Cato Event Podcast

The planned meeting between leaders of North Korea and the United States may help the Hermit Kingdom engage positively with a broader part of the world. After the meeting concludes, how should the US work to continue to lower tensions with North Korea? Join us for a live online discussion and ask your questions using #CatoConnects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The private sector is stepping up to help young immigrant Dreamers while Congress continues to debate their future. Few Americans have done more than Donald Graham, the chairman of the board of Graham Holdings Company and former publisher of the Washington Post. Mr. Graham cofounded TheDream.US to fund college scholarships for hundreds of Dreamers, and he recently received significant donations to expand the program to thousands more. Graham will discuss the success of his initiative, his future plans, and his views on immigration policy and philanthropy. Marisela Tobar and Sadhana Singh, two Dreamers who graduated from Trinity Washington University this year after receiving scholarships from his foundation, will share their perspectives on how his program changed their lives, their hopes for the future, and what barriers they still face to attaining the American dream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is America’s health care system so dysfunctional and expensive? Why do hospitalized patients receive bills laden with inflated charges that come out of the blue from out-of-network providers, or that demand payment for services that weren’t delivered? Why do we pay $600 for EpiPens that contain a dollar’s worth of medicine? Why is more than $1 trillion—one out of every three dollars that passes through the system—lost to fraud, wasted on services that don’t help patients, or otherwise misspent?In a new book published by the Cato Institute, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholars Charles Silver and David Hyman answer these questions. Overcharged shows how government replaces competition and consumer choice with monopolies and third-party payment, making America’s health care system as expensive as possible.At this special book conference, the authors, joined by other national health care experts, will lay bare the root causes of our health care system’s ills and show how the health care sector will become more efficient and pro-consumer when it is subjected to the competitive forces that apply to the rest of the economy. Prices will fall, quality will improve, and medicine will become more patient-friendly when consumers take control of their health care dollars and exert pressure from below.To see how this transformation will work, please join us in person or online to learn about the potent “medicine” Overcharged prescribes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is America’s health care system so dysfunctional and expensive? Why do hospitalized patients receive bills laden with inflated charges that come out of the blue from out-of-network providers, or that demand payment for services that weren’t delivered? Why do we pay $600 for EpiPens that contain a dollar’s worth of medicine? Why is more than $1 trillion—one out of every three dollars that passes through the system—lost to fraud, wasted on services that don’t help patients, or otherwise misspent?In a new book published by the Cato Institute, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholars Charles Silver and David Hyman answer these questions. Overcharged shows how government replaces competition and consumer choice with monopolies and third-party payment, making America’s health care system as expensive as possible.At this special book conference, the authors, joined by other national health care experts, will lay bare the root causes of our health care system’s ills and show how the health care sector will become more efficient and pro-consumer when it is subjected to the competitive forces that apply to the rest of the economy. Prices will fall, quality will improve, and medicine will become more patient-friendly when consumers take control of their health care dollars and exert pressure from below.To see how this transformation will work, please join us in person or online to learn about the potent “medicine” Overcharged prescribes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is America’s health care system so dysfunctional and expensive? Why do hospitalized patients receive bills laden with inflated charges that come out of the blue from out-of-network providers, or that demand payment for services that weren’t delivered? Why do we pay $600 for EpiPens that contain a dollar’s worth of medicine? Why is more than $1 trillion—one out of every three dollars that passes through the system—lost to fraud, wasted on services that don’t help patients, or otherwise misspent?In a new book published by the Cato Institute, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholars Charles Silver and David Hyman answer these questions. Overcharged shows how government replaces competition and consumer choice with monopolies and third-party payment, making America’s health care system as expensive as possible.At this special book conference, the authors, joined by other national health care experts, will lay bare the root causes of our health care system’s ills and show how the health care sector will become more efficient and pro-consumer when it is subjected to the competitive forces that apply to the rest of the economy. Prices will fall, quality will improve, and medicine will become more patient-friendly when consumers take control of their health care dollars and exert pressure from below.To see how this transformation will work, please join us in person or online to learn about the potent “medicine” Overcharged prescribes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many critics think social media poses a novel threat to liberal democracy. Seeking to divide Americans, agents of the Russian government bought ads on Facebook. Extreme speech also finds a home on the internet, fostering conflicts that appear to generate more heat than light. Governments and consumers worry about “fake news” designed to misinform readers for fun, profit, and power. And yet social media has made more information more widely available at less cost than any technology since the printing press. Less reliant on gatekeepers than traditional media, the new purveyors of news arguably better satisfy the diverse preferences of the American electorate. Following up on the Project on Political Reform at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, we will consider the troubles and triumphs of the social media platforms that promise to host American political debate for generations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Congress’s most solemn constitutional duty is to determine whether, where, and against whom the United States will engage in war. Yet for far too long, legislators have ceded that responsibility to the executive branch, allowing multiple administrations to use the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) as a blank check to wage war whenever and wherever the president decides.As Congress determines how to respond to growing demands for a new AUMF, it should beware of proposals that would institutionalize mission creep by surrendering more authority to the executive branch. Instead, Congress should repeal—and not replace—the 2001 AUMF. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With a doctorate from the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought and decades of work in the world of international human rights institutions behind him, Aaron Rhodes has written a devastating account of that world’s intellectual confusions and moral corruption. In exquisite detail, and as none before it has, his new book explains how the 20th century’s push to treat economic and social “rights” as human rights has undermined the very idea of human or natural rights. That has led in turn to restrictions on the rights that alone have secured the liberty of countless millions around the world. Please join us for a discussion of the foundations, course, and prospects of the Enlightenment project that has given us the modern world of individual liberty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Congress is considering a major farm bill this year to extend the current multi-billion-dollar array of subsidies. The last farm bill—in 2014—created two new crop subsidy programs that have cost more than promised. Meanwhile, the crop insurance program has soared in cost and provides handouts to millionaire farm households. There is also concern that crop subsidies harm the environment and undermine America’s international trade relationships.In the wake of the bloated omnibus bill and rising deficits, will Republicans support more giveaways to well-off farmers? And will the Trump administration defend its proposed agricultural reforms and push back against subsidy advocates in Congress? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marijuana is big business in the 29 states that have legalized medical cannabis and in several more that have legalized recreational use. However, the federal prohibition on marijuana prevents banks from serving legitimate marijuana clients—resulting in billions of dollars of marijuana-related profits being handled almost exclusively in cash. A new Federalist Society short documentary, “Medical Marijuana and Money Laundering,” tells the story. Join us May 10 for a screening followed by a roundtable discussion. We will explain the laws that create this peculiar situation, explore the problems it causes, and hash out some potential solutions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.