Cato Event Podcast

Housing prices are rapidly climbing in many American urban areas, pushing low-income and sometimes even middle-income people out of rental and home buying markets. American homeownership rates have fallen to the lowest levels since 1965, increasing wealth inequality and reducing productivity.Should urban areas respond to this affordability crisis by “growing up,” that is, building higher densities in the existing urban footprint as recommended by a recent White House policy paper? Or should they “grow out,” that is, build more developments at market densities at the urban fringe? Join three housing policy experts in a discussion of this question that is critical to the future of American cities. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives invites you to join us at CATO’S 34TH ANNUAL MONETARY CONFERENCE. Leading experts will address the risks inherent in the unconventional monetary policies of the world’s leading central banks and the steps that need to be taken to restore long-run economic growth.The lack of any monetary rule to guide policy decisions has created great uncertainty and increased financial volatility. Zero or negative interest rates and quantitative easing have created severe distortions in asset markets by increasing risk taking and politicizing credit allocation while failing to bring about robust economic growth. Attend Cato’s Annual Monetary Conference to find out why. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives invites you to join us at CATO’S 34TH ANNUAL MONETARY CONFERENCE. Leading experts will address the risks inherent in the unconventional monetary policies of the world’s leading central banks and the steps that need to be taken to restore long-run economic growth.The lack of any monetary rule to guide policy decisions has created great uncertainty and increased financial volatility. Zero or negative interest rates and quantitative easing have created severe distortions in asset markets by increasing risk taking and politicizing credit allocation while failing to bring about robust economic growth. Attend Cato’s Annual Monetary Conference to find out why. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives invites you to join us at CATO’S 34TH ANNUAL MONETARY CONFERENCE. Leading experts will address the risks inherent in the unconventional monetary policies of the world’s leading central banks and the steps that need to be taken to restore long-run economic growth.The lack of any monetary rule to guide policy decisions has created great uncertainty and increased financial volatility. Zero or negative interest rates and quantitative easing have created severe distortions in asset markets by increasing risk taking and politicizing credit allocation while failing to bring about robust economic growth. Attend Cato’s Annual Monetary Conference to find out why. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives invites you to join us at CATO’S 34TH ANNUAL MONETARY CONFERENCE. Leading experts will address the risks inherent in the unconventional monetary policies of the world’s leading central banks and the steps that need to be taken to restore long-run economic growth.The lack of any monetary rule to guide policy decisions has created great uncertainty and increased financial volatility. Zero or negative interest rates and quantitative easing have created severe distortions in asset markets by increasing risk taking and politicizing credit allocation while failing to bring about robust economic growth. Attend Cato’s Annual Monetary Conference to find out why. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives invites you to join us at CATO’S 34TH ANNUAL MONETARY CONFERENCE. Leading experts will address the risks inherent in the unconventional monetary policies of the world’s leading central banks and the steps that need to be taken to restore long-run economic growth.The lack of any monetary rule to guide policy decisions has created great uncertainty and increased financial volatility. Zero or negative interest rates and quantitative easing have created severe distortions in asset markets by increasing risk taking and politicizing credit allocation while failing to bring about robust economic growth. Attend Cato’s Annual Monetary Conference to find out why. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives invites you to join us at CATO’S 34TH ANNUAL MONETARY CONFERENCE. Leading experts will address the risks inherent in the unconventional monetary policies of the world’s leading central banks and the steps that need to be taken to restore long-run economic growth.The lack of any monetary rule to guide policy decisions has created great uncertainty and increased financial volatility. Zero or negative interest rates and quantitative easing have created severe distortions in asset markets by increasing risk taking and politicizing credit allocation while failing to bring about robust economic growth. Attend Cato’s Annual Monetary Conference to find out why. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The optimism that followed the end of the Cold War has been replaced by fear and pessimism. Russia is reasserting itself on the world stage, China continues to increase tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, and North Korea is inching toward a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the U.S. homeland. All of this has led many to believe that the world is more dangerous than ever before.Meanwhile, the growth of U.S. defense spending has slowed, leading some to conclude that America’s military has been “gutted” and is unprepared to meet today’s challenges, including its role as protector of the global order.Is the world more dangerous than ever? Have funding constraints degraded the strength of the U.S. military? Should we revisit U.S. grand strategy, including the missions that we assign to the American military? Join us for a conversation on the myths and misperceptions that cloud a clear discussion of U.S. foreign policy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For-profit colleges have been accused of deceiving students, fueling debt, and producing atrocious outcomes. Many big chains—most notably Corinthian Colleges and ITT—have gone out of business under heavy scrutiny from public officials. Are for-profit schools truly miserable, or are they being targeted for political reasons? And what do the election results bode for them? Join us for a free-flowing exchange about for-profit higher education. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Since the Franklin Roosevelt administration, the vision of U.S. trade policy has been to expand global commerce by reducing government-imposed barriers. Ambassadors Kantor and Schwab played significant roles in that effort. Ambassador Kantor finalized the NAFTA, and also the Uruguay Round negotiations that established the World Trade Organization (WTO). Ambassador Schwab concluded trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.Unfortunately, positions espoused in 2016 by major party presidential candidates indicate little or no support for trade liberalization. Have decades of U.S. leadership toward a more open global economy come to an end? What could be done to improve public understanding of trade’s benefits? Will the political focus remain largely on protecting existing jobs, or will broader societal gains from trade be recognized? What might supporters of trade reform do to advance their cause? Please join us for this timely discussion. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out informa

The 2008 collapse of Iceland’s grossly overextended banks added fuel to the conflagration in global financial markets and wreaked havoc with the country’s economy, which at one point saw its stock market lose 95 percent of its value and its unemployment rate rise above 25 percent.Since then the economy has recovered, the country’s unemployment rate today stands at just 2.5 percent, and the government recently paid back a $2.5 billion IMF loan.However, last spring the government announced it would impose a haircut on its foreign bondholders, threatening its access to financial markets and endangering its strong economic performance of the last few years.The island’s October 29 election solidified the Pirate Party’s presence in government and may result in a new ruling coalition that is ambivalent — or hostile — towards market economics as well as any commitments made by its predecessors to investors or trading partners. Our panelists hope to shed some light on what Iceland’s future will hold and what that mean

The bleak prospect of living in a country governed by one of the major-party presidential candidates seems to bolster arguments against voting. Declining to participate in this year’s deeply unsatisfactory election may signal a preference for “none of the above” while denying personal sanction to the many wrongs and injustices governments mete out in our names. Not voting is a time-saver, too. But non-participation in the vote may be an unwise option. Voting doesn’t just elect a candidate: it may signal to a variety of important audiences what direction the electorate would like the country to take. Perhaps voting is the best option available, even if other candidates and other systems of government would provide more liberty and prosperity. Failing to vote may waste personal power.Is the best choice to vote one’s conscience, vote strategically, or not vote at all?Join us for a debate on the merits of voting, followed by a convivial reception to pre-mourn the outcomes of the forthcoming election. See acast.co

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Scapegoating trade for problems real and imagined is nothing new. Blaming foreigners for domestic woes ingratiates politicians to excitable elements of the electorate and helps them direct voter anger away from their own records. But this year the rhetoric has been especially disparaging, with candidates from across the spectrum perpetuating noxious fallacies about trade, its purpose, and its beneficiaries.Among the prominent myths in circulation this year are that trade is a national competition between Team USA and the foreign team; trade destroyed U.S. manufacturing; the trade deficit means the United States is losing at trade; outsourcing hurts the U.S. economy; and, trade agreements only benefit big corporations and the rich.Join us for a special presentation where we will set the record straight and take a clarifying look at the many misconceptions swirling around in conversations about U.S. trade policy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Recent events in Oklahoma and North Carolina continue to draw the nation's attention to the combustible relationship between police and the communities they serve. Yet despite the national focus, important facts are getting blurred as partisans on both sides square off in an increasingly divisive national debate.Join our panel of Cato scholars to sort out and clarify a broad range of issues, including pretextual stops, police militarization, the use of body cameras and more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Every day we’re bludgeoned by news of how bad everything is—financial collapse, unemployment, poverty, environmental disasters, disease, hunger, war. Indeed, our world now seems to be on the brink of collapse, and yet: We’ve made more progress over the last 100 years than in the first 100,000. Some 285,000 more people have gained access to safe water every day for the last 25 years. In the last 50 years world poverty has fallen more than it did in the preceding 500. By almost any index you care to identify, things are markedly better now than they have ever been for almost everyone alive. Examining official data from the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, Johan Norberg traces just how far we have come in tackling the issues facing our species. While it’s true that not every problem has been solved, we do now have a good idea of the solutions and we know what it will take to see this progress continue. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Throughout history, kings and emperors have promised “freedoms” to their people. Yet these freedoms were really only permissions handed down from on high. The American Revolution inaugurated a new vision: People have basic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and government must ask permission from them. Sadly, our modern bureaucratic society has turned back the clock, transforming America into a nation where our freedoms — the right to speak freely, to earn a living, to own a gun, to use private property, even to take medicine to save one’s own life — are again treated as privileges the government may grant or withhold at will. In this new book,Timothy Sandefur examines the history of the distinction between rights and privileges that played such a crucial role in the American experiment, and the fight ahead to regain our freedoms. Illustrated with dozens of real-life examples — including many cases he himself litigated — Sandefur shows how treating freedoms as government-cre

Rising premiums, insurer exits, and a shifting mix of plan types has observers questioning the future of Obamacare’s health-insurance exchanges. In many parts of the United States, only one insurer remains in the exchange. In some cases, premiums are rising by an average of 50 percent. Are these just growing pains, or are the exchanges in the throes of a death spiral? A panel of scholars will offer differing perspectives on the performance and prospects for the centerpiece of Obamacare. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

China’s turn to the free market in goods and services has enabled it to achieve high growth and remarkable material progress for decades, but growth in recent years has slowed markedly. Weiying Zhang, one of China’s most influential economists, will explain why the country needs a free market for ideas if it is to become prosperous. Competing viewpoints, scholarship, and faiths are necessary to test out new ideas and for a society to progress. After 2003, however, the Chinese government has stalled reforms and is increasingly restricting the market for ideas. Zhang will draw from ancient through contemporary Chinese history to show how this restriction is jeopardizing China’s future. Ning Wang will explain how the government’s monopoly on ideas is responsible for China’s lack of innovation in science and technology, and is holding back its economy in a world that is becoming increasingly knowledge intensive. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

China’s eight-fold expansion in steel production over the past 20 years has resulted in a worldwide oversupply. China now accounts for half of global steel output and is the largest exporter. Steel producers in the United States and other countries have faced a rising tide of imported steel. The U.S. reaction has been to impose antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) measures to restrict imports. AD/CVD orders have not succeeded in restoring full profitability to U.S. steel mills, but have raised costs for manufacturers that use steel as an input.How did China become the dominant player in the global steel marketplace? Will its production continue to rise, or be curtailed? What are the implications of global oversupply for the American steel industry? And what policy responses might best serve U.S. interests? Please join us for a discussion of these important issues. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.