastern regimes are most likely to retain power. | 4/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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America's Transportation Future | With Congress poised to pass a surface transportation reauthorization bill in 2011, America's transportation system is at a crossroads. Should we emphasize high-cost forms of transportation, such as light rail and high-speed rail, whose main goal is to get a few people out of their cars? Or should we find low-cost technologies that can increase personal mobility for everyone, regardless of their income? Alan Pisarski will discuss the future of urban commuting, Clyde Hart will describe the current and future state of intercity bus transportation, and Randal O'Toole will show how future automobile technologies will save more energy and relieve congestion at a lower cost than heavy investments in new infrastructure. | 4/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Economic Impact of Government Spending - Part 1 | Spending by the federal government has doubled in the past 10 years, rising from $1.86 trillion to $3.82 trillion. This has caused the burden of federal spending to climb from 18 percent of GDP to 25 percent of GDP. Because of entitlement programs and demographic changes, however, federal spending could climb to more than 50 percent of GDP if government policy is left on autopilot. At this special afternoon conference, legislators and policy experts will discuss the economic consequences of bigger government, regardless of how it is financed, and analyze proposed solutions. 2:00 p.m. "The CAP Act: To Dramatically Reduce Federal Spending over 10 Years" Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) 2:30 p.m. "The Economic Impact of Government Spending" Vito Tanzi, Honorary President of the International Institute of Public Finance; former Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department, International Monetary Fund Richard Vedder, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Ohio University; Adjunct Scholar, American Enterprise Institute Daniel Mitchell, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute 3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. "Spend Less, Owe Less, Grow the Economy" Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX), Vice Chairman, Joint Economic Committee 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. "From Rhetoric to Reality: The Need for a Balanced Budget Amendment" Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) 4:30 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. "Lessons from Gramm-Rudman on How to Control Federal Spending" Phil Gramm, UBS Investment Bank; former U.S. Senator from Texas 5:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Reception | 4/7/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The War in Libya: What Is the Role of Congress? | President Obama's intervention in the Libyan civil war raises profound constitutional questions. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants the power to "declare War" to Congress. What does "declare War" mean in the context of the Libyan intervention? James Madison noted that the president had the power "to repel sudden attacks" on the United States, although not the power to declare war. The War Powers Act of 1973 purports to define and constrain the executive's power to declare war, yet some have suggested that it gives the president a 60-day "free pass" for military action. What does the War Powers Act mean in this situation? What options are available to Congress for responding to America's new war in the Mideast? | 4/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Beyond Exports: A Better Case for Free Trade | The 112th Congress begins its term amid renewed optimism about prospects for U.S. trade liberalization. But how long will this window of opportunity remain ajar? Despite trade's benefits, Americans remain skeptical because of the tendency of politicians and media charlatans to blame foreigners for domestic shortcomings. Thus, in addition to securing the immediate goal of concluding and passing trade liberalizing agreements in 2011, advocates of trade should update their arguments and invest in the process of winning the trade debate once and for all. Some of the most compelling arguments for free trade have been only modestly summoned or absent from the discussion for too long. Please join us for a discussion of those compelling arguments that take the case for free trade well beyond the value of exports. | 3/24/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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A Government Thumb on the Election Scale? | On June 8, 2010, at the height of campaign season, the U.S. Supreme Court took the extraordinary step of stopping Arizona's Clean Elections system from paying campaign subsidies to publicly-financed candidates when their privately-financed opponents and independent expenditure committees raised and spent campaign money to be used against them. The Court took this dramatic action because Arizona's system appears to threaten the core First Amendment principle that the government must not be allowed to meddle in the open marketplace of ideas to favor one candidate over another. But that was only round one. In the wake of Davis v. FEC (2008), the Court has now consolidated two challenges brought against the matching-funds provision of Clean Elections and will hear arguments on March 28, 2011. If the Court were to reverse course and allow Arizona's system to stand, it could lay the groundwork for the government to lavish millions of dollars on the political opponents of those deemed too wealthy or influential. Please join us for a discussion about the future and wider implications of taxpayer-funded political campaigns. | 3/22/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The New Health Care Law: What a Difference a Year Makes - Keynote Address | When President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, 2010, few would have predicted what happened in the following year. Opposition to the law has led to Republican gains in Congress, a House vote to repeal it, and two federal courts striking down part or all of the law as unconstitutional. At this special half-day conference, being held one year after the House of Representatives passed the law, health care experts will debate how the law has already affected America's health care sector, labor markets, and the federal budget, and what impact it will have in the future. In addition, constitutional scholars will debate the merits of the two dozen legal challenges that have been brought against the law and their likelihood of success before the Supreme Court. 1:00 p.m. Opening Keynote Address David Rivkin, Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP, and attorney for plaintiffs in Florida v. HHS Moderated by Ramesh Ponnuru, Senior Editor, National Review 1:45 p.m. Impact on Health Care, Labor Markets, and Government Budgets Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute Ron Pollack, Executive Director, Families USA Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President, American Action Forum; former Director, Congressional Budget Office Kavita Patel, M.D., Managing Director of Delivery-System Reform at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, Brookings Institution; former Director of Policy for the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs; and former Deputy Staff Director for the Senate HELP Committee under chairman Senator Edward Kennedy 3:00 p.m. Break 3:15 p.m. Legal Challenges to the New Health Care Law Roger Pilon, Vice President for Legal Affairs, Cato Institute Neera Tanden, Chief Operating Officer, Center for American Progress Moderated by Jan Crawford, CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent | 3/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea | (http://www.amazon.com/Neoconservatism-Obituary-C-Bradley-Thompson/dp/1594518319/?tag=catoinstitute-20) (http://www.amazon.com/Neoconservatism-Obituary-C-Bradley-Thompson/dp/1594518319/?tag=catoinstitute-20)C. Bradley Thompson, professor of political science and executive director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, has written (with Yaron Brook) a comprehensive and original analysis of neoconservatism. Neoconservatism probes what neoconservatives call their "philosophy of governance" — their plan for governing America. It explicates the deepest philosophic principles of neoconservatism, traces the intellectual relationship between the political philosopher Leo Strauss and contemporary neoconservative political actors, and provides a trenchant critique of neoconservatism from the perspective of America's founding principles. What makes this book so compelling is that Thompson actually lived for many years in the Straussian/neoconservative intellectual world. Neoconservatism therefore fits into the "breaking ranks" tradition of scholarly criticism. Thompson charges that neoconservatism is a species of anti-Americanism, a claim sure to draw strong opposition — probably from Tod Lindberg, editor of Policy Review and a member of the Hoover Institution's Task Force on the Virtues of a Free Society. | 3/16/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Robust Political Economy: Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy | (http://www.amazon.com/Robust-Political-Economy-Classical-Liberalism/dp/1845426215/?tag=catoinstitute-20) (http://www.amazon.com/Robust-Political-Economy-Classical-Liberalism/dp/1845426215/?tag=catoinstitute-20)This new book offers a comprehensive defense of classical liberalism against contemporary challenges. It sets out an analytical framework of "robust political economy" that explores the economic and political problems that arise from the fact of imperfect knowledge and imperfect incentives. Using this framework, the book defends the classical liberal focus on markets and the minimal state from the critiques presented by "market failure" economics and communitarian and egalitarian variants of political theory. Mark Pennington applies the lessons learned from responding to these challenges in the context of contemporary discussions surrounding the welfare state, international development, and environmental protection. Thinkers addressed include Joseph Stiglitz, Jurgen Habermas, Karl Polanyi, John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin. Uniquely, the book explores the lessons learned from responding to these critics in the context of contemporary discussions surrounding the welfare state, international development, and environmental protection. The book has been described by Professor Bruce Caldwell, general editor of The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek, as "almost custom-made for those who want to defend classical liberalism against the common arguments." | 3/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America | (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594032335/?tag=catoinstitute-20) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594032335/?tag=catoinstitute-20)The ideas that emanate from the nation's law schools in one generation often wind up shaping law and national policy in the next. But as Cato senior fellow Walter Olson argues in this new book, for more than four decades the nation's law schools have been a hatchery of bad ideas, from tort and contract theories to class actions, environmental law, racial reparations, the recasting of domestic policy differences as questions of international human rights, and more. Yet the common theme is to confer power and status on the schools' own graduates and faculty, as law pervades ever wider areas of life. The pipe dream of training up philosopher-monarchs, Olson says, distracts law schools from their genuinely useful function of training competent, ethical, and suitably humble practitioners of the law. | 3/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Reforming America's Health Care System: The Flawed Vision of ObamaCare | (http://www.amazon.com/Reforming-Americas-Health-Care-System/dp/0817912746/?tag=catoinstitute-20) (http://www.amazon.com/Reforming-Americas-Health-Care-System/dp/0817912746/?tag=catoinstitute-20)In March 2010, Congress passed a sweeping overhaul of America's health care sector. That law, commonly known as ObamaCare, triggered a backlash in voting booths, in Congress, and in the courts. A new book from the Hoover Institution, Reforming America's Health Care System: The Flawed Vision of ObamaCare (http://www.amazon.com/Reforming-Americas-Health-Care-System/dp/0817912746/?tag=catoinstitute-20), features health policy experts from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe who discuss what to expect from the law and alternatives to it. They examine numerous aspects of the law, including the individual mandate to buy insurance, the threats to medical innovation, the reduction of choice to consumers, and the complexities of medical malpractice reform. In addition, they examine lessons learned from state health reforms, the Canadian government's control of access to care, and the western European governments' oversight of comparative-effectiveness research. | 3/2/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Internet and Social Media: Tools of Freedom or Tools of Oppression? | Freedom movements around the world are using Twitter and Facebook to express dissent and to organize, particularly in the Middle East. It might be fair to say that the Internet is becoming the platform for political liberation. But the "just add Internet" thesis has its skeptics, who argue that, in fact, the Internet may give authoritarian governments the upper hand. Social media platforms are very amenable to government surveillance, and revolution doesn't come easy, online or off. Should lovers of freedom be saying "Internet FTW!" or is it one big "#InternetFAIL"? | 2/25/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Is Dodd-Frank Constitutional? | The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 was intended to "promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end 'too big to fail,' to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes." The law is extraordinarily complex, requiring almost a dozen federal agencies to complete anywhere between 240 to 540 new sets of rules, plus about 145 studies that will affect rulemaking. There has been much debate over whether the law will accomplish its stated intent, but there are also growing concerns about its constitutionality, primarily due to separation of powers, vagueness, and due process issues. Central to that discussion is the fact that Dodd-Frank grants administrative agencies — including the newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council and Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection — broad and unchallengeable discretionary authority. Does Dodd-Frank provide effective oversight by any branch of government — Congress, the president, or the judiciary? How can constitutional concerns about the law's grants of regulatory power be resolved? Please join us for a discussion of these important issues. | 2/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Restoring Limited Constitutional Government Starts with Congress | With the 112th Congress now in session, the Constitution is finding new respect on Capitol Hill. It started during the campaign, thanks to pressure from the Tea Party. It was reflected when members in the House read the Constitution aloud on their first full day in session. And it should continue as House members are required to cite specific constitutional authority when they introduce bills. But restoring limited constitutional government will require more than simply "checking the box" — it will require a solid understanding of the document and an ability to withstand the ever-present pressure to abandon principle in favor of short-term gain. Please join us for a detailed discussion of how constitutional principle and practice go together. | 2/10/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream | (http://www.amazon.com/Inflated-Money-Built-American-Dream/dp/0470875143/?tag=catoinstitute-20) (http://www.amazon.com/Inflated-Money-Built-American-Dream/dp/0470875143/?tag=catoinstitute-20)Americans view themselves as reasonably prudent and sober people when it comes to matters of money. Yet as a community, we also seem to believe that we are entitled to a lifestyle that is well beyond our income, a tendency that goes back to the earliest days of the United States and particularly to get-rich-quick experiences ranging from the Gold Rush of the 1840s to the real-estate bubble of the early 21st century. Inflated examines this apparent conflict, as it seeks to tell the story of money inflation and public debt as recurring features of American life. Inflated also draws on the insights of Austrian business-cycle theory in painting its picture of American economic history. | 2/8/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Debating Social Welfare Policy in the 21st Century: What's the Best Way Forward? | 1/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes | |
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Cloning "Superman": What Other Countries Already Know about Scaling Up Good Schools | Everyone agrees that we have too few good schools and too many lousy ones. What's missing is a mechanism for replicating what works. Competitive for-profit markets have served that function in other fields, from cell phones to coffee shops. Can the same thing work in education? To find out, we've invited experts from both hemispheres to tell us what their nations have learned from decades of experience with private-school choice. Peje Emilsson founded the largest chain of for-profit private schools operating in Sweden's nationwide voucher program. Humberto Santos has studied the academic performance of public schools, independent private schools, and chains of private schools in Chile's voucher program. Responding to their findings and asking challenging questions will be Education Week journalist Sarah Sparks. Please join us for a lively discussion of how we might finally be able to stop "Waiting for Superman." | 1/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Location-Tracking Technology and Privacy | As location-sensitive cell phones, GPS devices, and digital assistants become more integral to daily living, law enforcement and intelligence agencies are rushing to exploit their potential. Records of the geolocation data these devices generate can provide the kind of detailed portrait of a person's movements and activities that once required costly, 24/7 surveillance. Applications range from tracking fugitives to reconstructing a suspect's travels to analyzing the movements of whole populations in search of "suspicious" behavior patterns. As courts wrestle with the Fourth-Amendment status of this new form of monitoring, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is drafting legislation to set standards for government access to geolocation data under both criminal law and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Senator Wyden will discuss his forthcoming proposal and Cato scholars Julian Sanchez and Jim Harper will comment, placing it in the context of the larger shifting legal and technological landscape. Join us for a discussion of geolocation data and the prospects for privacy protection in this emerging technological area. | 1/26/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The Future of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms | In 2008, for the first time in our history, the Supreme Court invoked the Second Amendment to strike down a gun-control law, holding that the federal government may not prohibit law-abiding citizens from keeping a handgun in the home for self defense. In 2010, the Court held that state and local governments are also prohibited from banning handguns in the home. Major victories for individual liberty, those decisions were also very narrow. Can we expect future decisions to recognize a wide range of rights to keep and bear arms? Or will the Court's recent decisions turn out to be mostly symbolic, with little effect on legislative discretion to regulate access to firearms? Please join us for a discussion of opposing views about what the courts are likely to do and what they should do. | 1/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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The 112th Congress and Military Spending | The 112th Congress includes many new members elected on a promise to close the nation's unsustainable deficits. Despite the efforts of some in Washington to exempt the Pentagon's budget from scrutiny, the president's deficit reduction commission and a nongovernmental panel chaired by former senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Alice Rivlin (former budget director for President Clinton) both called for cuts in military spending. Other proposals have called for even deeper reductions, noting that the defense budget has nearly doubled in real terms over the past 13 years. Even many conservatives now believe that the Pentagon's budget can be cut without undermining American security. A letter circulated by Americans for Tax Reform, and signed by more than two dozen conservative leaders, declared that attempts to exempt military spending from cuts "would signal that the new Congress is not serious about fiscal responsibility and not ready to lead." Will the 112th Congress lead on spending, and will they include the Pentagon's budget in their plans? If so, in what ways will cuts in military spending force Washington to rein in its global ambitions? Please join us for a discussion of these issues. | 1/19/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Liberty of Contract: Rediscovering a Lost Constitutional Right | (http://www.cato.org/store/books/liberty-contract-rediscovering-lost-constitutional-right-hardcover) (http://www.cato.org/store/books/liberty-contract-rediscovering-lost-constitutional-right-hardcover)Under common law, private property and liberty of contract were long protected by the courts — not entirely, but sufficiently to enable a free society to emerge in America. In the late 19th century, however, and for some 40 years thereafter, that protection intensified, yet it was still not an era of unbridled "laissez faire constitutionalism" that later critics of the era would label it, pointing to the Supreme Court's famous Lochner decision of 1905. Rather, early 20th-century Progressives were making steady inroads on the liberty of contract in particular. And with the New Deal, that liberty, especially concerning economic affairs, almost disappeared, and continues even today as a "second-class" right. In a penetrating new Cato Institute book, constitutional scholar David Mayer subtly explores the complex history of liberty of contract, exploding current myths and shedding new light on this fundamental right. Please join us for a discussion of this important issue. | 1/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life | (http://www.amazon.com/Adam-Smith-Enlightened-Nicholas-Phillipson/dp/0713993960/?tag=catoinstitute-20) (http://www.amazon.com/Adam-Smith-Enlightened-Nicholas-Phillipson/dp/0713993960/?tag=catoinstitute-20) Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations has an influence rivaled only by that other famous publication of 1776. But even as he revolutionized the study of economics and society, its author remains an enigma. In a widely praised new biography, Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life (http://www.amazon.com/Adam-Smith-Enlightened-Nicholas-Phillipson/dp/0713993960/?tag=catoinstitute-20), Nicholas Phillipson shows the extent to which The Wealth of Nations and Smith's other great work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, were part of a larger scheme to establish a grand "Science of Man." One of the most ambitious projects of the European Enlightenment, it was to encompass law, history and aesthetics as well as economics and ethics. Phillipson reconstructs Smith's intellectual ancestry and formation, of which he gives a radically new and convincing account. At this Cato Book Forum, Phillipson will discuss Smith's life and thought. The event also features comments from James R. Otteson, author of Adam Smith's Marketplace of Life. | 1/12/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Fiscal Undertow: How Public Schools Are Drowning State and Local Budgets, and What to Do about It | Health care is the budget buster at the federal level, but K-12 education is what's poised to bankrupt state and local governments. Spending on public education eats up around half of the general budget in most states, and it's by far the priciest single item. For every dollar raised by state and local governments for Medicaid, three dollars go to K-12 schooling. As a result, combined state budget gaps in the high tens of billions of dollars are predicted through at least 2012. That's the immediate problem. Just over the horizon, things look worse. State public-employee pension systems are facing a trillion-dollar shortfall in their commitments, driven in large part by the massive costs of public-school employee benefits. So exactly how bad is the education spending crisis? Is there anything we can do to avoid huge state and local tax increases or a serious decline in the breadth and quality of educational services? Join us for a discussion of the most important state and local spending issue of 2011 ... and many years to come. | 1/11/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Obama's Fiscal Commission and the GOP Budget Agenda | The president's fiscal commission has unveiled serious proposals to cut programs, restrain the growth of spending, and reduce the federal government's huge budget deficit. The commission's report provides numerous fiscal policy ideas for the large class of new Republican members who are eager to fix the federal fiscal mess while the prospects for budget restraint look promising. How should the GOP propose cutting discretionary spending and reforming entitlement programs? Should they consider increasing taxes? Which of the commission's proposals should the president embrace? How can the GOP address the bloated military budget? Please join our panelists as they answer these questions and discuss other fiscal challenges facing our country. | 12/16/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
74 |
The U.S. Generalized System of Preferences: Helping the Poor, But at What Price? | In her new trade policy analysis, "The U.S. Generalized System of Preferences: Helping the Poor, But at What Price? (http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12555)," Sallie James argues that the expiration of the GSP at the end of this year is an ideal time to consider the costs of unilateral preference programs. While the GSP delivers benefits to some countries, as well as to U.S. consumers and firms, the program is deeply flawed. Its expiration is therefore a timely opportunity for the United States to correct the most egregious of the GSP's limitations and to move toward opening the U.S. market on a permanent and nondiscriminatory basis. Please join our panelists for a spirited discussion of the U.S. GSP and options for its reform. | 12/14/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
75 |
Spending Cuts or Devaluation? Resolving the Financial Crisis in the Baltic Countries | In his new book, The Last Shall Be the First, Anders Aslund argues that the governments of the Baltic countries were right to respond to the 2008 financial crisis by slashing spending, while maintaining a fully fixed exchange rate between their domestic currencies and the euro. According to Aslund, this "internal devaluation" allowed the Baltics to quickly return to growth. Desmond Lachman contends that the sharp decline in the GDP in the Baltics in 2009 would not have happened if, instead of austerity measures, the Baltic governments had abandoned fixed exchange rates in favor of currency devaluation. Which of these two approaches is correct — and does the solution of the crisis in the Baltic countries hold any lessons for the United States and the European Union? Please join us for a spirited discussion. | 12/8/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Banking and Insurance in the 112th Congress | Two panels will provide a preview of what the new Congress might hold for banking and insurance legislation. Will we see freer financial markets or more regulation? Can Dodd-Frank be repealed? What is likely to happen to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? These and other questions will be addressed. | 12/7/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Profiting from Ivory Towers? | Investigating, castigating, and regulating for-profit colleges is all the rage in higher education these days. But how different are the business practices of these institutions from those of their nonprofit counterparts? Please join our panelists for a spirited discussion of the role that profits play in American higher education and the role that regulation can or cannot play in its success. | 11/30/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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Deficits and Defense | Concern over the nation's looming deficit has prompted a renewed focus on the need for spending cuts. Some in Washington would shield the Pentagon's budget from scrutiny, but several newly elected members of Congress who have put deficit reduction at the top of their agenda have said that military spending cuts must be on the table. The costs associated with being the world's policeman, they say, are simply too high. The United States must seek ways to shift the burdens of defense to other countries who have enjoyed the free ride at American taxpayers' expense for too long. Who will prevail? In what ways will fiscal constraints force Washington to reconsider the purpose of American military power? Will Washington rein in its ambitions as defense spending comes down, or will our troops be forced to bear additional burdens? Please join us for a discussion of these issues. | 11/19/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
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28th Annual Monetary Conference: Keynote Address | Cato Institute 28th Annual Monetary Conference Asset Bubbles and Monetary Policy Thursday, November 18, 2010 F.A. Hayek Auditorium Cato Institute 9:00 a.m. — 6:15 p.m. About the Conference (http://www.cato.org/events/monconf2010/index.html) | Conference Schedule | Registration (https://www.cato.org/events/monconf2010/register.html) Conference Schedule 8:30 - 9:00 a.m. REGISTRATION 9:00 - 9:05 a.m. WELCOMING REMARKS James A. Dorn (/people/james-dorn) Vice President for Academic Affairs, Cato Institute 9:05 - 9:45 a.m. KEYNOTE ADDRESS Jerry L. Jordan Former President, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Watch video of the Welcoming Remarks and Keynote Address (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-1.mp3)Download a Podcast of the Welcoming Remarks and Keynote Address [MP3] (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-1.mp3) 9:45 - 11:00 a.m. PANEL 1: IS MONETARY POLICY RESPONSIBLE FOR BUBBLES? Moderator: William Poole (/people/william-poole) Senior Fellow, Cato Institute Carmen M. Reinhart Professor of Economics, University of Maryland Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr. (/people/gerald-odriscoll) Senior Fellow, Cato Institute Adam S. Posen External Member, Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England, and Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics Watch video of Panel I (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-2.mp3)Download a Podcast of Panel I [MP3] (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-2.mp3) 11:00 - 11:15 a.m. BREAK 11:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. PANEL 2: BUBBLES UNDER ALTERNATIVE MONETARY REGIMES Moderator: Caroline Baum Columnist, Bloomberg News Steve H. Hanke (/people/steve-hanke) Senior Fellow, Cato Institute and Professor of Economics, The Johns Hopkins University George S. Tavlas Director General, Bank of Greece Lawrence H. White Mercatus Professor of Economics, George Mason University Kevin Dowd Visiting Professor, Pensions Institute, Cass School of Business Watch video of Panel II (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-3.mp3)Download a Podcast of Panel II [MP3] (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-3.mp3) 12:30 - 1:15 p.m. LUNCHEON 1:15 - 2:00 p.m. LUNCHEON ADDRESS John B. Taylor Professor of Economics, Stanford University Watch video of the Luncheon Address (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-4.mp3)Download the Luncheon Address [MP3] (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-4.mp3) 2:00 - 3:15 p.m. PANEL 3: LESSONS FROM THE HOUSING/CREDIT BUBBLE Moderator: Jeffrey A. Miron (/people/jeffrey-miron) Senior Fellow, Cato Institute and Senior Lecturer in Economics, Harvard University Manuel Sánchez Deputy Governor, Bank of Mexico Peter J. Wallison Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute Mark A. Calabria (/people/mark-calabria) Director of Financial Regulation Studies, Cato Institute Watch video of Panel III (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-5.mp3)Download a Podcast of Panel III [MP3] (http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000873/archive-2010/cca-11-18-10-5.mp3) 3:15 - 3:30 p.m. BREAK 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. | 11/18/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
80 |
Is Taxpayer Financing of Campaigns Constitutional? | Following the landmark decision in Citizens United, advocates for more campaign finance regulation have turned to enacting taxpayer financing of campaigns. They hope to build on state programs of taxpayer financing, such as the one in Arizona. But recent Supreme Court decisions call into question the provisions in the Arizona law that seek to "level the playing field" by punishing the speech of independent groups. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether to take up the constitutional challenge to Arizona's taxpayer financing law. Please join us for a lively debate on propriety of government financing of electoral speech. | 11/17/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
Total: 80 Episodes |
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