Cato Event Podcast

The global poverty aid industry is big business, with the West spending more than a trillion dollars in the past decade on programs to promote development. Filmed in 20 countries,  Poverty, Inc.  unearths the uncomfortable side of international charity, finding that much of it hurts the world’s poor more than it helps them. Join us for a screening of the documentary that explores how per...

Since 2001 the United States has created or restructured more than two counterterrorism organizations for every apprehension it has made of Islamists apparently planning to commit terrorism within the country. Central to this massive enterprise are the efforts of police and intelligence agencies to follow up on over ten million tips, the vast majority of which lead nowhere. In their new book, Chas...

There is, perhaps, no bigger name in American education than John Dewey, and he wrote, arguably, nothing more influential than Democracy and Education , which turns 100 years old this year. How has the book held up over the century, with its prescription for schools to use children's natural inclinations to both educate them and unite diverse people? How educationally and socially effective have t...

Colombia’s half-century war with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and remains Latin America’s longest armed conflict. After more than three years of talks, the Colombian government and the guerrillas are nearing a self-imposed deadline for the completion of peace negotiations. Despite the support that the peace process enjoys o...

Supporters claim the dependent-coverage mandate is one of the most popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act. This provision requires employer-based insurance plans that offer dependent coverage to cover dependents up to age 26. Scholars are just beginning to measure the benefits and costs of this mandate. In a forthcoming study, Stanford University economist Jay Bhattacharya examines the effe...

In 2015 Japan passed landmark reforms of its national security laws, including a reinterpretation of its constitutional prohibition against collective security activities. Now Japan can legally cooperate with the United States in defensive military operations, leading many observers to declare that Japan has abandoned its post–World War II “pacifist principles.”Are such pronouncements correct? Or...

Every year, federal, state, and local governments spend nearly $1 trillion to fight poverty, yet millions of Americans remain trapped in poverty with little hope for the future. Could the welfare system itself be part of the problem? Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers make the case that our current welfare system has failed the poor, hurting the very people it is supposed to help. They suggest that good...

Domestic minerals and metals are a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, but data just published by the Energy Information Agency (EIA) show that investment in U.S. mining and exploration declined an incredible 35 percent last year—from $135 billion in 2014 to $88 billion in 2015—representing the second largest decline since 1948. The withdrawal of federal lands, often with permanent restrictions on mi...

Between January and March 2015, U.S. Special Operations forces deployed to over 80 countries. Although many of these deployments focused on training exercises or advisory roles, it is an astounding measure of the scope of the U.S. military's involvement around the world. U.S. forces are engaged in active conflict in at least 6 countries, ranging from the well-known (Iraq; Afghanistan) to the large...

Two years ago, in  Burwell v. Hobby Lobby , the Supreme Court ruled that regulations implementing Obamacare’s “preventive care” mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) for certain closely held corporations. Employers with religious objections to some of the contraceptives that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) required them to cover had to be exempt from...

American public schools often censor controversial student speech that the Constitution protects. Lessons in Censorship brings clarity to a bewildering array of court rulings that define the speech rights of young citizens in the school setting. Ross examines disputes that have erupted in our schools and courts over the civil rights movement; war and peace; rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and t...

Less than 18 months ago, a cover story for the New York Times Magazine asked, “Has the ‘libertarian moment’ finally arrived?” From public suspicion of the surveillance state, to increasing tolerance for marijuana legalization, to marriage equality, to weariness with war—the article argued that after years of intellectual work, “for perhaps the first time,” libertarianism has “genuine political mom...

Four years ago, in Sackett v. EPA (2012), the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the EPA's effort to deny judicial review of its determination that a rural lot where an Idaho couple was building their home was a federal wetland. The Army Corps of Engineers makes tens of thousands of similar wetlands determinations each year under the Clean Water Act (CWA), but it claims that Sackett doesn't apply...

Libertarians and conservatives held high hopes for a return to limited, constitutional government and fiscal responsibility with the arrival of the Tea Party movement in 2008 and 2009. Today, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are making credible runs for the White House. What happened? Was the commitment to Founding Era principles weakly held, after all? Join us on March 10th at 4 p.m. for a discuss...

Dramatic improvements in robotics, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing (3D printing), and nanoenergetics are dramatically changing the character of global conflicts. The convergence of these new and improving technologies increases the capabilities available to smaller and smaller political entities—extending even to the individual. In a new Cato Policy Analysis author T. X. Hammes exp...

Since Milton Friedman, school choice proponents have argued that vouchers and other private choice programs would improve student performance, and nearly every “gold-standard” study has found they do – until now. Recent studies of Louisiana’s voucher program have found that it actually reduced students’ performance on standardized tests. Why? In this forum top experts will discuss several possible...

Drug trafficking is one of the most resilient and lucrative industries in the world, with estimated revenues of $300 billion a year. Despite the tens of billions of dollars that governments spend every year trying to disrupt them, drug cartels have shown tremendous ingenuity, adaptability, and entrepreneurship to satisfy over a quarter billion customers worldwide. Tom Wainwright will use insights...

In an effort to combat the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve embarked on an unprecedented program of quantitative easing (QE) — the large-scale purchase of financial assets using freshly created money. The idea was to lower interest rates, encourage spending and investment, and thereby boost growth and jobs. By late 2014, the Fed had added more than $3.5 trillion to its books — effectively quin...

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has conducted a number of humanitarian interventions. Following the UN’s enshrinement of the “responsibility to protect,” and in the midst of ongoing international instability, Washington is bound to face pressure to perform more such operations. Given that likelihood, policymakers need standards for deciding when to intervene abroad. In his new boo...

In the past, the European Union was seen as a force for economic liberalization. Brussels broke down many barriers to the free movement of goods, services, people, and capital. As such, the EU was credited with growing prosperity and stability on the continent. In recent decades, however, the EU became synonymous with unwieldy bureaucracy and overregulation. Today, many see the EU as a source of E...

The No Child Left Behind Act, with its rules about everything from teacher qualifications to school interventions, has finally been replaced. What took so long? Finally getting the left and right to agree that Washington had gone too far. But is the Every Student Succeeds Act, NCLB’s replacement, really designed to withdraw Washington from the nation’s classrooms? And is there danger that the U.S....

Derivatives have been called “weapons of mass destruction” and have been accused of not only magnifying but also causing the recent financial crisis. In the wake of the crisis, many called for increased regulation of these products, and Dodd-Frank delivered. But what are derivatives? Do they have a beneficial role in our economy? Do they deepen financial markets and contribute to stability or are...

In 1792 James Madison, the principal author of the Constitution, wrote that “Government is instituted to protect property of every sort.” But from the 20th century on the Supreme Court has upheld one inroad after another on the property rights of Americans, culminating in the notorious Kelo decision of 2005, which upheld the city of New London, Connecticut’s transfer of Suzette Kelo’s home to a pr...

Economic sanctions have become a key component of the U.S. response to any crisis. Indeed, the Obama administration has imposed sanctions on countries as diverse as Russia, Iran, and Egypt, drawing on the strength and global reach of the U.S. financial system to coerce these states. There is no denying that sanctions can be powerful tools of statecraft. Yet the evidence also suggests a more compli...

With the Federal Aviation Administration’s authorization expiring in March, aviation experts are urging Congress to overhaul our air traffic control (ATC) system. The system suffers from uncertain funding, is bogged down by bureaucracy, and may not be able to meet growing demands for air travel. Other nations have transformed their ATC systems, creating more entrepreneurial structures. Canadian re...