Cato Events Podcast

By Cato InstituteNews Government News Commentary Politics

Cato Events Podcast episodes

February 27, 2014 Chinese Intrusions into American Universities: Consequences for Freedom
There has been an explosion of partnerships, exchanges, and programs between U.S. institutions of higher education and those in China. While made in the spirit of intellectual and scholarly collaboration, these relationships have proceeded without serious consideration of the practical and moral/ethical issues posed by dealing with authoritarian regimes. This presentation focuses on the case of Wellesley College's relationship with Peking University as it unfolded in light of the persecution and dismissal of Chinese economist and dissident Xia Yeliang. This case illustrates the pressure that authoritarian-controlled universities can exert on universities in a free society to overlook human rights violations.
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1 hr 19 min
February 24, 2014 The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success

Purchase bookNobody likes to fail, yet failure is a ubiquitous element of our lives. According to Megan McArdle, failing often — and well — is an important source of learning for individuals, organizations, and governments. Although failure is critical in coping with complex environments, our cognitive biases often keep us from drawing the correct lessons and adjusting our behavior. Our psychological aversion to failure can compound its undesirable effects, McArdle argues, and transform failures into catastrophes. Please join us for a discussion of how “failing up” allows us to reinvent ourselves and our institutions.
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1 hr 20 min
February 12, 2014 Gold: The Monetary Polaris
In this sequel to Gold: the Once and Future Money, Nathan Lewis describes the theoretical basis of gold-standard monetary systems. Lewis argues that the pre-1913 world gold standard system was perhaps the most successful monetary system the world has ever seen, enabling high levels of economic growth. Descriptions of both Britain’s economic rise under the gold standard and the United States’ rise to economic prominence under gold are also discussed. Lewis offers the technical details necessary to implement and maintain a gold-standard system. Join us for a lively discussion of monetary history and a glance into one possible monetary future.
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1 hr 20 min
February 11, 2014 Understanding the Continuing Violence in Iraq
More than three years after the departure of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, a determined insurgency rages against the government led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Violence has claimed thousands of lives. Some question whether the Iraqi government can maintain control of several major cities, including Fallujah, the scene of some of the toughest fighting during the eight-year-long U.S. war in Iraq. Some of Maliki’s critics accuse him of stoking the unrest by refusing to make concessions to minority groups in Iraq, in particular Iraq’s Sunni Arab community. Others say that the prime minister should firmly reassert his authority by going after violent extremism and deterring others from supporting the insurgency. The panelists will consider several questions, including: What explains the continuing violence in Iraq? Can Iraq’s disparate communities unite behind a strong central government? And what role, if any, should the United States play?
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1 hr 24 min
February 10, 2014 Boom to Bust? How Export Restrictions Imperil America's Oil and Gas Bonanza
A once-in-a-generation supply shock is transforming global energy markets, lowering crude oil and natural gas prices, and quickly making the United States the world's largest producer of oil and gas. But energy politics threatens to short-circuit this American economic boom. Of immediate concern are federal regulations — in particular, discretionary export-licensing systems for natural gas and crude oil — that were implemented during the 1970s, an era of energy scarcity. By restricting exports and subjecting approvals to the whims of politicians, the current licensing systems distort energy prices and deter investment and employment in these promising sectors of the U.S. economy. They also irritate global trading partners, likely violate U.S. trade treaty obligations, and undermine other U.S. policy objectives. Ernest Moniz, President Obama's energy secretary, recently stated that these export restrictions are deserving of "some new analysis and examination in the context of... an energy world that is no longer like the 1970s." Please join us at the Cato Institute for our examination of these issues.
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1 hr 23 min
February 06, 2014 Stumbling Giant: The Threats to China's Future

Purchase BookStumbling Giant: The Threats to China's Future addresses the challenges China will face during the coming decades and why it is unlikely to overtake the United States this century. The book provides an in-depth analysis of the threats to China's continuing rise, offers bold policy prescriptions addressing those challenges, and explains why — without substantial reform — China is unlikely to replace America as the next superpower. Yale nominated the book for the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction. Timothy Beardson founded, majority-owned, and ran Crosby Financial Holdings, which became the largest independent investment bank in the Far East. He is a permanent resident of Hong Kong.
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1 hr 21 min
January 30, 2014 The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty
In his latest Cato book, Tim Sandefur addresses one of the most neglected topics in modern American constitutional law, the philosophical foundations of the Constitution. He argues that for that we should look to the “conscience” of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, as Abraham Lincoln did. And if we do, we discover that the Constitution was written not to empower democratic majorities to rule widely, as happens today, but to secure our natural rights to liberty through limited government. In his penetrating analysis of those issues, Sandefur examines the origins of “substantive due process” and “judicial activism and restraint” to argue that only through an engaged judiciary will the promise of the Declaration be realized. Hadley Arkes, one of America’s leading scholars on these issues, will offer comments for what should be an enlightening and timely discussion of a subject of enduring importance. Please join us.
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1 hr 32 min
January 29, 2014 The Power of Glamour: Persuasion, Longing, and Individual Aspiration
Glamour promises to carry us out of quotidian life into a world more beautiful and fulfilling. But what is glamour? A mere daydream distracting us from our true duties and long-term well-being? An illusion created to stimulate commerce in a capitalist economy? How does glamour relate to envy, to art, to self-improvement, to personal charisma? In her new book, Virginia Postrel builds on her path-breaking work in The Substance of Style to show that beauty and luxury are far from the only touchstones of glamour: the glamour of military life, of the church, of exploration and discovery, have been driving forces throughout human history, unleashing a dazzling form of persuasion that operates by rousing aspiration and longing in the individual. Please join us for a sparkling discussion of these ideas with three leading public intellectuals.
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1 hr 32 min
January 28, 2014 Overthrowing the Regulatory Paradigm for Carcinogens
Are we harming public health in the name of environmental protection? Is the theoretical model that drives the regulation of carcinogens and radiation not only flawed, but fundamentally wrong? For over a half-century, this regulation has been based largely on a linear response to pollutants, often with a threshold of a single molecule or a single photon. Voluminous research now shows this paradigm is often wrong.
Rather than being harmed by small doses of many regulated compounds, health is often enhanced by low doses. Two obvious examples of this are sunlight and the entire pharmacotherapeutic model. Calabrese’s research has documented hundreds of compounds for which low doses are beneficial while larger ones are detrimental. His presentation will show how the erroneous regulatory paradigm was established and why it now must be abandoned.
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34 min
January 23, 2014 The Undercover Economist Strikes Back: How to Run — or Ruin — an Economy
In his new book, Tim Harford attempts to demystify macroeconomics in the same way his earlier bestseller, The Undercover Economist, demystified microeconomics. Using his characteristic conversational style, Harford will discuss abstract macroeconomic ideas, explaining the most common models of recessions and the difficulty of discriminating between them on empirical grounds. For example, was the crisis of 2008 driven by supply- or demand-side factors? And why do failures of the financial sector seem to have such severe economic consequences? He will not shy away from other topics, including income inequality, or the growing interest in alternative measures of economic well-being, such as self-reported happiness. Please join us for a discussion of what macroeconomists believe about the economy and of why those beliefs often seem to lead to bad public policy.
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1 hr 23 min

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The Cato Events Podcast brings you live recordings from the Cato Institute's events, where leading scholars, policymakers, journalists, and experts come together each week to discuss the ideas and…