Cato Institute

Results: Cato Institute 2008-2009 In 2008, the Cato Institute delivered authoritative research and practical policy proposals across a range of public policy issues, broadening the bounds of the debate while championing the timeless values of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Whether appearing in print or television media, testifying before legislators or submitting briefs to the Supreme Court, Cato scholars are constantly working to ensure that individuals remain free. Cato’s wider educational efforts are aimed at rejuvenating a culture that cherishes and defends constitutional rights. HIGHLIGHTS 2008 Cato chairman Robert A. Levy may not own a gun himself, but thanks in large part to his work, millions of Americans seeking to own a firearm for purposes of self-defense can do so. The long, heated debate over the meaning of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been decided: Americans have the right to keep and bear arms. On June 26, 2008, the final day of its 2007–2008 term, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 in D.C. v. Heller to strike down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns, the most restrictive in the nation. The decision unequivocally affirmed the right of individual American citizens to own firearms. As the New York Times wrote on the day after the decision, D.C. v. Heller “reached the court as the result of an assumption by the Cato Institute, a libertarian policy organization here, that the time was right to test the prevailing interpretation of the Second Amendment.” Levy has also worked to challenge the constitutionality of the bailout, arguing that it violates the Constitution’s separation-of-powers doctrine in an October Legal Times op-ed. When Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae collapsed in September 2008, it came as no surprise to scholars at the Cato Institute. They had long pointed out that the “government-sponsored” mortgage giants, which had 11,000 employees and $5 trillion in mortgages in 2008, were on unsustainable footing and would ultimately need to be rescued at taxpayer expense. They expected, then, that when Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae collapsed, the $5 trillion in debt was simply added to the federal government’s balance sheet. Cato adjunct scholar Arnold Kling, formerly a senior economist at Freddie Mac, described the collapse of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as “the most avoidable financial crisis in history” in a 2008 Cato Briefing Paper. And he argued that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae should be partitioned and sold, not held under federal control. Of course, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were only part of the problem. “Affordable housing” initiatives such as the Community Reinvestment Act and changes in policies by the Department of Housing and Urban Development effectively coerced banks into making loans to borrowers who would otherwise not have qualified. The Federal Housing Administration was also complicit, loosening down-payment standards for such borrowers. Lawrence H. White, F. A. Hayek professor of economic history at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a Cato adjunct scholar, ably summarized the results in a 2008 Cato Briefing Paper, concluding that “these poorly chosen policies distorted interest rates and asset prices, diverted loanable funds into the wrong investments, and twisted normally robust financial institutions into unsustainable positions.” A bubble in the housing sector had taken hold. The housing bubble was further stoked by Federal Reserve easy credit policies. Cato senior fellow Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr., former vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, showed the effects of keeping the federal funds rate artificially low in a November 2008 Wall Street Journal op-ed. Alan Greenspan’s Federal Reserve had kept the interest rate at 2 percent or below for three years between 2001 and 2004, which, when adjusted for inflation, meant the real federal funds rate had been negative. Or as O’Driscoll put it, “people were being paid to borrow and they responded by borrowing irresponsibly.” At the same time, the subprime mortgage market ballooned from $190 billion in 2001 to $625 billion in 2005. With the financial sector in dire straits, the federal government initiated a sweeping plan to reshape the financial sector in October 2008. The push, led by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, called for a massive $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program. Cato scholars argued that the federal government should not be allocating such massive sums to prop up failing firms, and that the contraction of the financial and mortgage-related sector is necessary for the economy to return to health. In fact, this was the second time Americans were being asked to funnel $700 billion to causes favored by the Bush administration. The total cost of the Iraq war to date had been approximately $700 billion, too, pointed out chairman emeritus William A. Niskanen and Cato’s director of information policy studies Jim Harper calculated that each American is liable for about $2,000 of the bailout. Although TARP ultimately passed, with taxpayers once again being asked to foot the bill, the analysis by Cato scholars has been vindicated by the program’s subsequent mishandling. In a Marketplace commentary, Cato research fellow Will Wilkinson argued that public works spending, which represents the majority of outlays in the proposed stimulus package, would take years to come online, and thus even by its proponents’ own terms did not represent a “stimulus” at all. During a December 21 C-SPAN appearance, Chris Edwards, Cato’s director of tax policy studies, pointed out the sheer magnitude of the package, and what it meant for the future. Even without a stimulus package, the government had already incurred an unprecedented trillion-dollar deficit for the fiscal year, and certainly couldn’t afford spending another trillion, he argued. With entitlement spending for Social Security and Medicare ramping up because of changing demographics, Edwards warned that if a stimulus package is passed, America “may never have another balanced budget again.” In one month, Cato scholars published articles opposing the stimulus or were quoted in 22 major newspapers, and appeared on 31 national television programs and 49 radio programs. The writings of Cato scholars were also featured on several prominent blogs, including those of Harvard economist Greg Mankiw and news pundit Michelle Malkin. The efforts to oppose the spending bill came to a head with a full-page ad featuring economists who oppose the stimulus, placed by the Cato Institute with generous special funding from Cato Sponsors. The ad begins with a quote from President Barack Obama claiming that all economists agree on the need for a stimulus package to revive the economy, a talking point repeatedly echoed in the media. Declaring “With all due respect / Mr. President, that is not true,” it was signed by over 300 economists, including Nobel Laureates Edward Prescott, Vernon Smith, and James Buchanan. The ad was published first in the New York Times, and soon after in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Times, the National Review, the New Republic, college newspapers across the nation, and more. On the same day the ad was making a splash, the Wall Street Journal featured an op-ed by Cato senior fellow Alan Reynolds pointing out that the stimulus represented a massive, long-term transfer of resources from the private to the public sector. These are troubling times for advocates of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and civil society. But as William A. Niskanen, distinguished senior economist at the Institute put it in a November Forbes commentary, this is no time to despair. Rather, supporters of the free market “can stand and fight.” Cato scholars will continue to point out the flawed reasoning behind policies that aggrandize the government at the expense of the market. And they will continue to point out that government is not the solution to our ongoing economic woes—it is the problem. The 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty was awarded to Yon Goicoechea, leader of the student movement in Venezuela that successfully prevented Hugo Chávez from seizing broad dictatorial powers. Under Goicoechea’s leadership, the student movement organized mass opposition to the erosion of human and civil rights in Venezuela and played the key role in preventing Hugo from becoming an unchallenged lifetime ruler over Venezuela. Although Chávez has succeeded in reversing the decision, Goicoechea’s vision of optimism, tolerance, and modernity breathed new life into efforts to defend basic freedoms in Venezuela and elsewhere where freedom is threatened around the world. In preparation for a new administration in the White House, 2008 saw a major push to win the broader public’s support for remaking the American health care sector. But Cato scholars were there every step of the way, pointing out that increasing the government’s role in health care would only add to the sector’s problems, and arguing instead that the only way to make health care increasingly better and more accessible is to put consumers in charge of their health care dollars and decisions. Critics of the U.S. health care system often point to other countries as models for reform. They point out that many countries spend far less on health care than the United States but seem to enjoy better outcomes, and they argue that the United States should follow the lead of those countries and adopt a government-run, national health care system. But as Cato senior fellow Michael D. Tanner argued in a March Cato Policy Analysis, “The Grass Is Not Always Greener: A Look at National Health Care Systems around the World,” all health care systems worldwide are wrestling with the problems of rising costs and access to care. Moreover, in countries weighted heavily toward government control of health care, people are most likely to face waiting lists, rationing, restrictions on physician choice, and other obstacles to care. Tanner therefore concluded that none of those nations represented a useful model of reform. In the thick of a presidential race, Tanner published the Cato Briefing Paper, “A Fork in the Road: Obama, McCain, and Health Care,” which served to guide policymakers through the reform proposals of both major-party presidential candidates. Tanner concluded that both plans left much to be desired, though Obama’s plan for a single-payer system was particularly flawed. . Cato’s director of health policy studies Michael Cannon pointed out in the peer-reviewed journal Forum for Health Economics and Policy that health savings accounts allow people greater sovereignty over their health care spending decisions and are an easy way to achieve a more market-friendly, and thus, more efficient, health care sector. In “Medical Licensing: An Obstacle to Affordable, Quality Care” economist Shirley Svorny argued that medical licensing fails to protect consumers from incompetent physicians, but does raise substantial barriers to entry, making health care more expensive and less accessible. Svorny called for states to eliminate professional licensing and leave education and credentialing to the private sector and the courts. In an October Los Angeles Times op-ed, she pointed to the success of “convenience clinics” emerging at CVS pharmacies, Wal-Mart, and Target as a model for affordable, effective health care. Here in the nation’s capital, K-12 education costs a staggering $24,600 per pupil per year, as Andrew Coulson, director of the Center for Educational Freedom, pointed out in an April Washington Post op-ed. That figure was about $15,000 per pupil per year higher than the one bandied about by the teacher’s unions, and more importantly, about $10,000 higher than the average cost of D.C. private schools. One promising proposal to reform American education begins at the state level: Public education tax credits reduce the state and local taxes owed by anyone who pays for the private schooling of an eligible child. Therefore, parents can claim credits for their own children’s education costs, and other taxpayers (including businesses) can claim credits when they pay for the education of someone else’s child, either directly or by donating to a nonprofit scholarship-granting organization. After publishing model education tax credit legislation in December 2007, authored by Center policy analyst Adam B. Schaeffer, the Center followed up in 2008 with a generalized tool that can be used to compute the legislation’s fiscal impact on any state. Together, these publications have bolstered interest in education tax credit programs around the country. At the Cato Institute, scholars work to show that government intervention is not only ineffective and inefficient but that unwarranted government power poses a threat to the cherished rights of life, liberty, and property. Cheye Calvo didn’t know it at the time, but the large box sitting on his porch on that fateful day in July was filled to the brim with marijuana. Calvo, the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, had become the victim of a sophisticated mail-based drug smuggling operation. Soon after that, he became the victim of a no-knock paramilitary-style SWAT raid, one that saw his front door blown open, his wife and mother-in-law handcuffed and interrogated, and his two defenseless, black Labrador retrievers shot dead. Calvo came to the Cato Institute in September to tell his story and to argue that no-knock raids are an inappropriate tactic for drug investigations. Calvo’s appearance at Cato led to significant traction both of his story and his message, with spreads in the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, and the Washington Examiner. More important, it brought the issue of the latest, chilling tactic in the drug war to the public’s attention. Our criminal codes are so voluminous that they bewilder not only the average citizen, but even the average lawyer. Our courthouses are so busy that there is no longer time for trials. And America now has the highest per capita prison population in the world. In the Name of Justice, edited by Timothy Lynch, director of Cato’s Project on Criminal Justice, consulted with America’s leading legal experts to produce a critical examination of American criminal law. Efforts are afoot to regulate the Internet, efforts that risk stamping out what has become a focal point for innovation and new ideas. These self-styled “net neutrality” proponents have legitimate concerns backed up by good arguments, but in calling for greater government control over the web they reveal a glaring omission in their reasoning. In the Cato Policy Analysis “The Durable Internet: Preserving Network Neutrality without Regulation,” Timothy B. Lee, a Cato adjunct scholar, spells it out for them: government regulation has long-term, unintended consequences. Federal regulation has already frustrated competition in network industries like railroads, airlines, and trucking; public utility regulation of the Internet would be no different, grinding innovation to a halt, ceding control to the federal government, and slowing growth in the speed and reach of the greatest communications network yet invented. Noting that Lee takes his opponents seriously, Techdirt.com hailed the effort as “the paper on network neutrality that any policymaker needs to read.” Plans to create a de facto national identification card using driver’s licenses are a growing threat to the liberty, autonomy, and privacy of American citizens. Cato’s director of information policy studies Jim Harper worked tirelessly to stop such plans in their tracks. In May 2008, the statutory deadline for implementation of the REAL ID Act passed without a single state coming into compliance with the law. Harper also outlined the many defects of electronic employment eligibility verification in the Cato Policy Analysis, “Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification: Franz Kafka’s Solution to Illegal Immigration.” In a national EEV system, database errors, data-entry errors, and increasing identity fraud would send thousands of law-abiding American citizens to federal government offices pleading for the right to work. If such a system were somehow made fully workable, mission creep all but guarantees that it would be used to give the federal government direct regulatory control over many aspects of Americans’ lives. Importantly, administering a system like this would need a national ID system like REAL ID to make it work. During the spring and summer, Harper actively countered the Department of Homeland Security’s promotion of the E-Verify program at Capitol Hill briefings, on major television, and on the Cato@Liberty blog, helping to prevent a head of steam from developing behind bills to make “E-Verify” a national requirement for all employers. As a result, E-Verify was extended as a voluntary pilot program, but that is a far cry form the nationwide employer mandate expected to pass just a year ago. In June, Cato published The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power, by Cato vice president Gene Healy, who argues that the Framers’ vision of the chief executive was far more limited and he urges a return to their vision: an executive acting within the limits placed on him by the Constitution, tasked with enforcing the law, checking Congress when it violates the Constitution, defending the country when attacked—and little more. George F. Will described the book as “brilliant” and “the year’s most pertinent and sobering public affairs book.” In 2008, Cato scholars uncompromisingly dissected the failures of neoconservative defense and foreign policy projects. Grounded in sober insight, Cato scholars have argued for a policy of peace, respect for other nations, and realism about the policy aims of foreign governments. “Overthrow Saddam? Be Careful What You Wish For.” That’s the title of an op-ed by Ted Galen Carpenter published on January 14, 2002, fully 14 months before the invasion of Iraq. Although overthrowing a cruel dictator such as Saddam Hussein might be gratifying in the short run, wrote Carpenter, it would leave the United States responsible for the political future of a fragile, fractured nation in the longer run. That op-ed wouldn’t be the first time Cato’s long-serving vice president for defense and foreign policy studies proved prescient. In the 2008 Cato title Smart Power: Toward a Prudent Foreign Policy for America, that op-ed appears alongside pieces arguing that NATO expansion will lead to frictions with Russia, and that the American drug war will lead to significantly increased violence in Mexico. Smart Power calls for an end to America’s vast array of security commitments around the world, or as Carpenter puts it, the “crazy-quilt pattern of U.S. security commitments and military interventions.” And it calls for a leaner foreign policy, one that reassesses America’s current commitments in light of the core interests of the United States. Andrew J. Bacevich, author of The Limits of Power, called Smart Power “simply superb. . . . [Carpenter] surveys the wreckage of the Bush era and illuminates the way ahead.” In a February Policy Analysis, “Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq,” Cato foreign policy scholars Benjamin H. Friedman and Christopher Preble, and MIT professor Harvey M. Sapolsky took aim at those who argue that success could have been achieved in Iraq with more troops or a different president in charge. The real lesson of Iraq is that although the military gives us the power to conquer foreign countries, it does not give us the power to run them. Because there are few good reasons to take on missions meant to resuscitate failed governments, the most important lesson from the war in Iraq should be a newfound appreciation of the limits of our power. The study was disseminated widely and was republished in a popular textbook The Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics, 7th edition. Among those who failed to learn the lessons of Iraq are those calling for a “surge” in Afghanistan. In an April Christian Science Monitor piece, “Don’t ‘Pull an Iraq’ in Afghanistan,” Friedman argued that preventing the creation of terrorist havens in Afghanistan does not require the establishment of a peaceful, centralized state there. Moreover, accomplishing such a feat is beyond the capabilities of the United States. Absent this goal, the push for a surge of U.S. or NATO forces in Afghanistan makes little sense. In a December article in the National Interest, Carpenter pointed to another complication: drugs. Afghanistan is the world’s leading supplier of heroin, with opium sales accounting for about 35 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP. U.S.-led efforts to stamp out that trade destroy the livelihoods of the already abjectly poor and encourage natives to join forces with a resurgent Taliban. Carpenter recommends that U.S. officials keep their priorities straight and focus on rooting out terrorism, a point he made again at a Capitol Hill Briefing, “Global Terror’s Central Front: Pakistan and Afghanistan.” Foreign policy analyst Malou Innocent addressed the frightening phenomenon of the “Talibanization” of Pakistan. In the Cato Policy Analysis “Cracks in the Foundation: NATO’s New Troubles,” Stanley Kober, research fellow in foreign policy studies, says the longstanding North Atlantic Treaty Organization is beginning to fracture. Its members, sharing the triumphalism that underpinned U.S. foreign policy after the Cold War, took on burdens that have proved more difficult than expected, and, increasingly, they are failing to meet the challenges confronting them. In Afghanistan, NATO forces are relentlessly under siege by the Taliban, and popular support among member nations for staying there is badly flagging. Kober pointed out a number of other problems as well: NATO expansion, which has strained the alliance’s capabilities; the proposed deployment of antiballistic missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic; and a potential flashpoint in Kosovo, where the Albanian majority’s insistence on independence could divide alliance members. After 15 years at the International Monetary Fund, Cato adjunct scholar Jean-Pierre Chauffor filled a book with the insights he has gained about worldwide economic development in The Power of Freedom: Uniting Human Rights and Development, published by Cato. In the book, Chauffor criticizes the emphasis placed on “positive rights” by international development organizations. As he puts it, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims a “human right” to adequate housing, while paying only scant attention to the negative right to property, it has things backward. Property rights come first. They allow for the security of one’s home. They also allow for the security of one’s business and livelihood, certainty in recouping one’s investments, and the makings of a productive economy that can deliver adequate housing for the citizenry—not to mention health, wealth, education, and a clean environment. At a Cato Policy Forum in March, development economist William Easterly surveyed decades of evidence on the effectiveness of international aid to developing countries. He reported that such efforts, at best, produce no effect on local living standards. At their worst, because such aid typically flows through local leaders who are then able to distribute it to cronies and enforcers first, aid makes people worse off. Since the federal government began counting in 1820, more than 73 million immigrants have legally entered the United States to settle and begin new lives. Today, immigrants continue to fill niches in our labor market, at the high and low end of the skill spectrum, while softening the demographic effect of declining birthrates. Daniel T. Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies, personally visited the editorial boards of major newspapers in Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Phoenix, and Los Angeles in 2008 to discuss the importance of immigration reform. In addition, the Center hosted a Capitol Hill Briefing, featuring Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), on raising the caps on H1-B visas in the context of high-skilled immigration. In June, it hosted a Cato Book Forum featuring Wall Street Journal editorial board member Jason Riley, who spoke on his book Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders. Finally, the Center for Trade Policy Studies launched a powerful new interactive web feature that allows users to access and analyze the trade voting record of any member of Congress spanning more than a decade. Users can access the feature directly at www.freetrade.org/congress. From newsrooms, YouTube, books, and op-ed pages, to talk radio, conferences, research reports, and special website features, Cato has responded swiftly, effectively, and innovatively. Here are some highlights of Cato’s commitment to outreach in 2008, with results that reflect the tremendous dedication and energy of Cato scholars, staff, and supporters. 2008 Media Overview Major television appearances: 555 Major radio interviews: 453 Major op-ed placements: 587 Citations in print articles: 2,282 Editorial mentions: 53 In 2008 the Cato Institute installed its own television studio, enabling Cato scholars to appear live on cable, network, and local news program, as well as on international news outlets. The studio also makes it possible for scholars to make consecutive appearances on multiple networks. Cato strategically expanded its outreach through new media outlets and technologies, rapidly increasing its presence and the reach of its research to a broad range of new audiences, young and old. The focus of this outreach includes a continually expanding list of blogs related to politics and public policy. Social networking sites, once the domain of college campuses, have rapidly become an everyday component of the mainstream media and policy worlds. Facebook, one of the social networking giants, now has a Cato presence and page, with over 5,000 users (and growing) sharing, viewing, and discussing Cato’s work and outreach in online forums. Cato also expanded into Twitter, a micro-blogging site that is one of the fastest growing ways to reach national journalists, think-tank scholars, politicians, and everyday citizens. And in 2008 Cato created its own YouTube channel bringing Cato videos and research to a diverse range of new audiences. With nearly 600 major op-eds appearing in 2008, Cato’s perspective on major issues reached millions of readers worldwide. Key op-eds included: • Alan Reynolds on the economic downturn, Financial Times, January 2 • Edward H. Crane and Robert A. Levy on “No, a President Can’t Do As He Pleases,” Star Ledger (New Jersey), February 13. • Daniel T. Griswold on foreign trade, Wall Street Journal, March 1 • Andrew J. Coulson on the cost of public schools, Washington Post, April 6 • Patrick J. Michaels on the sorry state of global warming data, Wall Street Journal, April 18 • John Samples on campaign finance reform, New York Post, June 25, • William Poole on the bailout and survival of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, New York Times, July 27 • Robert Levy and David B. Kopel on the future of D.C. gun laws, The Wall Street Journal, August 8. • Indur M. Goklany and Jerry Taylor on affordable gas prices, Los Angeles Times, August 11 • Malou Innocent and Ted Galen Carpenter on America’s imperiled military lifeline through Pakistan, Dallas Morning News, December 28 Highlights from radio and television include: • Coverage of Yon Goicoechea winning the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty on CNBC, the Fox Business Channel, and Univision • Jerry Taylor on oil, alternative energy, and gas prices on Fox News Channel, Fox Business Channel, Bloomberg, Wisconsin Public Radio, WABC radio. • Robert Levy on the Supreme Court’s Heller decision on the D.C. gun ban, on ABC World News Tonight, CBS News Sunday Morning, NPR affiliates, WTOP, BBC radio, CBS radio, CNN radio, and Fox News radio. • Roger Pilon on ABC’s 20/20 discussing age discrimination and the workplace • Pat Michaels on the Glenn Beck Show discussing climate change education in California schools • Justin Logan on Good Morning America on candidate Obama’s trip to Iraq • Mike Tanner on Special Report with Brit Hume on Social Security. • David Boaz on the auto company bailouts on NPR’s Weekend Edition; on presidential politics on Good Morning America and 20/20; on Bloomberg Radio projecting on Obama’s first 100 days, and discussing The Politics of Freedom on the Jim Bohannon radio show. • Marian Tupy on Voice of America, BBC, and CBC discussing Zimbabwe • Chris Preble on the Fox News Channel discussing Musharraf and Pakistan • William Niskanen on CNBC discussing bailouts. • Cato’s Monetary Conference was covered by Bloomberg Radio, Television, and Print, CNBC, and Fox Business Channel. • Dan Ikenson on the auto company bailouts on PBS Nightly Business Report, Bloomberg, CNN, CBS Evening Weekend News, Fox News Channel Daytime, and Fox and Friends, ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, NPR Southern California • Dan Mitchell speaking against the economic bailout on CNN, CNN International, BBC, Fox Business Channel, CNBC, 20/20, and CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight • Chris Edwards on the economic crisis on PBS Nightly Business Report • Gerald O’Driscoll on bailouts and the economy on Bloomberg TV and Radio, and CNBC • Dan Griswold on the economy on Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume, NPR Marketplace, and CNBC Throughout 2008, Cato incorporated a sweeping array of content upgrades and multimedia enhancements to its website. This diligence and innovation played a major role in Cato’s website seeing a nearly 25 percent increase in web visitors for the year, and in Cato’s being honored with a WebAward by the Web Marketing Association for outstanding achievement in website development. With the launch of Cato on Campus as both an independent site and a portal to Cato’s main site, Cato is now connected with thousands of college and university students worldwide, providing writings and research from the best contemporary and historical minds on individual liberty, limited government, economics, free markets, history, law, philosophy, and political science. The popularity of Cato Daily Podcasts continues to soar. There were nearly 2.5 million downloads of podcasts in 2008 alone. Due to their popularity and content, many of Cato’s videocasts are now widely viewed on YouTube, where Cato now has its own channel, youtube.com/catoinstitutevideo. With more than 6,000 attendees in 2008, Cato’s highly popular public forums featured leading authors, columnists, scholars, and political leaders. They have been filmed by Voice of America, Bloomberg TV, and CBS News, and are regularly broadcast on C-SPAN and other news networks. Speakers at forums in 2008 included columnist George Will; former U.S. senator Chuck Hagel; Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford; Said T. Jawad, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States; Jon Tester, U.S. senator from Montana; and Robert B. Laughlin, Nobel Laureate in Physics. Cato’s City Seminars in 2008 were held in New York and Chicago, drawing nearly 600 participants. The events featured presentations by Jeffrey A. Miron, senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University; broadcast journalist Tucker Carlson; Charles Murray; and Chip Mellor, president and general counsel, Institute for Justice. With more than 150 participants, Cato University 2008, “Freedom’s Campaign in the 21st Century,” provided attendees with a highly compelling series of lectures, workshops, and special sessions on the prospects for and threats to freedom in the United States and around the globe. Selected Books and Publications 2008 Through advertising, outreach to reviewers and reporters, author appearances, and online outreach, we have been aggressively increasing Cato’s book sales. We have also added a video component to outreach whenever possible (through a specially created DVD and online posting), utilizing existing film material to support a book The Politics of Freedom: Taking on the Left, the Right, and Threats to Our Liberties by David Boaz. “David Boaz has been my guide to the history, economics, and politics of freedom for years.” — John Stossel The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power by Gene Healy. “Rhetorical excesses are inherent in the modern presidency. This is so for reasons brilliantly explored in the year’s most pertinent and sobering public affairs book, The Cult of the Presidency.”— GEORGE F. WILL, Newsweek Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle over the Second Amendment by Brian Doherty. “The book is a great primer for the unfamiliar . . . a remarkable accomplishment—well worth reading, and worth keeping as a reference.” — National Review Global Tax Revolution: The Rise of Tax Competition and the Battle to Defend It by Chris Edwards and Daniel J. Mitchell. “Superb, well-written, eye-opening survey of the exciting worldwide movement to cut individual and business taxes. This masterpiece may not wake up myopic Washington, but it will arouse the American people to demand action!” —STEVE FORBES Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don’t Want You to Know by Patrick J. Michaels and Robert C. Balling Jr. “Michaels and Balling have performed an enormous service with this book. This is a ‘must read’ for anyone seriously interested in the climate change debate.” —NIGEL LAWSON, Former UK Secretary of State for Energy Cato Handbook for Policymakers edited by David Boaz. “A soup-to-nuts agenda to reduce spending, kill programs, terminate whole agencies and dramatically restrict the power of the federal government.” —Washington Post In the Name of Justice edited by Timothy Lynch. In originally crafted essays, leading judges and scholars offer contemporary responses to the classic law article, The Aims of the Criminal Law, and offer perspectives on what should be considered when proposing new criminal laws and on what reforms will be most effective. The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom by Robert A. Levy and William Mellor. “Levy and Mellor, in this excellent examination of twelve far-reaching Supreme Court cases, force readers to question the direction in which the judiciary has led our country over the past century.” — Publishers Weekly Cato Supreme Court Review: 2007-2008 edited by Ilya Shapiro. Now in its seventh year, this acclaimed annual publication brings together leading national scholars to analyze the Supreme Court’s most important decisions from the term just ended and preview the year ahead. Economic Freedom of the World: 2008 Annual Report by James Gwartney and Robert Lawson (co-published with the Fraser Institute). “The conclusion is abundantly clear: the freer the economy, the higher the growth and the richer the people.” — The Economist New Frontiers in Free Trade: Globalization’s Future and Asia’s Rising Role by Razeen Sally. “Sally’s restatement of the case for unilateral liberalization is powerful and could not be timelier. This short book is the best and most important volume on trade in years.” — CLIVE CROOK, Columnist, Financial Times Smart Power: Toward a Prudent Foreign Policy for America by Ted Galen Carpenter. “In an age of imperial folly and militarized illusions, Carpenter has been a voice of reason and good sense. In this impressive collection of essays, he surveys the wreckage of the Bush era and illuminates the way ahead.” — ANDREW J. BACEVICH Reflections of a Political Economist: Selected Articles on Government Policies and Political Processes by William A. Niskanen. “Whether Niskanen’s subject is narrowly economic or broader policy issues, he writes with clarity, insight, and persuasiveness.” — RANDALL HOLCOMBE, Professor of Economics, Florida State University The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism edited by Ronald Hamowy (a Cato Institute project published by Sage). Years in the making, and containing over 300 originally written articles by more than 100 scholars, the Encyclopedia has swiftly become the standard guide to libertarian people and ideas. Cato Policy Studies: Forming the heart of Cato’s important work, each publication is thoroughly researched, rigorously verified, and immediately made available online and in print. During 2008, the Institute issued 59 policy studies. Cato’s quarterly magazine, Regulation, brings sharp clarity to key regulatory issues and policies, often upending long-held myths and inaccuracies. In 2008, it provided major coverage into the financial freeze on Wall Street, the economics of climate change, corruptive litigation settlements, the real impact of Wal-Mart, and dozens of other stories on regulatory matters affecting lives and livelihoods.

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Programs: Public policy and research cato's primary program is public policy, including research and outreach. In order to promote the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace, scholars at the cato institute apply a libertarian perspective to a spectrum of relevant research areas: education and child policy; energy and environment; finance, banking, and monetary policy; foreign policy and national security; government and politics; health care and welfare; international economics and development; law and civil liberties; political philosophy; regulatory studies; social security; tax and budget policy; continued on schedule o