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Welcome

This spring we will be rolling out several exciting initiatives.  Check back to the site often and sign up for our monthly newsletter to get up-to-date information on policy, events, opportunities and more!  We hope you will discover CatoOnCampus.org to be a key platform for your academic and personal research interests.  If you want to contact us with requests or suggestions, please do!  CatoOnCampus@cato.org

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Now Featuring

Creating Your Path to a Policy Career

As summer arrives, many students and recent grads are looking for how to find the perfect job. This serves as a great time to check out the Institute for Human Studies' handbook on creating one's path to a public policy career. The guide collects articles from many of the major players in the think tank and public policy world on topics like 'What Skills Do I Need in the Policy World?,' 'Roles Within a Think Tank,' and 'Changing Policy in the For-Profit Sector.' The guide is an excellent resource that complements IHS's series of career guides, like their 'Scaling the Ivory Tower' and 'Law School and Beyond.'

Those and other resources are available here.

(tags: Guides & Handbooks, Opportunities: Internships, Opportunities: Jobs, Organizations and Websites: Research Tools)

Calling the President's Bluff

Republicans should not force President Obama to propose a budget that reflects their ideas, because it is clear that each side has a drastically different view of the role for government in society; rather, they should force him to present an honest budget effort, and then judge him on its result, says William Poole Cato senior fellow and former CEO of the St. Louis Fed. By doing so, if Obama doesn't submit a budget, the responsibility for default would rest on him. Poole advises that, "Republicans should emphasize that the debt ceiling issue is not about the substance of how to address the deficit, but that the president present a plan voters can judge."

(tags: Political Science: Comparative Politics, Economics: Macroeconomics)

The Morality of Profit

The morality of profit-making has long been a subject of extensive debate, with religious and moral philosophers falling on both sides of the issue. In the below video, Cato senior fellow Tom Palmer clearly provides a defense of profit as a moral act.

(tags: Business, Economics, Foundations of Liberty: Free Markets, Multimedia: Videos)

'Cash for Clunkers' Still Clunking

In a recent Cato post, senior fellow Walter Olson explains how a popular government program continues to damage the poor, and increasingly threatens the middle class, too. In the wake of the "cash for clunkers" program and record high gas prices, more Americans are burdened with financial woes regarding transportation (in fact, some used cars are worth more now than they were new). When it’s already hard to find a job, facing additional barriers to transportation imposed by ill-advised government programs is not a comforting thought. This leaves Olson saying, facetiously, “Nice going, Washington.”

(tags: Business, Economics: Microeconomics)

Scholarship to Cato University

Wanting to get away this summer? Looking to learn about ideas and meet cool people while having a great time? The Bastiat Scholarship program is supported by generous sponsors to provide students around the world the ability to attend Cato University, the premier educational conference hosted annually by the Cato Institute, for free. The conference boasts an excellent lineup of speakers, including David Boaz, Don Boudreaux (www.cafehayek.com), Lynne Kiesling (www.knowledgeproblem.com), Ed Crane, Radley Balko (www.theagitator.com), Robert McDonald, and many more. Make the most of your summer, and apply today.

To accommodate various finals schedules, the deadline has been extended to May 22nd.

(tags: Foundations of Liberty, Opportunities: Scholarships, Opportunities: Seminars & Conferences)

Less Spending, More Security

Responsibly cutting military spending requires more than simply pursuing efficiencies or making unilateral cuts, so says Benjamin Friedman, research fellow at the Cato Institute, in a recent piece in the New York Times online. Rather, we should pursue a shift in defense strategy. Friedman explains, "If we let rich allies defend themselves and admitted that we lack the ability to fix disorderly states, we could have a smaller, more elite, less strained, and far less expensive military," without sacrificing security.

(tags: Defense and National Security: Defense Spending, Defense and National Security: Democracy and the War on Terror, Foreign Policy)

Osama bin Laden is Dead

This is perhaps the best news Americans have recently heard. Commenting on the issue, Cato Director of Foreign Policy Studies Christopher Preble notes that, on the broader scale, this event allows closure for thousands of Americans. And on the smaller scale, "The details should remind us that some of the most effective counterterrorism techniques do not rely on tens of thousands of troops stationed indefinitely in distant lands." While bin Laden's death will not end terrorism or costly outlays for U.S. military, Preble calls for hope that it might allow U.S. counterterrorism strategy to evolve, better balancing "American security with the need to preserve our essential rights and liberties."

(tags: Foreign Policy, Foundations of Liberty: peace, Defense and National Security: Terrorism & Homeland Security)

Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

Economist Russ Roberts and multimedia producer John Papola again combine pop culture and solid economic theory in a creative rap battle between F.A. Hayek and John Maynard Keynes, which takes place in a boxing ring. For the first installment, watch it here.

(tags: Economics: History of Economic Thought, Economics: Macroeconomics, Economics: Microeconomics, Multimedia: Videos)

Are Smugglers Heroes?

Walter Williams, economics professor and syndicated columnist, notes that "Government tyrants want to either prevent or interfere with peaceable voluntary exchange among individuals," and smugglers "reduce the impact of that interference." From molasses taxes in the early 1700s to cigarette taxes in today's economy, governments have enacted limits on peoples' freedoms. And smugglers are quick to swoop in and meet the demand. The downside is that smugglers bring along crime and erosion to a nation's rule of law. So while smugglers may appear to be heroes, it would be best to simply have the government and moral crusaders step out of the way.

For a Reason.tv interview with Walter Williams on his new book, Up From the Projects, see here.

(tags: Foundations of Liberty: Individual Liberty, Economics: Microeconomics, Trade)

EVENT: Video Sneak Preview

Cato On Campus is hosting a sneak prieview of Swedish economist Johan Norberg's new documentary on globalization and economics, Free or Equal: A Personal View. Register to join the event at the Cato Institute on Friday, April 29th at 4:00pm.

Here's a bit of a teaser:

(tags: Economics: Economic Development, Opportunities: Events, Foundations of Liberty: Free Markets, Multimedia: Videos)