Cato Event Podcast

  On April 2, the Supreme Court issued its latest blockbuster ruling on campaign finance, McCutcheon v. FEC, striking down the "aggregate" contribution limits on how much money any one person can contribute to election campaigns (leaving untouched the "base" limits on donations to individual candidates or party committees). Within days of the decision, while pundits and activists were still battling in the media, two e-books were published about the case. One was by Shaun McCutcheon himself, an Alabama engineer who has quickly gone from political neophyte to Supreme Court plaintiff, thus providing a rare first-person layman's account of high-stakes litigation. The other was by two law professors specializing in the First Amendment, Ronald Collins and David Skover, who dissect the Court's ruling and put it in the broader context of campaign finance regulation. Please join us to hear about McCutcheon and its implications for our political system from authors with unique perspectives on the subject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jon Stewart once derided economists' prose as being so boring that “it turned my brain off,” but it doesn't have to be that way. Pioneers in academia, the creative arts, and nonprofits have found new and provocative ways to communicate the timeless ideas of economic liberty.Amity Shlaes, the bestselling author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, and Paul Rivoche, a professional illustrator whose portfolio includes Iron Man and Superman, have teamed up to produce The Forgotten Man Graphic Edition which introduces the Great Contraction of the 1930s to younger readers. Such history is vital to our time and to the future. The myths and half-truths of the 1930s remain a potent cause of current policy failures. The combination of ideas and images define much of the new media and should interest younger readers who increasingly turn to unconventional publications.Scott Barton directs LearnLiberty.org, an online education platform that seeks to be a resource for learning about the ideas of a free society. LearnLiberty has earned 19 million views from 300 videos in the past three years. In 2011 Learn Liberty earned a Templeton Freedom Award for Innovative New Media.Please join us on June 17 as we have a look at an intriguing effort to use new media to communicate free-market economics creatively and effectively. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a May 9 preliminary decision, the U.S. International Trade Commission determined "there is a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry is materially injured by reason of imports of sugar from Mexico that are allegedly subsidized and sold in the United States at less than fair value." As a result, antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into the questions of domestic injury, dumping, and subsidization will proceed with final determinations expected in early 2015.If duties are imposed on imports of sugar from Mexico, the decision will mark the latest U.S. government intervention on behalf of domestic sugar producers to ensure higher-than-world-average sugar prices in the United States. This raises costs of production for sugar-using industries and discourages domestic value-added activity.What have been the real costs of U.S. sugar protection? How has it impacted consumers, industrial users, and trade relations? What mechanisms exist to prevent the U.S. trade laws from enabling one U.S. industry to impose injurious costs on another? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The United States, argues Barry R. Posen, has grown incapable of moderating its foreign policy ambitions. Since the collapse of Soviet power, it has pursued a grand strategy that has tended to overreach, generating a host of failures and encountering many unexpected difficulties along the way.In this new book, Posen explains why the dominant view among the nation’s foreign policy elites, what he calls “liberal hegemony,” has proved unnecessary, counterproductive, costly, and wasteful. His alternative — restraint — would resist the impulse to use U.S. military power, and focus the military’s and the nation’s attention on the most urgent challenges to national security. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice has faced much criticism in the past six years. From “Fast and Furious” to the surveillance of Fox News reporter James Rosen, Holder has attracted the ire of congressional Republicans, and even some Democrats. In 2012 Holder became the first sitting cabinet member in American history to be held in contempt by Congress.  In their new book, Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation and John Fund of National Review argue that Holder’s Justice Department has become an enclave of radical progressive legal activism that serves as a heat shield to protect the Obama administration. In addition, argue the authors, Holder’s DOJ helps push the administration’s hidden agenda, from the war on Fox News to the targeting of Tea Party groups. Join us for a discussion of the book with Hans von Spakovsky and comments by former DOJ official J. Christian Adams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In his new book Immigration Economics, author and noted immigration scholar George J. Borjas will discuss how immigrants affect the wages of American workers, government budgets, and virtually every other aspect of the American economy and workforce. Professor Borjas brings his years of research and his own voluminous work to bear on this issue–reaching some controversial conclusions along the way. Borjas will be joined by Amelie Constant, another well-known immigration researcher and economist, who will comment on Borjas’ new book and spark a lively discussion on immigration and the American economy. Join us as two of the most respected immigration economists discuss this timely issue. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In an article that went viral in 1989, Francis Fukuyama advanced the notion that with the death of communism history had come to an end in the sense that liberalism — democracy and market capitalism — had triumphed as an ideology. Fukuyama will be joined by other scholars to examine this proposition in the light of experience during the subsequent quarter century. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In an article that went viral in 1989, Francis Fukuyama advanced the notion that with the death of communism history had come to an end in the sense that liberalism — democracy and market capitalism — had triumphed as an ideology. Fukuyama will be joined by other scholars to examine this proposition in the light of experience during the subsequent quarter century. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When law in America can be made by executive “pen and phone” alone — indeed, by a White House press release — we're faced starkly with a fundamental constitutional question: Is administrative law unlawful? Answering in the affirmative in this far-reaching, erudite new treatise, Philip Hamburger traces resistance to rule by administrative edict from the Middle Ages to the present. Far from a novel response to modern society and its complexities, executive prerogative has deep roots. It was beaten back by English constitutional ideas in the 17th century and even more decisively by American constitutions in the 18th century, but it reemerged during the Progressive Era and has grown ever since, regardless of the party in power. Please join us for a discussion of the most pressing constitutional issue before the nation today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Financial history is characterized by a consistent fear of bank runs, especially during times of crisis. The financial crisis of 2007-09 was no exception. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission identified no less than 10 cases of runs. Those runs were a major consideration in the shifting policy responses that authorities employed during the crisis. In the early stages, troubled institutions facing runs were dealt with through a scattered blend of voluntary mergers, outright closures, and bailouts. By late 2008 and thereafter, panic had descended on the major financial agencies. That resulted in the decision to backstop the full range of large institutions, as government officials feared a collapse of the entire financial system. However, serious analysis of the risks facing the financial sector was sorely lacking. In a recent Cato Policy Analysis, Vern McKinley provides such an analysis, asking whether many of the crisis decisions were appropriate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.