
Cato Event Podcast
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.
Latest episodes

Jul 24, 2018 • 56min
Should Cryptocurrencies Be Regulated like Securities?
Cryptocurrencies are now a $270 billion market, and initial coin offerings (ICOs) raised more than $8 billion in the first five months of 2018. What is the appropriate regulatory framework for this emerging financial technology? In this Capitol Hill briefing, Cato’s Diego Zuluaga and Mercatus’ Brian Knight will address whether and how cryptocurrencies might be determined to be securities, the role of cryptocurrencies in value creation, and the use of ICOs as fundraising vehicles. Zuluaga will outline a regulatory framework for securing innovation while ensuring protection against fraud and crime. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 19, 2018 • 1h 4min
Solomon’s Decree: Conflicts in Adoption and Child Placement Policy - Panel 2: When Policy Stands in the Way of Adoption
America has developed its own decentralized and pluralist approach to adoption, with a wide variety of both private and public actors helping match children with the families they need along several paths: adoption of older children in public care, including the foster-to-adopt path; adoption of newborns; and international adoption. But services for children in public care have been swept up in controversy over what if any role is appropriate for religious and other agencies that decline to work with gay parents or that give preference to cobelievers. The rate of international adoption, once hailed as a success, has plunged in recent years. Meanwhile, the domestic foster care system has long been beset by policy challenges.How can government policy best avoid placing obstacles in the way of finding permanent homes for children? Are there ways to respond to legitimate concerns about international adoption, such as official corruption, that do not simply close down that process? What is the role of pluralism, and can groups with differing objectives and fundamental premises work side by side?Cato’s half-day conference, featuring keynote speaker Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard law professor and noted adoption expert, will air a variety of informed views. Topics will include the conflict between LGBT advocates and some conservative religious agencies over the latter’s participation in state child placement systems; sources and possible solutions of the crisis in international adoption; and the proper role and practical effect of birth mother choice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 19, 2018 • 44min
Solomon’s Decree: Conflicts in Adoption and Child Placement Policy - Keynote Address
America has developed its own decentralized and pluralist approach to adoption, with a wide variety of both private and public actors helping match children with the families they need along several paths: adoption of older children in public care, including the foster-to-adopt path; adoption of newborns; and international adoption. But services for children in public care have been swept up in controversy over what if any role is appropriate for religious and other agencies that decline to work with gay parents or that give preference to cobelievers. The rate of international adoption, once hailed as a success, has plunged in recent years. Meanwhile, the domestic foster care system has long been beset by policy challenges.How can government policy best avoid placing obstacles in the way of finding permanent homes for children? Are there ways to respond to legitimate concerns about international adoption, such as official corruption, that do not simply close down that process? What is the role of pluralism, and can groups with differing objectives and fundamental premises work side by side?Cato’s half-day conference, featuring keynote speaker Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard law professor and noted adoption expert, will air a variety of informed views. Topics will include the conflict between LGBT advocates and some conservative religious agencies over the latter’s participation in state child placement systems; sources and possible solutions of the crisis in international adoption; and the proper role and practical effect of birth mother choice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 19, 2018 • 1h 20min
Solomon’s Decree: Conflicts in Adoption and Child Placement Policy - Welcoming Remarks and Panel 1: Anti-Discrimination Wars
America has developed its own decentralized and pluralist approach to adoption, with a wide variety of both private and public actors helping match children with the families they need along several paths: adoption of older children in public care, including the foster-to-adopt path; adoption of newborns; and international adoption. But services for children in public care have been swept up in controversy over what if any role is appropriate for religious and other agencies that decline to work with gay parents or that give preference to cobelievers. The rate of international adoption, once hailed as a success, has plunged in recent years. Meanwhile, the domestic foster care system has long been beset by policy challenges.How can government policy best avoid placing obstacles in the way of finding permanent homes for children? Are there ways to respond to legitimate concerns about international adoption, such as official corruption, that do not simply close down that process? What is the role of pluralism, and can groups with differing objectives and fundamental premises work side by side?Cato’s half-day conference, featuring keynote speaker Elizabeth Bartholet, a Harvard law professor and noted adoption expert, will air a variety of informed views. Topics will include the conflict between LGBT advocates and some conservative religious agencies over the latter’s participation in state child placement systems; sources and possible solutions of the crisis in international adoption; and the proper role and practical effect of birth mother choice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 19, 2018 • 1h 26min
Plea Bargaining: Good Policy or Good Riddance?
Today, more than 95 percent of criminal convictions in the United States are obtained through plea bargains. As the Supreme Court observed in 2012, “criminal justice today is for the most part a system of pleas, not a system of trials.” Compared with jury trials, plea bargains are efficient and inexpensive, and they free up resources that might otherwise be devoted to securing convictions in cases where the defendant’s guilt is not seriously in doubt.But plea bargaining has a dark side as well. Given the imbalance of resources between prosecutors and most defendants, together with the array of tools that prosecutors can bring to bear in any given case, such as mandatory minimum sentences, charge-stacking, and witness inducements, it is fair to ask how many guilty pleas are truly voluntary. A growing body of evidence suggests that false confessions may not be nearly as rare as we would hope, and indeed the specter of coercion casts a shadow over the entire plea-bargaining process. Finally, there is the question of citizen participation in the criminal justice system, which Judge Joseph Goodwin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia cited repeatedly in a trio of decisions, culminating in the announcement that he will no longer accept plea agreements except when there are truly extenuating, case-specific circumstances. Our panelists will discuss the pros and cons of that policy and consider what the effect might be on America’s criminal justice system—and the fate of individual defendants—if other judges began adopting it as well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 12, 2018 • 1h 3min
To Err Is Human
To Err Is Human is an in-depth documentary about medical mistakes and those working behind the scenes to create a new age of patient safety. Through interviews with leaders in health care, footage of real-world efforts leading to safer care, and one individual's compelling journey from victim to empowered patient advocate, the film provides a unique look at our health care system's ongoing fight against preventable harm. Join us for a special private screening of the documentary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 28, 2018 • 1h 29min
NAACP v. Alabama after 60 Years: Should Associational Privacy Still Be Protected by the Constitution?
Sixty years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided the landmark case of NAACP v. Alabama. In 1956, as part of the civil rights struggle, the state of Alabama sought the membership lists of the NAACP chapter in that state. The Court ruled against the state and discerned a “vital relationship between freedom to associate and privacy in one’s associations.” The decision remains a high point from the civil rights era. However, many now deny the Court’s assertion that a broad right to privacy offers a vital protection for the freedom to associate and to speak.Since the decision, the Court has placed few limits on government’s power to mandate disclosure of political activities and associations. As the new online era of speech dawns, the principles at stake in NAACP v. Alabama remain at the center of public debates. Is the right to associational privacy recognized in NAACP v. Alabama still good law? Or should the Court reconsider the tie between privacy and association? Please join us for a vigorous debate that takes this important anniversary as a starting point for our common future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 25, 2018 • 1h 28min
The Clash of Generations? Intergenerational Change and American Foreign Policy Views
Since World War II, the United States has maintained an active foreign policy agenda, deeply engaged in both the economic and military domains. Many observers over the past few years, however, have voiced doubts about public support for the critical pillars of American internationalism. Many have worried, in particular, about whether younger Americans will believe it worthwhile to take up the mantle of global leadership. A new report from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Charles Koch Institute, and Cato scholars Trevor Thrall and Erik Goepner analyzes a wide range of survey data collected by the Chicago Council since 1974. The report finds that each generation from the silent generation onward entered adulthood less supportive of expansive American internationalism. More recent generations also express lower support for militarized approaches to achieve foreign policy goals. In this special Cato policy forum, the authors will present their findings and will participate in a lively discussion on the impact that generational differences may have on U.S. foreign policy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 15, 2018 • 1h 28min
William Howard Taft: The Last Constitutional Presidency?
Our 27th president, William Howard Taft, has been relegated to a historical afterthought, if not a punchline. If he’s remembered at all, it’s for his enormous girth and periodic difficulties with bathtubs. Yet in this slim volume on our largest president, Jeffrey Rosen argues that Taft has much to teach us today. Our “most judicial president,” who later served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, shared the Framers’ conception of the presidency as a constitutional rather than a popular office. In his single presidential term and his failed bid for reelection in the pivotal 1912 race, Taft staunchly opposed Teddy Roosevelt’s “stewardship” theory of the office, which empowered the president “to do anything that the needs of the nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or the laws.” The president’s authority, Taft countered, is limited to what the Constitution and the laws specifically grant, and to hold otherwise would lead to an imperial presidency.In his reluctance to rule by executive order or wage war without Congress — and in his resistance to popular passions — Taft serves both as a model of what a constitutional presidency could be and a reminder of the challenges facing that model in the modern era. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 14, 2018 • 52min
#CatoDigital—Net Neutrality, Six Months Later
On December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal “net neutrality,” a set of Obama-era regulations that had only been enacted in 2015.The outcry was oversized. Racist memes featuring FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who spearheaded the repeal effort, flooded the internet, while grassroots activists invaded Pai’s neighborhood, placing pamphlets with his face on his neighbors’ doorsteps, peering through the windows of his house, and taking photos of his young children inside. Faced with death threats, Pai had to cancel speaking engagements in the months following the vote for fear of his safety.Minutes after the vote, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his intent to lead a multistate lawsuit against the FCC to “stop illegal rollback of net neutrality.” Net neutrality supporters in more than 20 states quickly joined the suit. Powerful tech companies like Netflix, Reddit, Amazon, and Kickstarter called for the immediate restoration of net neutrality. Executive orders in New York and Montana imposed net neutrality requirements on internet service providers that had contracts with those states, and Washington recently became the first state to pass its own version of net neutrality. Even now, the debate continues, with Senate Democrats pushing to restore the net neutrality rules the FCC vote repealed.Yet what really has changed in the six months since the repeal vote?On Thursday, June 14, the six-month anniversary of the controversial FCC vote, please join the Cato Institute for a one-on-one interview with FCC chairman Ajit Pai. Pai will explain what net neutrality is, why he supported its repeal, and what comes next for the future of the internet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.