Cato on Campus - What's New

2008 Liberty Summer Seminar

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:06:00 EDT

"This year's Liberty Summer Seminar [hosted by the Institute for Liberal Studies] will take place from July 26 - 27 this year. Now in its eighth year the Liberty Summer Seminar brings together people interested in discussing the ideas of liberty in a casual, outdoor environment. Our speakers and our attendees span the political spectrum. We'll hope you'll join us for a weekend of camping, singing, eating and thinking."

Criminal Justice Unfairly Ignored on Trail

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:32:00 EDT

By Radley Balko: Given that enforcing federal law is one of the few presidential powers explicitly prescribed the Constitution, here are some criminal justice policy questions for John McCain and Barack Obama:

District of Columbia V. Heller: What's Next?

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:02:00 EDT

By Robert A. Levy: "Following a victory that some thought impossible, the advocates of the right to bear arms are asking themselves where to go next. None are more qualified to answer that question than Robert A. Levy, co-counsel in District of Columbia v. Heller, the landmark case that has permanently changed the shape of gun rights jurisprudence." - Dr. Jason Kuznicki

New on Free Will: Bruce Caldwell on Hayek

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:44:00 EDT

"This week, I talk with Bruce Caldwell, author of Hayek�s Challenge, a wonderfully lucid, comprehensive, and penetrating account of the development of Hayek�s economic and methodological ideas. Hayek is one of my enthusiasms, so I had a great time talking to Bruce, who knows as much about Hayek as anyone." - Will Wilkinson

Crying Wolf: Are we all fascists now?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:46:00 EDT

By Michael C. Moynihan: "To anyone that has attended a political demonstration, trawled a blog, or attended a Western university in the past half century, the scattershot use of 'fascist' will ring familiar. And almost as clich�d as accusing an ideological opponent of fascist sympathies is the accurate observation that such charges often demonstrate an utter lack of understanding of just what qualifies as fascist, other than 'someone I vehemently disagree with.'"

Don't Shed a Tear Over Bid for Beer

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:54:00 EDT

By John D. Burger: "An unsolicited bid by the Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate InBev to take over Anheuser Busch has set off a backlash among the American public. Protesters of the proposed deal are relying on patriotic slogans such as "Keep Budweiser American" in an attempt to rally the masses against the originally friendly but increasingly hostile takeover bid. I find this reaction terribly embarrassing."

Banned! Drew Carey Takes a Tour of Nanny State Nation

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:45:00 EDT

"Whether you love it, hate it, or have never thought about it, chances are some politician wants to ban it. 'Welcome to the Nanny State Nation,' says reason.tv host Drew Carey. 'Where the government minds your own business.'"

FARC Politics, FARConomics

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:48:00 EDT

By Ibsen Martinez: "Shortly after noon, on Wednesday, I finally sat down to write my monthly column when I received news that 15 hostages, including three U.S. defence contractors, held for years by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the infamous drug-trafficking guerrilla, branded a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, had been rescued by a successful army operation. Most eminent among the hostages was the 46-year-old former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt."

Munger on the Political Economy of Public Transportation

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:39:00 EDT

"Mike Munger and Russ Roberts deliver one of the best podcasts ever. Munger describes the way in which moving from a private bus system to a public system in Santiago Chile made essentially everyone in the city worse off. The puzzle that Roberts keeps pushing Munger to resolve is why the political incentives do not work to abolish the public system and revert to a private system." - Bryan Caplan

A Matter of Life and Death

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:22:00 EDT

By Karol Boudreaux: "By some estimates South Africa has taken in over three million illegal immigrants in the past year - not just people in search of better jobs, but also Zimbabweans fleeing Robert Mugabe's reign. The unfortunate byproduct of this influx of immigrants is a longstanding and mostly dormant xenophobia that has reared its head. "

The Second Amendment Goes to Court

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:23:00 EDT

Alan Gura, Glenn Reynolds, Randy Barnett, Brian Doherty, Sanford Levinson, Jacob Sullum, and Dave Kopel respond to D.C. v. Heller

D.C. Gun Ban Struck Down

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:04:00 EDT

"On Thursday, the Court rediscovered the Second Amendment. More than five years after six Washington, D.C. residents challenged the city�s 32-year-old ban on all functional firearms in the home, the Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller that the law is unconstitutional. Heller is merely the opening salvo in a series of litigations that will ultimately resolve what weapons and persons can be regulated and what restrictions are permissible. But because of Thursday�s decision, the prospects for reviving the original meaning of the Second Amendment are now substantially brighter." - Robert A. Levy, Co-counsel to Mr. Heller

Institute for Liberal Studies Seminar

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:54:00 EDT

The Institute for Liberal Studies hosts events promoting the discussion of social and economic liberty in various cities on an annual basis, including the annual Liberty Summer Seminar and the Toronto and Windsor Liberty Seminars. The 2008 Liberty Summer Seminar will take place from July 26 - 27 this year. Registration is open now with a special deal for interns.

Democrats Capitulate on FISA

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:45:00 EDT

By Julian Sanchez: "Democrats are trying to rationalize capitulating on surveillance and telecom immunity in the new FISA bill by calling it a compromise. It isn't."

Tyler Cowen on Bloggingheads.tv

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:34:00 EDT

"The chat covers many topics, including whether capitalism will triumph, whether you should have more kids, and which country is most likely to be hit by the next nuclear weapon attack."

Mexicans and Machines: Why It's Time To Lay Off NAFTA

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:13:00 EDT

"Like technology, trade gives us more good stuff than bad�yet Americans are likely to cheer technology and fear trade. No doubt TV talkers and White House wannabes will keep stoking our fears of foreigners until voters and viewers stop buying it�or until robots snag their jobs, too."

From Breadbasket to Basket Case

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:38:00 EDT

By Mary Anastasia O'Grady: "As the presidential campaign drones on, Barack Obama and the Democrats are fleshing out the promise of "change" with some specific, big-government policy proposals. Many are familiar, perhaps because they already have been tried � in Argentina."

In a Class Of Your Own

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:05:00 EDT

By Roger Pilon: "When the Supreme Court affirms a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, that's news, especially when nearly every other circuit has gone the other way. That's what happened last week in Engquist v. Oregon Department of Agriculture. Unfortunately, the news would be better had the 9th Circuit gotten it right."

The Klein Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Polemics

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:49:00 EDT

By Johan Norberg: "To make her case, Klein exaggerates the free-market reforms that take place in times of crisis, often by ignoring central events and rewriting chronologies. She uses loose metaphors and wild distortions to claim that free markets are a form of violence. She confuses libertarianism with corporatism and neoconservatism and blames Milton Friedman for encouraging reform by stealth. To do so, she engages in one of the most malevolent distortions of a thinker that has been done in a major work in recent years."

IHS High School Essay Contest

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:36:00 EDT

The Institute for Humane Studies is pleased to announce their first annual essay contest for high school seniors, with a chance to win $3000 in prizes. The essay topic is George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Commie Ball: A Journey to the End of a Revolution

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:14:00 EDT

By Michael Lewis: "Some of the greatest baseball players the world has never seen are in Cuba, where their talent is government property, and their only chance of turning pro is the risky boat ride to Florida. Gus Dominguez, an L.A. sports agent, has done more than anyone to help escaped players join major-league U.S. teams, but now he sits in a California jail, convicted of smuggling athletes."

Raiding California�Drew Carey on Medical Marijuana and Minors

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:15:00 EDT

"Should medical marijuana be kept from minors at all costs? Why is it that pharmacists can dispense amphetamines without getting busted, but legal operators who dispense medical marijuana face prison time? Why do armed federal agents persist in raiding California?"

Narcissists With Nukes

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:46:00 EDT

By Shawn Macomber: "Should Cato Institute Senior Editor Gene Healy's wonderfully informative, perception shifting examination of the wayward American executive, The Cult of the Presidency, receive the attention it so richly deserves, however, it may serve as a perfect literary tonic for our historical and cultural amnesia. Perhaps Healy, armed with a persuasive, good-natured outrage, will even inspire some among us toward a more narrow definition of presidential virtuousness and, by extension, broaden the conception of our own."

Government, War, and Libertarianism

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:23:00 EDT

By Justin Logan: "Why has the war�and post-9/11 foreign policy generally�been so controversial for libertarians? And now, more than six years after 9/11 and more than five years into the war in Iraq, what can libertarian insights tell us about how we got here and what to do next?"

In Defense of "Sweatshops"

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:20:00 EDT

Benjamin Powell: "Because sweatshops are better than the available alternatives, any reforms aimed at improving the lives of workers in sweatshops must not jeopardize the jobs that they already have."