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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

Uncle Sam and Big Business: Enemies or Allies?

Some politicians claim to be both "pro-business" and "pro-market" — as if they're the same thing. Yet today's largest corporations often stifle market competition and reap billions of dollars through a complex web of high taxes, strict regulations, and government handouts. Are government and business inherently at odds with each other? Cato On Campus hosted a lively debate on this subject on Friday, June 24th at the Cato Institute. Stay tuned for the archived version of the event, here.

(tags: Business, Opportunities: Events, Foundations of Liberty: Free Markets, Government)

Nat Hentoff on Che Guevara

To many college students and young people, Che Guevara is an icon of freedom, democracy and revolution - a symbol of standing against "the man." Nat Hentoff, renowned First Amendment scholar and long-time journalist, has a very different view of the former Castro confidant, based on an interview with Che decades ago.



In celebration of his 86th birthday, Cato corespondents Caleb Brown and Austin Bragg interviewed Mr. Hentoff, producing a series of interviews on a wide range of topics. Explore them here.

(tags: Law, Foundations of Liberty: Limited Government, Multimedia: Videos)

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)

Attend Cato University

Wanting to get away this summer? Looking to learn about ideas and meet cool people while having a great time? You're in luck! There is still time to register for Cato University, the premier educational conference hosted annually by the Cato Institute. 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 by registering today.

(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)