Cato Video

Follow the link below to watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/why-government-fails-so-often-how-it-can-do-better From the doctor's office to the workplace, the federal government is taking on ever more responsibility for managing our lives. At the same time, Americans have never been more disaffected with Washington, seeing it as an intrusive, incompetent, wasteful giant. In this book, lawyer and political scientist Peter Schuck lays out a wide range of examples and an enormous body of evidence to explain why so many domestic policies go awry. Economist David Henderson, research fellow at the Hoover Institution and coeditor of EconLog, lauds the book as full of "gems" and "juicy" insights: "Schuck does a beautiful job of laying out all the problems with government intervention." But can the state get better results by pursuing more thoughtfully conceived policies designed to compensate for its structural flaws? Schuck believes it can. Many libertarians will disagree — and that debate will enliven our discussion. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Follow the link below to watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/did-military-intervention-libya-succeed On March 19, 2011, the United States and nineteen allied states launched an air assault against the Libyan military. President Obama and other leaders argued that military action would protect Libyan civilians, aid the progress of democracy there and across the region, and buttress the credibility of the U.N. Security Council, which had passed a resolution demanding a cease fire. By October, local rebel militias had killed Libya's long-time ruler, Muammar el-Qaddafi, and overthrown his government. Three years later, it is time to ask whether the intervention worked. Did it protect Libyans or, by prolonging the civil war and creating political chaos, heighten their suffering? Is Libya becoming a stable democracy, a failed state, or something else? Did the intervention help other revolutions in the region, heighten repression of them, or was it simply irrelevant? Should the United States help overthrow other Middle Eastern dictators? Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

"What do you think of burglarizing an FBI office?" That was the question a mild-mannered physics professor at Haverford College privately asked a few fellow antiwar activists in late 1970. Soon, as part of an unlikely band calling itself "the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI," he did just that. On March 8, 1971, the group broke into a Bureau branch office outside of Philadelphia, seeking evidence for what they'd long suspected: that Hoover's FBI was engaged in a secret, illegal campaign of surveillance and harassment of American citizens. The documents they found revealed massive abuses of power and helped lead to new legal checks on domestic surveillance. As a young Washington Post reporter, Betty Medsger was the first to receive and write about the secret files. Now, 43 years later, in The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI, she reveals the never-before-told full story of that history-changing break-in, bringing the activists into the public eye for the first time. It's a riveting story, and one that, in the wake of last summer's Snowden revelations, could hardly be more relevant today. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Follow the link below to watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/burglary-discovery-j-edgar-hoovers-secret-fbi "What do you think of burglarizing an FBI office?" That was the question a mild-mannered physics professor at Haverford College privately asked a few fellow antiwar activists in late 1970. Soon, as part of an unlikely band calling itself "the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI," he did just that. On March 8, 1971, the group broke into a Bureau branch office outside of Philadelphia, seeking evidence for what they'd long suspected: that Hoover's FBI was engaged in a secret, illegal campaign of surveillance and harassment of American citizens. The documents they found revealed massive abuses of power and helped lead to new legal checks on domestic surveillance. As a young Washington Post reporter, Betty Medsger was the first to receive and write about the secret files. Now, 43 years later, in The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI, she reveals the never-before-told full story of that history-changing break-in, bringing the activists into the public eye for the first time. It's a riveting story, and one that, in the wake of last summer's Snowden revelations, could hardly be more relevant today. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Follow the link below to watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/dear-reader-unauthorized-autobiography-kim-jong-il No country is as misunderstood as North Korea, and no modern tyrant has remained more mysterious than the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. In his new work, DEAR READER: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il, Michael Malice pulls back the curtain to expose the life story of the "Incarnation of Love and Morality." Taken directly from books spirited out of Pyongyang, DEAR READER is a carefully reconstructed first-person account of the man behind the mythology, as well as a stranger-than-fiction history of this unique country. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Follow the link below to watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/feds-100th-anniversary-case-centennial-monetary-commission Featuring John Allison, President and CEO, Cato Institute; Rep. Kevin Brady (TX-8), Chairman, Joint Economic Committee; and Norbert Michel, Research Fellow in Financial Regulations, Heritage Foundation; moderated by James A. Dorn, Vice President for Monetary Studies and Senior Fellow, Cato Institute. The Federal Reserve Act was signed into law on December 23, 1913. It was designed to provide an elastic currency and prevent banking panics. The Great Depression, the Great Inflation, and the Panic of 2008, however, seriously mar the Fed's record. In particular, the Fed's failure to detect and prevent the 2008 financial crisis needs close public scrutiny. Moreover, the Fed's vast expansion of its balance sheet during the last five years and its suppression of market interest rates have failed to generate robust economic growth and full employment. Those issues will be addressed by our speakers and a case made for creating a Centennial Monetary Commission (HR 1176) to explore alternatives to the current pure discretionary government fiat money regime. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Follow the link below to watch the full event, including Q & A: http://www.cato.org/events/quit-bubble-wrapping-our-kids-0 Featuring Lenore Skenazy, Founder, Free-Range Kids; author; and host of the TV series World's Worst Mom (Discovery/TLC); moderated and with comments by Walter Olson, Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute. Our children are in constant danger from — to quote Lenore Skenazy's list — "kidnapping, germs, grades, flashers, frustration, failure, baby snatchers, bugs, bullies, men, sleepovers and/or the perils of a non-organic grape." Or so a small army of experts and government policymakers keep insisting. School authorities punish kids for hugging a friend, pointing a finger as a pretend gun, or starting a game of tag on the playground. Congress bans starter bikes on the chance that some 12-year-old might chew on a brass valve. Police arrest parents for leaving a sleepy kid alone in the back seat of a car for a few minutes. Yet overprotectiveness creates perils of its own. It robs kids not only of fun and sociability but of the joy of learning independence and adult skills, whether it be walking a city street by themselves or using a knife to cut their own sandwich. No one has written more provocatively about these issues than Lenore Skenazy, a journalist with the former New York Sun who now contributes frequently to the Wall Street Journal and runs the popular Free-Range Kids website where she promotes ideas like "Take Your Kids to the Park and Leave Them There Day." Her hilarious and entertaining talks have charmed audiences from Microsoft headquarters to the Sydney Opera House. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Follow the link below to watch the full event, including Q & A: http://www.cato.org/events/quit-bubble-wrapping-our-kids-0 Featuring Lenore Skenazy, Founder, Free-Range Kids; author; and host of the TV series World's Worst Mom (Discovery/TLC); moderated and with comments by Walter Olson, Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute. Our children are in constant danger from — to quote Lenore Skenazy's list — "kidnapping, germs, grades, flashers, frustration, failure, baby snatchers, bugs, bullies, men, sleepovers and/or the perils of a non-organic grape." Or so a small army of experts and government policymakers keep insisting. School authorities punish kids for hugging a friend, pointing a finger as a pretend gun, or starting a game of tag on the playground. Congress bans starter bikes on the chance that some 12-year-old might chew on a brass valve. Police arrest parents for leaving a sleepy kid alone in the back seat of a car for a few minutes. Yet overprotectiveness creates perils of its own. It robs kids not only of fun and sociability but of the joy of learning independence and adult skills, whether it be walking a city street by themselves or using a knife to cut their own sandwich. No one has written more provocatively about these issues than Lenore Skenazy, a journalist with the former New York Sun who now contributes frequently to the Wall Street Journal and runs the popular Free-Range Kids website where she promotes ideas like "Take Your Kids to the Park and Leave Them There Day." Her hilarious and entertaining talks have charmed audiences from Microsoft headquarters to the Sydney Opera House. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Purchase BookIn this sequel to Gold: the Once and Future Money, Nathan Lewis describes the theoretical basis of gold-standard monetary systems. Lewis argues that the pre-1913 world gold standard system was perhaps the most successful monetary system the world has ever seen, enabling high levels of economic growth. Descriptions of both Britain’s economic rise under the gold standard and the United States’ rise to economic prominence under gold are also discussed. Lewis offers the technical details necessary to implement and maintain a gold-standard system. Join us for a lively discussion of monetary history and a glance into one possible monetary future.

Purchase bookNobody likes to fail, yet failure is a ubiquitous element of our lives. According to Megan McArdle, failing often — and well — is an important source of learning for individuals, organizations, and governments. Although failure is critical in coping with complex environments, our cognitive biases often keep us from drawing the correct lessons and adjusting our behavior. Our psychological aversion to failure can compound its undesirable effects, McArdle argues, and transform failures into catastrophes. Please join us for a discussion of how “failing up” allows us to reinvent ourselves and our institutions.

DECEMBER 13, 2001 War Against Iraq Participants debated the merits of war against Iraq. Among the topics they addressed were the goals of any potential military action against Iraq, the need to resume weapons inspection in the country, and Iraq's links to international terrorism. Ivan Eland Director, Cato Institute Defense Policy Studies William A. Niskanen Chairman, Cato Institute James Woolsey Director (Former) Central Intelligence Agency

Watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/boom-bust-how-export-restrictions-imperil-americas-oil-gas-bonanza A once-in-a-generation supply shock is transforming global energy markets, lowering crude oil and natural gas prices, and quickly making the United States the world's largest producer of oil and gas. But energy politics threatens to short-circuit this American economic boom. Of immediate concern are federal regulations — in particular, discretionary export-licensing systems for natural gas and crude oil — that were implemented during the 1970s, an era of energy scarcity. By restricting exports and subjecting approvals to the whims of politicians, the current licensing systems distort energy prices and deter investment and employment in these promising sectors of the U.S. economy. They also irritate global trading partners, likely violate U.S. trade treaty obligations, and undermine other U.S. policy objectives. Ernest Moniz, President Obama's energy secretary, recently stated that these export restrictions are deserving of "some new analysis and examination in the context of... an energy world that is no longer like the 1970s." Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/understanding-continuing-violence-iraq More than three years after the departure of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, a determined insurgency rages against the government led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Violence has claimed thousands of lives. Some question whether the Iraqi government can maintain control of several major cities, including Fallujah, the scene of some of the toughest fighting during the eight-year-long U.S. war in Iraq. Some of Maliki's critics accuse him of stoking the unrest by refusing to make concessions to minority groups in Iraq, in particular Iraq's Sunni Arab community. Others say that the prime minister should firmly reassert his authority by going after violent extremism and deterring others from supporting the insurgency. The panelists will consider several questions, including: What explains the continuing violence in Iraq? Can Iraq's disparate communities unite behind a strong central government? And what role, if any, should the United States play? Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/libertarian-state-union-2014 After a year dominated by budget battles, the NSA spying scandal, and the meltdown of Obamacare, the libertarian message is more relevant than ever to federal policy debates. Cato scholars discuss the current state of the union in relation to fiscal policy, health care, high-profile Supreme Court cases, and the use and abuse of executive power. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/libertarian-state-union-2014 After a year dominated by budget battles, the NSA spying scandal, and the meltdown of Obamacare, the libertarian message is more relevant than ever to federal policy debates. Cato scholars discuss the current state of the union in relation to fiscal policy, health care, high-profile Supreme Court cases, and the use and abuse of executive power. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.