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Cato Event Podcast

Cato Institute•www.cato.org
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News Commentary
Government
Politics
Podcast of policy and book forums, Capitol Hill briefings and other events from the Cato Institute

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Episodes

School Choice Is Good for Teachers Too

We typically think of school choice as something that benefits students by helping them find the educational options that work best for them. But teachers also benefit from more options. In the past, the vast majority of teaching jobs have been in conventional public schools. But educational entrepreneurship—encouraged by expanded school choice programs—is changing the landscape. A recent Morning Consult teacher survey found high levels of support for a variety of school choice programs. For edu...

Sep 27, 2022•1 hr 7 min

FOIA and Government Transparency: A Report Card

In the more than 50 years that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has been on the books, it has helped revolutionize Americans’ understanding of how their government works in practice. But the agencies and departments of the executive branch that are covered by the FOIA have persistently attempted to thwart its effective implementation. The most recent statutory update to FOIA took place in 2016, and with several years of experience with the revised law behind us, it’s fair to ask: Is FOIA wo...

Sep 23, 2022•1 hr 56 min

A Conversation with Jerome Powell - Cato Institute 40th Annual Monetary Conference

With massive U.S. debt and deficits, inflation at a 40‐​year high, and popular/​political pressure for expanding the Fed’s mandate, it’s time to assess the Fed’s performance and future. Please join leading scholars and policymakers to discuss “The State of Monetary Policy after 40 Years.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sep 23, 2022•50 min

Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America

Racial classification is ubiquitous in American life. Job applications, university admissions, government contracts, and much more involve checking a box stating whether one is black, white, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American. David Bernstein has written a surprising and revealing book on how these classifications came about, with the federal government playing a leading role. It asks: Should Pakistani, Chinese, and Filipino Americans be in the same category despite obvious differences in cultu...

Sep 13, 2022•1 hr 8 min

Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet

Generations of people have been taught that population growth makes resources scarcer. In 2021, for example, one widely publicized report argued, “The world’s rapidly growing population is consuming the planet’s natural resources at an alarming rate.… The world currently needs 1.6 Earths to satisfy the demand for natural resources … [a figure that] could rise to 2 planets by 2030.” But is that true? After analyzing the prices of hundreds of commodities, goods, and services spanning two centuries...

Sep 13, 2022•1 hr 28 min

Pandemic Policy Postmortem: Lessons from Sweden

The virus that causes COVID-19 has now become endemic after it first emerged two and a half years ago. In the pandemic’s early days, many countries’ public health officials curtailed economic and social activity to various degrees, prescribed social distancing, enforced lockdowns, required masking, and pushed for other nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce illness and death. Those NPIs imposed an enormous economic and social cost by greatly reducing individual liberty in exchange for ...

Aug 23, 2022•1 hr 32 min

Bringing Civil Discourse to Your Classroom

Planning difficult conversations in your classroom this year? Join us for the last of our Summer with Sphere webinar series and learn techniques and how to plan for these conversations. Hear from a MS and HS teacher on how they prepare their students for civil discourse in their classes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 19, 2022•51 min

America’s Great‐​Power Opportunity Revitalizing U.S. Foreign Policy to Meet the Challenges of Strategic Competition

Since the early years of the Trump administration, “great power competition” has been Washington’s go‐​to formula to describe its approach to foreign policy. The concept holds that Russia and China represent the biggest challenge to U.S. interests and demands a robust, competitive policy response. In a new book, Ali Wyne lays out a thoughtful critique of great power competition and proposes an alternative guiding framework for U.S. foreign policy that is proactive instead of reactive, mindful of...

Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 30 min

The Taliban Today

The Taliban has held power in Afghanistan for one year. While the United States and its allies maintain sanctions on the group, Afghans are living through a humanitarian and economic disaster. The Taliban has made several promises, such as offering amnesty to soldiers who were members of the Afghan National Security Forces, working toward an “Afghan Islamic–inclusive government,” engaging other stakeholders in a “transition council,” and allowing girls to attend schools. However, the group also ...

Aug 18, 2022•1 hr 30 min

Tunisia’s Authoritarian Turn

More than a decade ago, Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution gave hope to the Arab world, showing oppressed peoples that longtime dictators can be peacefully ousted. That hope soon failed, brutally, in Egypt, Syria, and Yemen, but Tunisia kept on track throughout the 2010s, proving to be the best democratic hope in an otherwise autocratic and turbulent Middle East. Yet since July 2021, Tunisia’s trajectory has taken an increasingly worrisome reversal as well. President Kais Saied suspended the parliamen...

Jul 19, 2022•1 hr 1 min

The United States of Anonymous: How the First Amendment Shaped Online Speech

Why did those opposed to or in favor of the Constitution write under pseudonyms? Why did Occupy Wall Street protestors wear Guy Fawkes masks? Why do so many people seek to maintain a level of anonymity in their online activities—including web surfing and posting on social media? In the debate over the right to conceal one’s identity versus the potential harms of anonymity, is it possible to strike a constitutionally sound balance? In his latest book, The United States of Anonymous: How the First...

Jul 07, 2022•2 hr 1 min

What Will Be the Impact of the War in Ukraine for the Future of European Security?

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has produced big changes in NATO and EU states. But shock at Russia’s aggression and fear of its future intentions seem to point in one direction, whereas its dismal military performance and its vulnerability to economic punishment seem to point in another. NATO and EU expansion are once again on the table. Will the aftermath of the war strengthen NATO and, with it, the central U.S. position in European security? Or can Russian aggression impel greater non‐​NATO secu...

Jun 29, 2022•1 hr

Black Liberation through the Marketplace: Hope, Heartbreak, and the Promise of America

The experiences of black Americans do not fit neatly into our nation’s political culture. As the authors argue, those on the right fail to acknowledge the gravity of past injustices and rights violations, while those on the left ignore decades of failed paternalism and unintended consequences of government policy. But there is an alternative: classical liberalism, a philosophy based on free markets, individual rights, and vibrant civil society. Exhausted by extremism on both sides, in their new ...

Jun 17, 2022•1 hr 35 min

How Drug Paraphernalia Laws Undermine Harm Reduction

State‐​level drug paraphernalia laws increase the risk of infection or overdose for drug users by preventing legal access to clean needles, syringes, and products to test drugs for deadly contaminants. Every state except Alaska criminalizes the possession and/​or sale of illicit drug paraphernalia. Thus, Alaskans can legally operate needle exchange programs and other harm‐​reduction measures. Recognizing that harm‐​reduction strategies reduce overdoses and disease, many states are considering re...

Jun 17, 2022•1 hr 3 min

Taxation and Democracy Webinar

Tax policy not only funds governmental efforts but is often itself a driver of policy outcomes. Elected officials in recent years have pushed for or acted upon tax policy as a means for shaping everything from childcare to environmental policy. In this webinar, we’ll explore the role taxation plays in our democracy, the many ways in which it affects our lives, and the current state of debate around taxation in America. Our panel will feature Alex Muresianu , federal tax analyst at The Tax Founda...

Jun 06, 2022•1 hr 4 min

Financial Privacy in a Digital Era

The digitalization of financial services has made banking and trading more convenient than ever. But laws that were written before the digital era now collect untold amounts of consumer data to which the government has easy—and often unfettered—access. Recent legislative attempts have sought to expand that access even more. Does financial convenience have to come at the cost of financial privacy? Can cryptocurrency provide better privacy protection? Is it time to rethink how financial privacy is...

Apr 21, 2022•1 hr

Reducing Risk from Arms Sales

The United States remains the world’s dominant exporter of weapons. Between 2017–2021, the U.S. share of the global arms market was 108 percent greater than that of Russia, which is the second‐​largest exporter. Since 2009, the United States has approved more than $1 trillion in weapons sales and delivered roughly $736 billion worth of weapons to 167 countries during the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. A new Cato Institute update to the Arms Sales Risk Index evaluates the risk that thes...

Apr 01, 2022•58 min

The Status of Homeschooling Two Years into the Pandemic

On March 26, 2020—two weeks after schools around the country were shuttered and suddenly almost everyone was receiving education at home—Cato convened an expert panel to give advice and answer questions about homeschooling. It is unlikely anyone who participated in that discussion expected we would still be dealing with school closures two years later. While there are lags in official data, it appears that homeschooling has greatly increased since March 2020. Is that accurate? What has the exper...

Mar 23, 2022•1 hr 31 min

Peace through School Choice: Examining the Evidence

Public schooling, by forcing people with diverse values and needs to fund a single system of government schools, inevitably produces conflict. Such conflict has reached a fever pitch over the last several years, with Americans battling over critical race theory, LGBTQ issues, COVID-19 masking, and more. Logically, school choice would defuse such conflict, enabling diverse people to choose what they think is best rather than having to fight for control of a single system. But is there evidence of...

Mar 22, 2022•1 hr 29 min

Weltschmerz: How the West Lost Its Mojo and What Liberals Can Do to Fix It

A generation ago, humanity witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the disappearance of the Eastern European bloc, and the breakup of the Soviet Union. Many thought that the victory of liberal democracy and competitive enterprise over communism and central planning would usher in a lasting era of peace and prosperity, but now the West appears to be undergoing an existential crisis. Across some of the most successful societies in history, liberal institutions are under attack from the far left and...

Mar 21, 2022•1 hr 31 min

Fresh Approaches to the Overdose Crisis

One in five of the 2.3 million incarcerated Americans are there for drug‐​related crimes, and they are disproportionately minorities. The war on drugs is an abject failure and must end. Watch the full event Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 15, 2022•58 min
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