Cato Events Podcast

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Cato Events Podcast episodes

October 18, 2018 Coercive Plea Bargaining
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has observed that “criminal justice today is for the most part a system of pleas, not a system of trials.”
Although nowhere mentioned in the text of the Constitution, plea bargaining has become the default mechanism for resolving criminal charges in the United States. Indeed, some 95 percent of criminal convictions today are obtained through plea bargains, which raises a number of serious concerns, including why so few people choose to exercise their hallowed and hard-won right to a jury trial. When one considers the many tools available to prosecutors to encourage defendants to accept plea offers, together with the incentive to resolve as many cases as efficiently as possible, one cannot help but ask how many plea agreements are truly voluntary and how many are the result of irresistible coercion. Are there constitutional or ethical limits on coercive plea bargaining, and if so, are they being properly enforced? And what should we make of an institution that has practically eliminated the criminal jury trial and with it the Framers' painstaking efforts to ensure citizen participation in the administration of justice?
We will discuss these and other important questions raised by the evolution of plea bargaining within our justice system.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 32 min
October 17, 2018 The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy
At the end of the Cold War, the United States was confident that it stood on the precipice of a new era of peace and prosperity as the world’s sole superpower. U.S. leaders adopted a strategy of primacy, aimed at discouraging others from challenging American power, and they sought to spread democracy and liberal economics within an American sphere of influence that encompassed most of the world. Today, relations with Russia and China have deteriorated, nationalist movements are on the rise, and the European Union seems unsteady at best.
In his new book, The Hell of Good Intentions, Stephen Walt traces many of these problems to the flaws inherent in primacy. U.S. power has allowed policymakers to pursue ambitious foreign policy goals, even when those goals are unnecessary or doomed to fail. And yet, despite many setbacks, an entrenched foreign policy elite retains its faith in liberal hegemony. Join us at noon on Wednesday, October 17, as Walt explores these ideas and outlines the case for a fresh, new approach to American foreign policy based on realism and restraint.
1 hr 24 min
October 17, 2018 The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy
At the end of the Cold War, the United States was confident that it stood on the precipice of a new era of peace and prosperity as the world’s sole superpower. U.S. leaders adopted a strategy of primacy, aimed at discouraging others from challenging American power, and they sought to spread democracy and liberal economics within an American sphere of influence that encompassed most of the world. Today, relations with Russia and China have deteriorated, nationalist movements are on the rise, and the European Union seems unsteady at best.
In his new book, The Hell of Good Intentions, Stephen Walt traces many of these problems to the flaws inherent in primacy. U.S. power has allowed policymakers to pursue ambitious foreign policy goals, even when those goals are unnecessary or doomed to fail. And yet, despite many setbacks, an entrenched foreign policy elite retains its faith in liberal hegemony. Join us at noon on Wednesday, October 17, as Walt explores these ideas and outlines the case for a fresh, new approach to American foreign policy based on realism and restraint.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 24 min
October 12, 2018 Parental Leave: Is There a Case for Federal Action?
Paid family leave has become an issue of national significance, and some policymakers think the federal policy status quo is insufficient. As a result, in 2017 congressional Democrats proposed funding leave through payroll taxes on businesses and workers, and the Trump administration suggested providing paid parental leave through state unemployment insurance. In 2018, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) proposed legislation allowing workers to dip into Social Security retirement benefits to cover paid leave.
Please join us for a conversation about paid family leave and current federal proposals for paid leave. Emily Ekins, director of polling at Cato Institute, will provide a first look at new public opinion polling on paid leave. Vanessa Brown Calder, Veronique de Rugy, and Rachel Greszler will discuss their research on paid family leave, with a focus on current federal proposals like the FAMILY Act (the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act) and Social Security–paid family leave.
1 hr 1 min
October 12, 2018 Parental Leave: Is There a Case for Federal Action?
Paid family leave has become an issue of national significance, and some policymakers think the federal policy status quo is insufficient. As a result, in 2017 congressional Democrats proposed funding leave through payroll taxes on businesses and workers, and the Trump administration suggested providing paid parental leave through state unemployment insurance. In 2018, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) proposed legislation allowing workers to dip into Social Security retirement benefits to cover paid leave.Please join us for a conversation about paid family leave and current federal proposals for paid leave. Emily Ekins, director of polling at Cato Institute, will provide a first look at new public opinion polling on paid leave. Vanessa Brown Calder, Veronique de Rugy, and Rachel Greszler will discuss their research on paid family leave, with a focus on current federal proposals like the FAMILY Act (the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act) and Social Security–paid family leave.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 1 min
October 10, 2018 Romance of the Rails: Why the Passenger Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need
Like many Americans, Randal O’Toole loves passenger trains, yet he acknowledges that intercity passenger trains and — outside of the New York region — urban rail transit play little role in American life today. The replacement of passenger trains with cars, buses, and airplanes is similar to many other recent technological replacements: word processors replacing typewriters, calculators replacing slide rules, telephones replacing telegraphs, and cell phones replacing land lines. However, only for passenger trains has the government spent billions of dollars a year attempting to turn back the clock and slow that replacement. O’Toole’s book Romance of the Rails asks why this is so and whether passenger rail has a significant role to play in the future. Art Guzzetti, an advocate for urban rail transit; Jim Mathews, an advocate for intercity passenger trains; and Marc Scribner, an advocate for free-market transportation, will offer their comments on the book.
1 hr 24 min
October 10, 2018 Romance of the Rails: Why the Passenger Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need
Like many Americans, Randal O’Toole loves passenger trains, yet he acknowledges that intercity passenger trains and — outside of the New York region — urban rail transit play little role in American life today. The replacement of passenger trains with cars, buses, and airplanes is similar to many other recent technological replacements: word processors replacing typewriters, calculators replacing slide rules, telephones replacing telegraphs, and cell phones replacing land lines. However, only for passenger trains has the government spent billions of dollars a year attempting to turn back the clock and slow that replacement. O’Toole’s book Romance of the Rails asks why this is so and whether passenger rail has a significant role to play in the future. Art Guzzetti, an advocate for urban rail transit; Jim Mathews, an advocate for intercity passenger trains; and Marc Scribner, an advocate for free-market transportation, will offer their comments on the book.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 24 min
October 05, 2018 Trump’s Attack on the Trade Regime: A Search for Solutions: Panel 3: Current State of U.S. Trade Politics
1 hr 26 min
October 05, 2018 Trump’s Attack on the Trade Regime: A Search for Solutions: Panel 3: Current State of U.S. Trade Politics
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 26 min
October 05, 2018 Trump’s Attack on the Trade Regime: A Search for Solutions: Panel 2: The Future of the WTO
The Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies will host a conference at the Graduate Institute in Geneva entitled, “Trump’s Attack on the Trade Regime: A Search for Solutions.” Trade policy experts from Washington and Geneva will be brought together to share their insights on the Trump administration’s policy agenda, what is at stake in the current debates, and how countries might respond to growing uncertainty in the international trading system. Specifically, we will convene three discussion-style panels that addressed the Appellate Body Crisis, the Future of the World Trade Organization and the Current State of U.S. Trade Politics.
1 hr 28 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…