Cato Event Podcast

On July 7, 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, and the Department of the Treasury released a notice of proposed rulemaking to modify the definition of short‐​term, limited‐​duration insurance. During this policy forum, Michael F. Cannon and Brian Blase will discuss why the proposed rule would adversely impact individuals by eliminating consumer protections, which would throw sick patients out of their health insurance and leave them to face sky‐​high medical bills without insurance for up to a year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A prominent narrative claims that global inequality is increasing as improvements in the standard of living accrue mainly to a small elite, leaving much of the world’s population behind and even worse off than before. But is this true? Chelsea Follett and Vincent Geloso will discuss their work on a new, more comprehensive way of measuring global inequality, the Inequality of Human Progress Index, and their recent findings showing that global inequality is in fact shrinking. They will argue that the evidence demonstrates that the world is not only better off than many people appreciate but that it is also far more equal. Nicholas Eberstadt will provide comments on how to best assess the true state of global inequality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part three of this year’s Summer with Sphere series is all about preparing for the upcoming school year! As you think about how you will set your students up for success from their classroom environment to their curriculum for the year, consider the benefits of implementing strategies that foster civil discourse into your approach. In this webinar, we will equip you with tools and resources that will help you effectively embed healthy habits of conversation into your classroom experience for students through class norm setting, learning environment, and fostering a strong home‐​to‐​school connection at the start of the year. You will hear from Sphere’s Content Development Manager Elyse Alter about engaging interdisciplinary classroom content you can supplement your current curriculum with and Sphere’s Educator Engagement Specialist John Snoad about professional development opportunities available to you and your school with Sphere on the Ro

The United States has been a leader in the innovative technology sector. Its light touch policy approach has been key to allowing innovation to flourish and brought benefits to consumers both domestically and internationally.Increasingly, however, the highly regulatory approach seen in the EU and UK is both formally and informally impacting the approach these leading tech companies must take on issues including speech, privacy, and competition.How should we think about the “Brussels Effect” in technology, and what does this mean for American policy, American companies, and American citizens? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why has the health sector of the economy uniquely resisted changes in products, productivity, and services that improve consumer satisfaction or reduce prices and spending? One reason, according to the book Seemed Like a Good Idea: Alchemy versus Evidence‐​Based Approaches to Healthcare Management Innovation, is that decisionmaking on medical delivery or insurance innovations is often not evidence‐​based and sometimes contradictory to evidence. This book explores reasons why the health sector lacks such evidence and why managers often don’t use the evidence that does exist. Please join us for a discussion with the authors and Cato director of health policy studies Michael F. Cannon that will explore government policies that cause producers and consumers to leave money on the table. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent legislation in Congress has proposed designating Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations; pushing the administration to designate fentanyl precursor chemicals as chemical weapons; and even authorizing the use of military force in Mexico. As the fentanyl crisis persists in the United States, several Republican presidential candidates have echoed these calls for using the U.S. military to combat fentanyl. What would these bills and proposals do, practically? What are the likely consequences of using the U.S. military in this way? And what policies hold greater hope of lessening the harm of fentanyl inside the United States? Please join our panel for an examination of these and other pressing questions surrounding proposals for militarizing the drug war at the border. A happy hour reception will follow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As fertility rates fall in much of the world, many policymakers are considering expensive policies intended to raise birth rates and support families more broadly. But do those policies work, and should government play a role in trying to reverse this trend? And is the best way to support families an expansion in government programs or it is simply getting government out of parents’ way? Experts on fertility and family policy, Vanessa Brown Calder, Chelsea Follett, Julie Gunlock, and Elizabeth Nolan Brown will address these critical issues. In addition to discussing fertility trends, participants will consider government policies that make it difficult for parents to obtain the flexibility, resources, and peace of mind needed to thrive in their roles, including policies that drive up the cost of housing, childcare, and other family essentials. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On July 27, 1953, an armistice took effect, pausing the Korean War. Although much has changed over the last 70 years—North Korea becoming a nuclear state, South Korea becoming a democracy and major economic power, and China becoming Asia’s dominant force—the war remains frozen. Today, escalating tensions, including a shift in the U.S.-South Korea alliance toward competition with China, are creating new challenges to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. As the Korean War armistice turns 70, how can the United States best prevent conflict and preserve peace?Our second panel focuses on North Korea and how the United States can move beyond the armistice to a more durable peace regime. How can the United States advance this worthy goal given the current nuclear impasse? What can the United States do to revive diplomacy with North Korea? Does a focus on denuclearization blind Washington to other opportunities, including arms control, and if so, how should the United States proc

On July 27, 1953, an armistice took effect, pausing the Korean War. Although much has changed over the last 70 years—North Korea becoming a nuclear state, South Korea becoming a democracy and major economic power, and China becoming Asia’s dominant force—the war remains frozen. Today, escalating tensions, including a shift in the U.S.-South Korea alliance toward competition with China, are creating new challenges to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. As the Korean War armistice turns 70, how can the United States best prevent conflict and preserve peace?Our first panel examines pressing topics in the U.S.-South Korea relationship. How is the rise of China affecting alliance management? Will growing protectionism in the United States hurt both countries’ economies? Do recent South Korean calls for nuclear weapons undermine the U.S. defense commitment? Is extended deterrence in America’s interest? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On July 27, 1953, an armistice took effect, pausing the Korean War. Although much has changed over the last 70 years—North Korea becoming a nuclear state, South Korea becoming a democracy and major economic power, and China becoming Asia’s dominant force—the war remains frozen. Today, escalating tensions, including a shift in the U.S.-South Korea alliance toward competition with China, are creating new challenges to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. As the Korean War armistice turns 70, how can the United States best prevent conflict and preserve peace?Representative Brad Sherman (D‑CA) will begin the event with a keynote address via live teleconference on legislative efforts to replace the armistice with a peace treaty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Biden administration recently launched ambitious private sponsorship programs for Ukrainians, Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans, and Nicaraguans, which could be the largest expansion of legal migration in decades. These initiatives create new legal opportunities for Americans to sponsor foreigners from these troubled countries for legal entry and residence in the United States. The new entry categories have already facilitated hundreds of thousands of legal entries and are helping reduce unlawful migration across the U.S.-Mexico border. What is the sponsorship experience like? How can the government improve upon these policies? What can be done to expand the program to immigrants from other countries? Explore these issues and others with Cato’s panel of experts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year has seen an explosion of new, big, school choice initiatives. Most important have been education savings account (ESA) programs, which offer the most freedom of any school choice vehicle by allowing parents to apply funds to everything from tutoring, to science equipment, to private school tuition. But with this comes many challenges, and the sudden takeoff of ESAs might leave people who are tasked with implementing them scrambling.In this forum, we will tackle the challenges of implementing ESAs with people who have thought hard about it, who have done it, and who are doing it now. Among the difficulties we’ll tackle are spreading the word about ESAs; helping families unaccustomed to school choice navigate a new way of obtaining education; ensuring funds are used for legitimate educational purposes (including defining what constitutes “legitimate”); and dealing with possible misrepresentations of ESA uses and outcomes by choice opponents.We hope you’ll join us as we discuss implementing the sc

This year has seen an explosion of new, big, school choice initiatives. Most important have been education savings account (ESA) programs, which offer the most freedom of any school choice vehicle by allowing parents to apply funds to everything from tutoring, to science equipment, to private school tuition. But with this comes many challenges, and the sudden takeoff of ESAs might leave people who are tasked with implementing them scrambling.In this forum, we will tackle the challenges of implementing ESAs with people who have thought hard about it, who have done it, and who are doing it now. Among the difficulties we’ll tackle are spreading the word about ESAs; helping families unaccustomed to school choice navigate a new way of obtaining education; ensuring funds are used for legitimate educational purposes (including defining what constitutes “legitimate”); and dealing with possible misrepresentations of ESA uses and outcomes by choice opponents.We hope you’ll join us as we discuss implementing the sc

From cases about free speech and religion, to the role of affirmative action in college admissions, this year’s Supreme Court docket covered some of the most important issues in America. Join Sphere Education Initiatives and a panel of Constitutional scholars to explore the major decisions of the court. Covering both the arguments of the majority and the dissents, this conversation will position you to bring these cases to life for your students this fall. This is the first of our four‐​part professional development series, Summer with Sphere ‘23 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank have shed light on the need for a major overhaul of the United States’ banking laws. For a century, the government has increased federal backing, regulation, and micromanagement of the financial sector. The approach has repeatedly failed. Yet, after recent bank failures, Congress immediately began flirting with even more federal backing, regulation, and micromanagement. Is there any way out of this vicious cycle?Join us for a conversation with Jeb Hensarling, former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Jelena McWilliams, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, as they discuss the bank failures, the federal government’s response, and a path forward for banking regulation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Al Qaeda’s attacks on the United States plunged America into multiple military campaigns abroad in pursuit of the attackers. It also ushered in new surveillance programs before any investigations into the causes of the 9/11 intelligence failure had even begun. The first new, secret mass electronic surveillance program authorized by then president George W. Bush, Stellar Wind, was initiated just days after the attacks and with no judicial notification, much less review, as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In a parallel public track, the Bush administration pushed for and received even more sweeping surveillance authorities via the congressionally approved Patriot Act. By the end of the Bush presidency, the FBI had been granted vast new domestic surveillance powers, gaining authority to open investigations on individuals or groups without needing a criminal basis to do so.The Obama era was marked not by reevaluations of these programs but instead by their continuity and po

On New Year’s Eve 2023, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will expire absent congressional action to renew it. This controversial surveillance power was enacted in 2008 following over two years of debate in Congress after its secret, illegal predecessor—the National Security Agency’s Stellar Wind mass electronic surveillance program—was exposed by the New York Times in December 2005. Since that time, Section 702 has been renewed twice—once under President Obama and again under President Trump. And it has been renewed despite repeated, serious violations of the law by the FBI via so‐​called “back door” searches—literally millions of Section 702 database queries by FBI personnel for information on U.S. persons not necessarily wanted for a crime.What do we actually know about the alleged effectiveness of this sweeping surveillance power? What is the scope of the legal and compliance problems with Section 702? Should it be renewed unchanged, retained in modified form, or allo

Extreme political views and speech have been a feature of American political and social life virtually since the founding of the republic. The Founders intended for the First Amendment to protect governmental infringements on speech, but throughout the republic’s history those protections have been breached on multiple occasions. The Alien and Sedition Acts, the Anarchist Exclusion Act, and the Espionage Act are just some of the examples of federal laws that have criminalized certain kinds of speech. But in a landmark 1969 Supreme Court decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio, the high court ruled that speech deemed inflammatory or even threatening could only be prohibited by the government if it is “directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action” and is “likely to incite or produce such action.” Ever since, that decision has provided protection against government attacks on speech by individuals or groups across the political spectrum deemed offensive or politically disfavored.But what happ

The explosion in the use of facial recognition and other biometric technologies by government and private‐​sector entities has sparked a national debate about such systems. Just over a year ago, a Pew Research Center survey of American attitudes toward artificial intelligence also asked how people felt about law enforcement use of facial recognition. Among those surveyed, 46 percent thought the use of facial recognition by law enforcement is a good idea, even though two‐​thirds of respondents said police “would be able to track everyone’s location at all times and that police would monitor Black and Hispanic neighborhoods much more often than other neighborhoods.”How reliable is facial recognition? Can biases be unconsciously worked into the algorithms that make facial recognition possible? How many cases of mistaken identity have been attributed to facial recognition to date? How does the law at the federal, state, or local level impact the use of biometric technology? Is the te

There are legitimate concerns about the safety and well‐​being of children online. This has stimulated the interest of policymakers, and numerous legislative and regulatory proposals are being debated. Like many areas, however, civil society—not government—likely holds the best solutions. Government intervention is a blunt instrument and will itself create additional problems—particularly in the areas of freedom of expression and privacy—as compared with individual solutions undertaken by parents and families themselves.This virtual policy forum brings together policy and child safety experts to discuss the risks and benefits young people may experience online and the tools parents and policymakers can consider to encourage a positive online experience and respond to concerns that they may face without sacrificing speech or privacy more generally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.