Cato Event Podcast

Sweden is a remarkably successful country. A poor peasant nation in the 1850s, it became one of the world’s richest countries a century later. It ranks among the world’s freest developed nations. Should the United States be more like Sweden? The documentary Sweden: Lessons for America? delves into aspects of Swedish politics and society that may surprise many Americans. Join us to see a segment of...

P. J. O’Rourke, America’s leading political satirist and Cato H. L. Mencken Research Fellow, has been dubbed “the funniest writer in America” by the Wall Street Journal . In his new book, None of My Business: P. J. Explains Money, Banking, Debt, Equity, Assets, Liabilities, and Why He’s Not Rich and Neither Are You , the best-selling author delves into the world of business, offering his humorous,...

A key question in debates over Obamacare is whether its community rating provisions are necessary to provide complete risk protection to consumers. A new study of one insurer by Anthony LoSasso and colleagues finds that the insurer did increase premiums for small employers whose expected claims were above average, but the increase in premiums only ranged from 5 percent to 43 percent of the increas...

The financial services industry is undergoing a transformation: technology is enabling financial institutions and startups to reach underserved communities, lower the cost of banking and investing, and increase access to capital. As fintech fosters financial inclusion and access, how can regulation accommodate innovation while protecting consumers? Cato’s Fourth Annual Summit on Financial Regulati...

The financial services industry is undergoing a transformation: technology is enabling financial institutions and startups to reach underserved communities, lower the cost of banking and investing, and increase access to capital. As fintech fosters financial inclusion and access, how can regulation accommodate innovation while protecting consumers? Cato’s Fourth Annual Summit on Financial Regulati...

The financial services industry is undergoing a transformation: technology is enabling financial institutions and startups to reach underserved communities, lower the cost of banking and investing, and increase access to capital. As fintech fosters financial inclusion and access, how can regulation accommodate innovation while protecting consumers? Cato’s Fourth Annual Summit on Financial Regulati...

The financial services industry is undergoing a transformation: technology is enabling financial institutions and startups to reach underserved communities, lower the cost of banking and investing, and increase access to capital. As fintech fosters financial inclusion and access, how can regulation accommodate innovation while protecting consumers? Cato’s Fourth Annual Summit on Financial Regulati...

The financial services industry is undergoing a transformation: technology is enabling financial institutions and startups to reach underserved communities, lower the cost of banking and investing, and increase access to capital. As fintech fosters financial inclusion and access, how can regulation accommodate innovation while protecting consumers? Cato’s Fourth Annual Summit on Financial Regulati...

For much of the 21st century, those who identified themselves as left of center were the strongest proponents of freedom of speech. They believed in the principle, and they thought that free speech benefited civil rights and labor activists—not to mention radicals seeking fundamental change. Conservatives, they thought, would always oppose free speech because of its threat to the status quo. Begin...

ne of the nation’s leading experts on infrastructure policy, Robert Poole, will discuss his new book,  Rethinking America’s Highways: A 21st-Century Vision for Better Infrastructure . The book examines our current structure of highway ownership and financing and describes why major reforms are needed. Poole argues for a new model that treats highways in a more commercial manner, akin to publi...

Which state is the freest, and what does it mean to be free? Which state has the most heavily taxed and regulated economy? Which state has the best protections for personal freedom? Where does your state rank? Is it among the freest or most coercive? Such questions have occurred to many people who care about limited government. The 2018 edition of  Freedom in the 50 States  presents an u...

Which state is the freest, and what does it mean to be free? Which state has the most heavily taxed and regulated economy? Which state has the best protections for personal freedom? Where does your state rank? Is it among the freest or most coercive? In this special Cato Connects, Freedom in the 50 States authors William P. Ruger and Jason Sorens discuss the data on more than 230 variables to meas...

The economic revolutions of the past have brought vast wealth to average people. So what does the "sharing economy" have to offer? Michael Munger argues in his new book, Tomorrow 3.0 , that when we understand how transaction costs function, the implications of the sharing economy become more clear. Join us for a discussion of the implications of this economic shift and how it will change how we wo...

The Trump administration has reversed an Obama-era rule that exposed consumers with short-term health insurance plans to medical underwriting after they got sick. The Trump rule restores consumer protections in short-term plans, which are exempt from ObamaCare’s costly benefit mandates and hidden taxes. Does the new short-term plans rule create a “freedom option” for those who have had enough of O...

From Cato University: College of History and Philosophy History is indispensable to understanding and defending liberty under our constitutionally limited, representative government. And at the core of that history are the philosophical beliefs and values on which the American republic was founded. Cato University's College of History and Philosophy brings these two powerful subjects together to e...

From Cato University: College of History and Philosophy History is indispensable to understanding and defending liberty under our constitutionally limited, representative government. And at the core of that history are the philosophical beliefs and values on which the American republic was founded. Cato University's College of History and Philosophy brings these two powerful subjects together to e...

From Cato University: College of History and Philosophy History is indispensable to understanding and defending liberty under our constitutionally limited, representative government. And at the core of that history are the philosophical beliefs and values on which the American republic was founded. Cato University's College of History and Philosophy brings these two powerful subjects together to e...

From Cato University: College of History and Philosophy History is indispensable to understanding and defending liberty under our constitutionally limited, representative government. And at the core of that history are the philosophical beliefs and values on which the American republic was founded. Cato University's College of History and Philosophy brings these two powerful subjects together to e...

Cryptocurrencies are now a $270 billion market, and initial coin offerings (ICOs) raised more than $8 billion in the first five months of 2018. What is the appropriate regulatory framework for this emerging financial technology? In this Capitol Hill briefing, Cato’s Diego Zuluaga and Mercatus’ Brian Knight will address whether and how cryptocurrencies might be determined to be securities, the role...

America has developed its own decentralized and pluralist approach to adoption, with a wide variety of both private and public actors helping match children with the families they need along several paths: adoption of older children in public care, including the foster-to-adopt path; adoption of newborns; and international adoption. But services for children in public care have been swept up in co...

America has developed its own decentralized and pluralist approach to adoption, with a wide variety of both private and public actors helping match children with the families they need along several paths: adoption of older children in public care, including the foster-to-adopt path; adoption of newborns; and international adoption. But services for children in public care have been swept up in co...

America has developed its own decentralized and pluralist approach to adoption, with a wide variety of both private and public actors helping match children with the families they need along several paths: adoption of older children in public care, including the foster-to-adopt path; adoption of newborns; and international adoption. But services for children in public care have been swept up in co...

Today, more than 95 percent of criminal convictions in the United States are obtained through plea bargains. As the Supreme Court observed in 2012, “criminal justice today is for the most part a system of pleas, not a system of trials.” Compared with jury trials, plea bargains are efficient and inexpensive, and they free up resources that might otherwise be devoted to securing convicti...

To Err Is Human is an in-depth documentary about medical mistakes and those working behind the scenes to create a new age of patient safety. Through interviews with leaders in health care, footage of real-world efforts leading to safer care, and one individual's compelling journey from victim to empowered patient advocate, the film provides a unique look at our health care system's ongoing fight a...

Sixty years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided the landmark case of NAACP v. Alabama . In 1956, as part of the civil rights struggle, the state of Alabama sought the membership lists of the NAACP chapter in that state. The Court ruled against the state and discerned a “vital relationship between freedom to associate and privacy in one’s associations.” The decision remains a high point fr...