Cato Event Podcast

Many in Washington deny that the nation's energy needs can be met by free markets. Wars on coal and carbon dioxide follow this faith in government regulation and control of energy. Since the 1970s, however, more libertarian voices have been heard on these issues. Rob Bradley, who has been involved with free-market energy policy since its inception, will discuss the history of libertarian thinking on past energy policy and its relevance for current policy debates. Please join us for a provocative look at an alternative way of thinking about energy and public policy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cato Connects features a LIVE discussion on Obergefell v. Hodges — what the ruling means to the 14th amendment and for marriage equality.In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex.Produced by Caleb O. Brown, Austin Bragg, Tess Terrible and Kevin Sennett. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Supreme Court has ruled in King v. Burwell that individuals who get their health insurance through an exchange established by the federal government are eligible for tax subsidies. Says Cato scholar Michael F. Cannon, “The Court today validated President Obama’s massive power grab, allowing him to tax, borrow, and spend $700 billion that no Congress ever authorized. …In doing so, the Court has sent a dangerous message to future administrations: If you are going to violate the law, make sure you go big.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The EPA’s most costly air-pollution and global-warming regulations are justified by the belief that small particles in outdoor air, like soot and dust, kill people. Based upon internal EPA documents and original research, Steven Milloy, publisher of the widely read blog JunkScience.com, will demonstrate that the agency’s belief does not pass scientific muster. As has been the case with climate change research, the dangerous liaison between regulatory agencies and academia has again resulted in a substantial distortion of reality. Please join us for a probing critique of science in service to regulatory overreach. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent advances in energy production technology have driven a remarkable achievement: since 2008, American oil production has more than doubled and natural gas production is up about 24 percent. Directional drilling, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and radical new advances in offshore platform technology and global positioning software have revolutionized both onshore and offshore oil and gas production. These advances have required considerable capital investment that would have been less likely in a nation constrained by a cap-and-trade or carbon-tax system. Please join us for an informed look at recent successes in energy production, their implications for public policy, and strategies to maintain America's global leadership. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Please join us for a special documentary film premiere. An Unlikely Solution offers first-person perspectives on the unique, newly emerging phenomena of consumer lending, via the Internet, by Native American tribes.There are few areas of finance that generate more controversy than short-term consumer lending, especially in the form of pay-day or installment loans. Critics see such loans as “predatory,” while others, including many consumers, see such products as filling a critical need of access to credit that traditional banks cannot or will not fill. As if to make an already controversial issue more so, a number of Native American tribes have entered this business, leveraging the power of the Internet to overcome the geographic challenges of remote reservations. The entry of lending companies formed as arms of tribal governments into this business has raised issues of tribal economic development and sovereignty, not normally considered in the regulation of consumer finance.Join us for a screening (approximately 40 minutes) of An Unlikely Solution, which examines these questions from the first-person perspectives of tribes, consumers, regulators and others.Following the film, there will be a special panel discussion featuring Gary Davis, President and CEO, National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development; William Isaac, Former Chair, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and Chico Harlan, Personal Economics Reporter, The Washington Post; moderated by Mark Calabria, Director, Financial Regulation Studies, Cato Institute. Join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #UnlikelySolution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our growing national debt has dropped out of the headlines recently — but that doesn’t mean that the problem has gone away. The official national debt recently topped $18 trillion, and is projected to approach $27 trillion within 10 years. Worse, if you include the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, our real indebtedness exceeds $90 trillion. Yet, despite these undeniable facts and figures, politicians from both parties continue to avoid taking serious responsibility and action when it comes to the difficult decisions that must be made.Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid alone account for roughly half of federal spending today, a portion that will only grow larger in the future and increase more rapidly with the government’s newest entitlement program — Obamacare. The simple truth is that there is no way to address America’s debt problem without reforming entitlements.Please join us for a discussion with other leading scholars on the subject — one that carries heavy implications for the future of the U.S. economy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that the city of New London, Connecticut, could condemn residential properties and transfer them to a private developer for a planned office park (which never materialized). Although the Fifth Amendment permits taking private property only for "public use," the Court held that transfers to private parties for economic development were a sufficiently public "purpose." This unpopular ruling triggered an unprecedented political and judicial reaction, with 45 states limiting their eminent domain law. But many of these changes impose few or no genuine constraints.In his detailed study of this controversial case — the first book-length analysis of Kelo by a legal scholar — Ilya Somin argues that the ruling was a grave error. Economic development and "blight" condemnations are unconstitutional under both originalist and "living Constitution" theories of legal interpretation. They also victimize the poor and the politically weak, and often destroy more economic value than they create.Despite the case's outcome, Kelo shattered what many believed to be a consensus that virtually any condemnation satisfies the Fifth Amendment. Kelo thus led to significant progress, but there is much work to be done. Please join us for a discussion of the state of property rights in America 10 years after the Supreme Court's most notorious ruling on eminent domain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that the city of New London, Connecticut, could condemn residential properties and transfer them to a private developer for a planned office park (which never materialized). Although the Fifth Amendment permits taking private property only for "public use," the Court held that transfers to private parties for economic development were a sufficiently public "purpose." This unpopular ruling triggered an unprecedented political and judicial reaction, with 45 states limiting their eminent domain law. But many of these changes impose few or no genuine constraints.In his detailed study of this controversial case — the first book-length analysis of Kelo by a legal scholar — Ilya Somin argues that the ruling was a grave error. Economic development and "blight" condemnations are unconstitutional under both originalist and "living Constitution" theories of legal interpretation. They also victimize the poor and the politically weak, and often destroy more economic value than they create.Despite the case's outcome, Kelo shattered what many believed to be a consensus that virtually any condemnation satisfies the Fifth Amendment. Kelo thus led to significant progress, but there is much work to be done. Please join us for a discussion of the state of property rights in America 10 years after the Supreme Court's most notorious ruling on eminent domain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that the city of New London, Connecticut, could condemn residential properties and transfer them to a private developer for a planned office park (which never materialized). Although the Fifth Amendment permits taking private property only for "public use," the Court held that transfers to private parties for economic development were a sufficiently public "purpose." This unpopular ruling triggered an unprecedented political and judicial reaction, with 45 states limiting their eminent domain law. But many of these changes impose few or no genuine constraints.In his detailed study of this controversial case — the first book-length analysis of Kelo by a legal scholar — Ilya Somin argues that the ruling was a grave error. Economic development and "blight" condemnations are unconstitutional under both originalist and "living Constitution" theories of legal interpretation. They also victimize the poor and the politically weak, and often destroy more economic value than they create.Despite the case's outcome, Kelo shattered what many believed to be a consensus that virtually any condemnation satisfies the Fifth Amendment. Kelo thus led to significant progress, but there is much work to be done. Please join us for a discussion of the state of property rights in America 10 years after the Supreme Court's most notorious ruling on eminent domain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.