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Events Archive
Cato forums are broadcast live over the Internet. Broadcasts are archived 24 to 48 hours after the event has completed.
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2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 and Before
1998 and Before
White House Summit on Social Security (12/08/98)
A White House Summit on Social Security, sponsored by Gene Sperling and the White House National Economic
Council, with comments by José Piñera, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Cato Institute. President Clinton
called upon a bipartisan group of congressman and interest groups to discuss solutions to America's
looming social security crisis. In these remarks, Piñera recounts his experiences 18 years after instituting
a fully funded pension system in Chile based on individual retirement accounts. He stresses that the Chilean
model enhances worker dignity, choice, and empowerment and has generated a real return of 11 percent per year.
Citing an already existing investor class, superb capital markets, and the onset of the technology revolution,
Piñera asserts that the United States is particularly well-suited to adopt a similar system rooted in private
retirement accounts.
The WTO's Shrimp-Turtle Decision: Free Trade
vs. the Environment (12/08/98/)
A Cato policy forum featuring John H. Jackson, Georgetown
University Law Center, Steven Charnovitz, Global Environment
& Trade Study, David Schorr, World Wildlife Fund, and Kanthi
Tripathi, Minister of Commerce, Embassy of India. On October 12,
the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization upheld a U.S. law designed
to protect sea turtles endangered by shrimp fishing but faulted the United
States on how the law was being administered. Although it was immediately
condemned by environmental groups, the decision has been hailed by some
observers as an important affirmation of the right of nations to pursue
conservation meansures. Does the WTO decision block the pursuit of legitimate
environmental goals, or is it merely a signal that environmental policies
must be carefully crafted to avoid arbitrary discrimination and unnecessary
trade restriction?
The Morality of Social Security Privatization
(12/07/98)
A Cato Policy forum featuring Daniel Shapiro, West Virginia
University, Charles Murray, American Enterprise Institute,
Kenneth Tollett, Howard University, and Amitai
Etzioni, George Washington University. The ultimate question in
the debate over Social Security privatization is a moral and philosophical
one. Privatization would not be justifiable if it were economically beneficial
but morally suspect. A panel of leading philosophers and social scientists
will debate the moral implications of Social Security reform, including
issues of fairness, liberty, community, and justice.
Mail @ the Millennium:
The Future of Private Postal Service (12/02/98)
The communications revolution and private package and overnight delivery
services have put pressure on the USPS to improve service and hold down
costs. These tasks are frustrated by high labor costs and problems with
the nearly 900,000 mostly unionized workers. To generate more revenue the
Postal Service has offered new products from coffee mugs to phone cards.
More ominously, it is trying to increase its role in cyberspace. The private
sector wants to restrict such unfair competition from a tax-exampt government
agency. This conference will examine the nature of the Postal Services'
problems, how that monopoly might be unwound, and the current proposals
to facilitate a world-class communcations and mail delivery system for the
21st century.
China in the New Millennium: Market Reforms and Social Development (11/20/98) A Cato Book Forum featuring Mao Yushi, Unirule Institute of Economics, Beijing, with comments by the editor James A. Dorn, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Cato Institute. This event celebrates the Cato Institute's release of China in the New Millennium: Market Reforms and social Development. Most people realize that a market economy fosters wealth creation, but they often fail to perceive how the spontaneous market process promotes freedom. Since 1978, China's economic liberalization and opening to the outside world have increased prosperity and advanced civil society. However, the lack of a true market economy--which depends on the rule of law and private property--means that the future of China's market system is unclear.
Will China get caught in the trap of "market socialism," or will it follow Hong Kong's example and continue down the path of market liberalism? The recent publication of F.A. Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty in China and the discussion of Hayek's ideas by scholars at the Unirule Institute are signs that s debate on fundamental issues has now begun.
2nd
Annual Conference on Technology and Society (11/19-21/98)
Washington vs. Silicon Valley. Cosponsored with Forbes ASAP,
Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, CA. Speakers include Dr. Milton Friedman,
Nobel Laureate in Economics, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle
Corp., Bob Metcalfe, VP Technology, International Data
Group, and Scott Cook, Chairman of the Board, Intuit
Corp.
A Life of One's Own: Individual Rights and
the Welfare State (11/19/98),
A Cato Book Forum featuring author David Kelley, Institute
for Objectivist Studies. The welfare state rests on the assumption that
people have the right to food, shelter, health care, retirement income,
and other goods provided by the government. David Kelley examines the historical
origins of that assumption, which, he shows, is deeply flawed. Welfare "rights,"
he argues, are incompatible with freedom, justice, and true benevolence,
and they have damaged the genuine welfare of those who can least afford
to become dependent on the government.
The Future and Its Enemies (11/16/98)
A Cato Book Forum featuring author Virginia Postrel, Editor,
Reason, with comments by David Frum, Contributing
Editor, The Weekly Standard. The true enemies of humanity's future,
says Virginia Postrel, are the people who insist on prescribing outcomes
in advance and circumventing competition and experiment in favor of their
own preconceptions and prejudices.
Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader, "right-wing" nativists and
"left-wing" environmentalists--all share a devotion to what she calls
"stasis." On the other side is an emerging coalition that supports what
Postrel calls "dynamism": an open-ended society in which creativity and
enterprise, operating under predictable rules, generate progress in unpredictable
ways. Dynamists are united not by a single political agenda, but by an
appreciation for such complex evolutionary processes as scientific inquiry,
market competition, artistic development, and technological invention.
Dynamists are, says Postrel, "the party of life."
Regulators' Revenge: Whatever Happened to Telecommunications
Deregulation?(11/05/98)
A Cato Book Forum featuring Harold Furchtgott-Roth, FCC
Commissioner, with comments by Timothy Brennan, University
of Maryland, and Sólveig Singleton, Cato Institute.
This event celebrates the Cato Institute's release of Regulators'
Revenge, essays on the future of telecommunications deregulation.
While deregulation proceeds at a snail's pace--if at all--the forces of
technological convergence are upon us now. Web TV, internet telephony, cable
modems, and the need for new bandwidth drive old policy models toward obsolescence.
What happens to competition without deregulation? What steps should we take
to free both wireless and wireline technologies?
The Myth That Schools Shortchange Girls (10/29/98)
A Cato Policy Forum, featuring Judith Kleinfeld, University
of Alaska. Feminist advocacy groups have promoted the myth that "schools
shortchange girls." That assumption is at the heart of preferential policies
and programs for girls developed by the National Science Foundation and
other agencies. In her recent study, "The Myth That Schools Shortchange
Girls," Judith Kleinfeld, professor of psychology at the University of Alaska
and board member of the Independent Women's Forum and the Women's Freedom
Network, presents evidence to the contrary and argues that such preferential
programs are not in the interests of women.
16th Annual
Monetary Conference (10/22/98)
One-day conference: Money in the New Millennium: The Global Financial
Architecture, featuring Lawrence H. Summers, William
Poole, Jeffrey Sachs, and Steve Hanke.
The Biggest Lies in American Politics (10/20/98),
A Cato Book Forum featuring Major Garrett, U.S. News &
World Report, Tim Penny, Former Member of Congress (D-Minn.),
Fellow in Fiscal Policy Studies, Cato Institute, James Barnes,
National Journal, David Brooks, Weekly Standard. Major
Garrett's and Tim Penny's new book, The Fifteen Biggest Lies in Politics,
shatters long-held myths about our modern-day politicians and political
parties. This panel will discuss four of the biggest lies the authors identify:
(1) all tax cuts are good for the economy, (2) big money is corrupting the
political system, (3) the Republicans believe in smaller government, and
(4) the Democrats are the compassionate party.
Should Senior Citizens Be Able to Contract Privately
for Medicare Services? (10/19/98),
A Cato Policy Forum featuring Lois Copeland, former president,
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons; Steve Protulis,
National Council of Senior Citizens; Bruce Vladek, former
administrator, Health Care Financing Administration (invited); and Roger
Pilon, Cato Institute. Federal law allows Medicare patients
to contract privately for medical services, but only if the doctor agrees
not to participate in the Medicare program for 2 years. In a "friend
of the court" brief in United Seniors Association v. Shalala,
which is scheduled for oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit on October 23, the Cato Institute and allied
policy groups write that "free people [must not] be limited by the
government in deciding how much of their own money they should spend on
protecting their health and extending their lives." Opponents
have argued that private contracting will let doctors take advantage of
vulnerable patients and transform Medicare into a two-tiered system that
favors the wealthy. Join us for a debate on the full range of medical,
legal and public policy issues.
Privacy Pandemonium: What the EU's Privacy
Directive Means for the United States (10/16/98)
A Cato Policy Forum, featuring Peter Swire, Ohio State
University, John E. Calfee, Author, Fear of Persuasion,
Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center and
Solveig Singleton, Cato Institute. On October 25, 1998,
European Union member-nations will ask that U.S. companies doing business
in Europe provide "adequate" privacy protections or face sanctions. Panelists
will address the reasons for enacting this new and broad regulatory regime.
Are such laws an effective strategy for safeguarding human rights from oppressive
governments or protecting consumers from zealous marketing?
The Promise and Peril of Environmental
Justice (10/15/98)
A Cato Book Forum featuring Christopher H. Foreman, Jr.,
Brookings Institution. Environmental justice blends the emotionally and
politically potent issues of environment and race. Its proponents argue
that minority populations are the victims of policies that imperil or
harm their health by foisting industrial plants and waste sites on their
neighborhoods. In his book, Chris Foreman credits leaders of the environmental
justice movement with identifying and exploiting a central organizing
issue. But he questions whether the enviromental justice movement addresses
real health issues and whether its emphasis on risks from environmental
exposure diverts the attention of minority communities from more important
health concerns. His book has engendered strong reaction across the spectrum
of environmental and civil rights organizations.
Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling
Individual Liberty with the Common Good (10/14/98),
A Cato Book Forum featuring Richard Epstein, University
of Chicago School of Law, with comments by Peter Byrne,
Georgetown University Law Center. The prolific scholar Richard Epstein has
written his most accessible book yet defending a free society, explaining
"how a concern with the common good does not eviscerate the traditional
protections otherwise provided to individual liberty and private property."
This volume subjects a wide range of current issues - from Social Security
to environmental harms, discrimination, and many more - to the systematic
and rigorous scrutiny for which Epstein is so well known.
Does Congress Need to Authorize U.S. Military
Action Overseas? (10/7/98)
This Cato Policy forum featured Rep. David E. Skaggs (D-Colorado),
with comments by Louis Fisher, Congressional Research Service; Robert
F. Turner, University of Virginia Law School; and Stanley Kober,
Cato Institute. Until the Korean conflict in 1950, U.S. presidents regularly
secured congressional support before taking offensive military action. Since
then, presidents have often used the precedent of the Korean War to avoid
obtaining congressional approval for U.S. military operations overseas.
President Bush caused controversy by arguing that he had the authority to
go to war with Iraq without congressional approval, which he later sought
and received. President Clinton has not requested legislative approval for
military actions in Iraq, Haiti, or Bosnia. In 1998, Representative Skaggs
authored a legislative provision that would block the use of funds to conduct
offensive military action unless Congress approved the operation. Does the
war powers clause of the Constitution require Congress to authorize offensive
military action? Representative Skaggs and the panel discuss this issue.
The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty
on America's Campuses (9/23/98)
This Cato book forum features Alan Charles Kors, Professor
of History, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvey A. Silverglate,
Civil Liberties Attorney, Boston, Massachusetts. Something profoundly disturbing
is happening to higher education in America. Universities now enforce a
politically correct agenda through censorship, double standards, and kangaroo
courts. Faculty and students who dissent from the new orthodoxy are stripped
of their civil liberties, some even forced to undergo intrusive and partisan
"sensitivity training." Occasionally a particularly egregious case may make
its way into the news, but the true extent of this problem has never been
fully documented--until now. This book is a stinging indictment and exposure
of injustices and coerced conformity on college campuses. It offers a legal,
strategic, and moral blueprint for restoring liberty at our colleges and
universities.
A New Deal for Social Security (9/15/98)
This Cato Book Forum video features authors Michael Tanner
and Peter J. Ferrara, with comments by Sen. Rod
Grams (R-Minn.), Sam Beard, Economic Security
2000, C. Eugene Steuerle, Urban Institute, and Wendell
Primus, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A New Deal for
Social Security, recently published by Cato, provides a wealth of information
about our social security system, beginning with its origin and history,
and examines its impact and that of a privatized alternative on workers
in general and on the poor, women, minorities and families in particular.
Ferrara and Tanner argue for a "practical and workable" privatization plan
for the United States and discuss the many policy questions involved.
Play this event now (stream)
(Part 1, 1:20:06)
(Part 2, 51:30)
Seven Myths of the Anti-Smoking
Movement (9/10/98)
Since the collapse of the tobacco deal, efforts to further regulate tobacco
and smoking have continued in the courts, in Congress, in regulatory agencies,
and among state attorneys general. Journalist Jacob Sullum
takes on many of the claims made by the anti-smoking movement--from secondhand
smoke to the social costs of smoking--and argues that the fundamental issue
in the tobacco wars is an attempt by some people to impose their tastes
and preferences on other people. He'll review the latest court cases and
legislative maneuvering and the myths behind them, and Matthew Myers
will offer a sharply contrasting view.
Play this event now (stream)
(Part 1, 37:58)
(Part 2, 43:38)
Should the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Be
Scrapped? (9/2/98)
A Cato policy forum, featuring Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato
Institute, Charles Peña, Defense Policy and Program
Consultant, Jack Mendelsohn, Member, SALT II and START
I Delegation, and William Lee, National Coalition for Defense.
The 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty between the United States and the
Soviet Union severely restricts the fielding of missile systems designed
to defend the nation against an attack by nuclear-armed, strategic ballistic
missiles--that is, national missile defense systems. The Clinton administration
has signed agreements that rejuvenate and expand the treaty. Proponents
of the ABM treaty argue that it remains the cornerstone of nuclear stability.
Opponents of the treaty argue that it is a relic of the Cold War, prevents
the United States from adequately defending itself against a missile attack,
and should be scrapped.
Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and
Identity Politics (8/18/98)
In 1990, Congress passed the Federal Hate Crime Statistics Act, which required
the Justice Department to collect and publish statistics on the nature and
number of crimes motivated by racial, religious, and ethnic prejudice.
Since 1990, additional "hate crime" laws have been enacted at
the federal level and in most states. Are such laws useful tools in
the battle against bias-driven crime or do they represent a dangerous step
in the direction of thought control? New York University law professor
James B. Jacobs attempts to answer that question and many
others in his new book.
Mismanaged Care? Should the
Government Regulate HMOs? (8/5/98)
Health care is once again the hot political issue - with managed care
at the center of the legislative firestorm. With both Republicans
and Democrats proposing increased regulation of HMOs and other forms of
managed care, fundamental questions are being raised about the proper
role of government in the American health care system. Join us as
a panel of top health care experts examines whether managed care needs
government regulation and, if so, what kind. Speakers include Sue
Blevins, of the Institute for Health Freedom; M. Stanton
Evans, of the Education & Research Institute; Alan
Mertz, of the Healthcare Leadership Council; and Andrew
Webber, of the Consumer Coalition for Quality Health Care.
The Wealth of Cities: Revitalizing
the Centers of American Life (8/3/98)
John Norquist, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee, is
one of the most perceptive analysts of urban policy. In his new
book, he describes how the natural advantages of cities - as centers of
commerce, innovation, and culture - have been undermined by a half century
of ill-conceived education, welfare, housing, transportation, crime, and
environmental policies that have resulted in urban decline and suburban
sprawl. Among his proposed solutions are school choice; competition
for public works contracts; and real work, not "workfare."
Should the United States Adopt
a Code of Conduct for Selling Arms? (7/30/98)
Featuring Gregory Suchan, U.S. Department of State; Joel Johnson,
Aerospace Industries Association; Lawrence Korb, Brookings
Institution; and Stephen Rickard, Amnesty International USA. A
proposed code of conduct would establish criteria that foreign countries
would have to meet to be eligible to buy U.S. weapons. To be eligible,
a country would have to have a democratic form of government, conduct
peaceful relations with other states, respect human rights, and fully
disclose its weapons purchases. The sale of weapons to a country that
failed to meet the criteria would require a presidential waiver on national
security grounds (subject to a congressional rejection of the waiver).
Recently, a similar code was adopted by the European Union. Are such codes
of conduct a good idea?
Should We Lower the Capital
Gains Tax? (7/16/98)
Featuring a keynote address by Speaker of the House Rep. Newt Gingrich,
R-Ga. The program featured two panels. Participants on Panel
1, "Keeping Score: Capital Gains Rates, Realizations, and Revenues,
include: Stephen Entin, Executive Director, Institute for Research
on the Economics of Taxation, Kenneth Kies, Partner,
Price Waterhouse, and June O'Neill, Director, Congressional
Budget Office. Participants on Panel 2, "The Optimal Capital
Gains Tax," include Mark Broomfield, President,
American Council for Capital Formation, Iris Lav, Deputy
Director, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Joseph Minarik,
Associate Director for Economic Policy, Office of Management and Budget.
The Promise and Perils of
the Proposed International Criminal Court (7/16/98)
Featuring John Bolton, Former Assistant Secretary of
State; Morton Halperin, Senior Vice President, Twentieth
Century Fund; Stephen Rickard, Washington Office Director,
Amnesty International USA; and Lee Casey , Attorney,
Hunton & Williams. On July 17, 1998, government representatives and
non-governmental organizations from around the world will conclude a five-week
conference in Rome aimed at finalizing a treaty establishing a permanent
International Criminal Court (ICC). According to the ICC draft statute
completed at the United Nations in April, the proposed criminal court
will be empowered to prosecute persons charged with "the most serious
crimes of concern to the international community," including war
crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Some proponents of the
court want to add drug trafficking, environmental crimes, and aggression
to the ICC's jurisdiction.
Collateral Damage: The Economic Cost of U.S. Foreign Policy (6/23/98)
Featuring Richard Cheney, CEO, Halliburton NUS Corp., and former Secretary of Defense.
Social Security Reform
In Chile
Chuck Scarborough of WNBC in New York presents a special
investigative report on the pension system in Chile. Features interviews
with JoséPiñera and various Chilean workers. Posted courtesy
of NBC (13 minutes).
The Cato Institute
20th Anniversary Video
A look back at 20 years of advancing civil society (10 minutes).
The Most Important Question in Politics Today (8/9/96)
A Cato policy forum featuring Harry Browne, author of Why Government Doesn't Work and the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee. The fifth presidential candidate to speak at the Cato podium in the campaign season, Browne outlines his economic proposal for his first year as president.
2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 and Before