Cato Event Podcast

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

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

The United States is enamored with regime change. Washington has toppled more than 30 foreign leaders since the start of the 20th century, making it the world leader in regime change by a wide margin. Yet, as the U.S. experience in Afghanistan shows, regime change often has devastating unintended consequences. Author Alexander B. Downes will discuss how regime change often leads to conflict by disintegrating the targeted state’s military and creating a foreign master for the new government. While different kinds of regime change have different levels of risk, Downes will explain that, on balance, regime change increases the likelihood of conflict both within the targeted state and between the target and the intervener. Please join us for a discussion with the author and a panel of experts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toleration and religious freedom put an end to centuries of bloody conflict and persecution in Europe. But what gave rise to these ideas, and can they be found in other civilizations? In this Sphere Education Initiatives webinar, Mustafa Akyol will share the ideological foundations of religious freedom and assess the challenges and prospects in the Muslim world. The conversation will also consider the contemporary importance of religious freedom and the idea of civil discourse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since the program’s creation in 1965, Medicare has had a negative impact on health care quality. Researchers have documented widespread quality problems for decades, yet Congress and Medicare administrators have failed to enact meaningful reform. Medicare’s negative impact on quality should give even the staunchest Medicare for All advocates pause.A new article by Michael F. Cannon and Jacqueline Pohida proposes the novel solution of applying traditionally Democratic “public option” principles to Medicare. Public‐​option advocates argue that when a government health plan and private insurers compete for enrollees on a level playing field, competition will deliver more of what enrollees want. Applying public‐​option principles to Medicare requires eliminating any advantages traditional Medicare or private insurers may have to create a completely level playing field between all forms of health insurance. Public‐​option principles would promote quality within Medicare by allowing open competition between different payment rules and quality‐​improvement programs.At this virtual event, leading health policy experts will discuss how Medicare impacts health care quality and what policymakers should do to give enrollees the update in health care quality they deserve. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

About $29 trillion of federal debt. Trillions more in proposed spending by Congress. Every day features more news stories about federal debt and spending. Are we in a spending and debt crisis? Join us for a conversation with three policy experts to learn the facts about the current situation and the potential consequences.Following our panel discussion, the Foundation for Teaching Economics will introduce new lessons developed to help you bring this important conversation to your classroom.Our panel will feature Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, Brian Riedl, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and William Gale, Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Chair in Federal Economic Policy at the Brookings Institution. Caryn Rossiter, manager of Sphere Education Initiatives, will moderate the conversation. Debbie Henney, curriculum director at the Foundation for Teaching Economics, will offer professional development. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cryptocurrency regulation sits at the intersection of multiple regulatory regimes, and both financial market regulators and banking regulators, among many others, have asserted authority over certain aspects of crypto regulation. This has resulted in an overlapping and incomplete regulatory framework that has drawn criticism from both proponents and skeptics of crypto innovation. So, how is cryptocurrency regulated? How should it be regulated? Who should regulate it? Cato’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives is looking at these questions through a series of policy forums that examine the roles of different regulators and consider what type of regulatory framework should be adopted to balance the risks and innovative potential of cryptocurrencies.This fourth and final panel in this series builds on previous discussions about commodities, banking, and securities regulation to consider alternatives for a crypto regulatory framework. Join Jake Chervinsky, Alan Cohn, and Angela Walch in a panel moderated by Nikhilesh De from CoinDesk to discuss the future of crypto regulation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On September 9, 2021, federal judge Thomas A. Varlan acquitted former University of Tennessee professor Dr. Anming Hu of all charges related to a Department of Justice investigation that alleged that Hu committed wire fraud and made false statements about his alleged Chinese government research ties. On November 5, 2021, a federal jury convicted Yanjun Xu, a Chinese national and an official in the Chinese Ministry of State Security, of attempted economic espionage and theft of trade secrets. The differing outcomes of these two cases involve a common thread: the Department of Justice’s China Initiative, an investigative program launched in 2018 to deter and disrupt alleged or actual Chinese government espionage or intellectual property (IP) theft targeting U.S. researchers, universities, and businesses. These two cases raise key questions. How extensive is Chinese government espionage and IP theft targeting the United States? Is the China Initiative a form of racial or ethnic profiling? How has the China Initiative impacted U.S.-Chinese information and technology exchanges and cooperation? How has the U.S. academic community responded to these events? Join us as our expert panel explores all these issues. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Americans in the age of COVID-19 are relying more than ever on digital networks to work, socialize, and learn—which makes safeguarding the privacy and security of those networks even more essential. The 2021 Cato Surveillance Conference brings together an outstanding lineup of academics, technologists, policymakers, and privacy advocates to discuss the most pressing topics in privacy and digital civil liberties, kicking off with a keynote address from Sen. Ron Wyden (D‑OR). Speakers will examine how the “surveillance‐​industrial complex” is increasingly outsourcing surveillance that used to be the exclusive province of intelligence agencies to a burgeoning private surveillance industry. We’ll look at how a year of virtual classrooms has given rise to a disturbing trend of schools employing spyware to monitor students. We’ll explore how anonymity—increasingly the scapegoat for everything toxic about online culture—is crucial to free speech and a vibrant culture of dissent. And we’ll demonstrate just how vulnerable the ubiquitous “Internet of Things” makes us with a live hacking demonstration. Join us live online, streaming from the Cato Institute. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Americans in the age of COVID-19 are relying more than ever on digital networks to work, socialize, and learn—which makes safeguarding the privacy and security of those networks even more essential. The 2021 Cato Surveillance Conference brings together an outstanding lineup of academics, technologists, policymakers, and privacy advocates to discuss the most pressing topics in privacy and digital civil liberties, kicking off with a keynote address from Sen. Ron Wyden (D‑OR). Speakers will examine how the “surveillance‐​industrial complex” is increasingly outsourcing surveillance that used to be the exclusive province of intelligence agencies to a burgeoning private surveillance industry. We’ll look at how a year of virtual classrooms has given rise to a disturbing trend of schools employing spyware to monitor students. We’ll explore how anonymity—increasingly the scapegoat for everything toxic about online culture—is crucial to free speech and a vibrant culture of dissent. And we’ll demonstrate just how vulnerable the ubiquitous “Internet of Things” makes us with a live hacking demonstration. Join us live online, streaming from the Cato Institute. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.