Expanding on their widely discussed article on "libertarian paternalism," Professors Sunstein and Thaler argue that people often make bad choices on diet, retirement savings, health insurance, and contributing to climate change. In their new book they examine how human beings make decisions. Recent scientific research shows that people are susceptible to cognitive biases and blunders. Because we are human, we are fallible, and because we are fallible, we can use all the help we can get. Sunstein...
May 01, 2008•1 hr 29 min
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Apr 23, 2008•53 min
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Apr 21, 2008•34 min
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Apr 17, 2008•21 min
A quarter century ago, A Nation at Risk shook the country and energized two education reform movements: school choice, and government-driven standards and accountability. For years, proponents of these reforms coexisted, even cooperated, but rifts have begun to appear. "Instructionists" now argue that markets without government standards are doomed to fail, while market reformers assail government standards as futile and anti-competitive. Please join our panelists as they debate the role of thes...
Apr 16, 2008•1 hr 25 min
In May 2007, congressional leaders agreed to consider free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, Korea, Panama, and Peru if they were accompanied by additional labor and environmental standards. In the wake of the December 2007 U.S.-Peru FTA passage, key congressional leaders now demand substantial expansion in the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program before considering the other three FTAs. But can TAA expansion ensure enactment of the other agreements? Is it a trade-off worth making? And...
Apr 11, 2008•52 min
America's increasingly loud and bipartisan call for energy independence may well be having a negative impact on world crude oil markets. A. F. Alhajji, one of America's most widely published academic oil economists, believes that investment trends in oil-producing countries are being affected by our (largely rhetorical) campaign against foreign oil. The net result is less oil and gas exports and higher world prices. Alhajji is a syndicated columnist and a regular contributing editor for one of t...
Apr 09, 2008•1 hr 20 min
Many African states have been addicted to Western aid for decades. Unfortunately, Africa as a whole has stagnated and some African countries are poorer today then they were in the 1960s. In recent years, advocates of foreign aid have called for making aid more efficient, but that may be easier said than done. The problem, some critics argue, is that aid supports predatory governments and perpetuates institutions that are alien to Africa. The "modern" state, characterized by Western-style electio...
Apr 02, 2008•1 hr 23 min
On March 29 Zimbabweans will cast their votes in presidential and parliamentary elections that are likely to be rigged in favor of Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party. Mugabe and the ZANU-PF elite have presided over the collapse of living standards in Zimbabwe and the destruction of her economy. They are also responsible for massive human rights abuses that include a massacre of some 20,000 civilians in the Matabeleland in the 1980s. The panel will discuss the current economic and political situ...
Mar 24, 2008•1 hr 15 min
This book takes a fresh look at the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system. Although criticisms of judicial power often attribute its rise to the activism of justices seeking to advance particular political ideologies, Patrick Garry argues instead that the Court’s power has grown mainly because of certain New Deal-era decisions that initially seemed to portend a lessening of that power. The Rehnquist Court tried to strengthen the Constitution's structural protections of liberty b...
Mar 19, 2008•1 hr 13 min
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Mar 18, 2008•1 hr 41 min
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Mar 18, 2008•1 hr 28 min
Some believe the 2008 election may transform the modern conservative movement. Others say the administration of George W. Bush has already moved the Republican Party away from any claim to being the champion of limited government and individual liberty. Mickey Edwards argues that conservatives have abandoned these principles in favor of an imperial presidency. These “conservatives” have gutted the system of checks and balances, abandoned due process, and trampled on our cherished civil liberties...
Mar 13, 2008•1 hr 21 min
On December 2, 2007, Venezuelans rejected through a referendum constitutional changes proposed by President Hugo Chávez that would have turned their country into a socialist state. The Venezuelan student movement played the key role in that outcome. Student leader Yon Goicoechea will explain how and why students from public and private universities from across the country came together in defense of basic liberties. Author and human rights activist Gustavo Tovar will describe how the movement's ...
Mar 12, 2008•1 hr 21 min
Throes of Democracy , the second volume in Walter McDougall's series on American history, illuminates a period of profound transformation in American politics and society. From the presidency of Andrew Jackson to the splits and regeneration of American political parties, Throes of Democracy describes in vivid detail America's transformation from frontier Republic to national state. McDougall, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, pays particular attention to the diverse experiences of the new Americans ...
Mar 11, 2008•1 hr 30 min
Returning to the subject that first made him famous over two decades ago, Richard Epstein, the author of Takings , has a new book on property rights. In it, he takes readers from the strongly protective property rights advocated by the Constitution's Framers to the weak property rights supported by progressive and liberal politicians in the 20th century. Using both political theory and economic analysis, Epstein offers a compelling interpretation of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause to draw t...
Mar 06, 2008•1 hr 30 min
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Mar 05, 2008•1 hr 18 min
"We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it," said Jan-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg. He was referring to a key political conundrum faced by leaders in most democracies, including members of the European Union and the United States, who realize the need for economic reforms but often fail to tackle them out of fear of voters' displeasure. Munkhammar argues in his new book The Guide to Reform that many supposed obstacles to reform are n...
Mar 04, 2008•1 hr 10 min
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Feb 29, 2008•42 min
February is Black History Month, so it’s an appropriate time to take a critical look at the way government has treated racial minorities, especially African Americans. Is government more likely to be the friend or adversary of minority groups? Has it been liberals, conservatives, or libertarians like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass who have been the most consistent defenders of everyone's rights? What does history suggest would be the best public policy for racial minorities in the...
Feb 27, 2008•1 hr 6 min
As the U.S. organ donor waiting list nears a record 100,000 and an average of seven Americans die every day waiting for an organ that never comes, solving the U.S. organ shortage takes on new urgency. Matas and Hippen will argue that the shortage could be solved by lifting the U.S. prohibition on the sale of human organs. Delmonico and Crowe will argue that the legalization of organ sales would do more harm than good. Matas will present his model for a regulated organ market described in his rec...
Feb 21, 2008•1 hr 30 min
Twilight at Monticello is an unprecedented and engrossing personal look at Thomas Jefferson in his final years that will change the way readers think about him. During the years from his return to Monticello in 1809 until his death in 1826, Jefferson dealt with illness and debt, corresponded with the leading figures of the Revolution, and became a radical decentralist and admirer of the New England townships, where, he believed, the real fire of liberty burned bright. Jefferson had witnessed the...
Feb 19, 2008•48 min
Since 1991, federal transportation law has imposed an endless long-range transportation process on states and metropolitan regions. This process has consumed huge amounts of money to little benefit. Few, if any, metropolitan regions are seriously considering alternatives that would reduce congestion. Many have written plans that will lead to major increases in congestion. Repealing the planning requirements would actually make transportation work better. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy fo...
Jan 25, 2008•40 min
In his new book, The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics , Michael Shermer examines such questions as: How did we evolve from ancient hunter-gatherers to modern consumer-traders? Why are people so irrational when it comes to money and business? He argues that the new science of evolutionary economics provides an answer to both of those questions. Shermer shows how evolution and economics are both examples of a larger phenomenon ...
Jan 11, 2008•1 hr 5 min
John McCain is one of the most familiar figures in American politics, a figure with great appeal to many. However, his concrete governing philosophy and actual track record have been left unexamined. Matt Welch’s new book McCain: The Myth of a Maverick gives a flesh-and-bones political portrait of a man onto whom people project their own ideological fantasies. It is the first realistic assessment of what a John McCain presidency might look like. Welch lays out the root cause of the senator's wor...
Jan 08, 2008•1 hr 9 min
One of the world's greatest economists, Milton Friedman, passed away on November 16. Friedman did groundbreaking work on the economics of monetary policy, inflation and unemployment, exchange rates, and lifetime savings. He was also one of the 20th century's most vigorous and effective advocates of individual freedom, on issues ranging from school choice to the draft to drug prohibition — which is why the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty was named in his honor. Please join us Monday a...
Dec 18, 2006•33 min
Since September 11, 2001, there have been no terrorist attacks in the United States, even though a single person with a bomb-filled backpack could carry one out. Why hasn't it happened? Among the possibilities is that the threat of domestic terrorism is not as great as generally assumed. In his provocative book Overblown , national security expert John Mueller argues that the capacity of al-Qaeda or of any similar group to do damage in the United States pales in comparison to the capacity other ...
Dec 13, 2006•1 hr 2 min
Although North Korea and the ongoing Iraq operations will likely remain significant foreign policy challenges for years to come, the issue with potentially the gravest consequences for American national security is Iran's nuclear program. Our first panel examines the most widely discussed options available to the United States today: either diplomacy or attempting to undermine the Iranian regime. Which policy holds the best prospect of advancing American interests? Our second panel will look at ...
Dec 11, 2006•1 hr 17 min
When the Supreme Court decided the infamous Kelo case nearly a year and a half ago, it lit a fire under a property rights movement that had been growing for years in America. Since then, 31 states have enacted measures to better protect property rights. And in the November elections, voters passed 9 of 12 property rights measures on the ballots, often by overwhelming margins. But there is still a great deal to be done if property rights are to be protected as they were meant to be under the Cons...
Dec 01, 2006•19 min
Russian energy policy is reflecting a change in the conduct of the Kremlin's domestic and foreign affairs. Robert Amsterdam, a partner at Amsterdam and Peroff, will explain how the treatment of private energy companies in Russia is part of a broader pattern of political centralization and will describe what he believes are the global goals of Russia's more aggressive, energy-driven foreign policy. Andrei Illarionov, the newest senior fellow at the Cato Institute, will describe the accelerated pa...
Nov 20, 2006•1 hr 28 min
