Cato Video

Follow the link to watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/james-buckley-reviving-federalism. James L. Buckley’s new book, Saving Congress from Itself, describes the damage caused by federal aid-to-state programs and proposes a full repeal. Buckley’s analysis is grounded in his distinguished career as a U.S. senator from New York, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and a high-level Reagan administration official. He argues that repealing aid-to-state programs would free the federal government to focus on truly national matters, put the government on sounder financial footing, and improve the ability of states to manage their programs for education, welfare, transportation, and other activities.

Follow the link to watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/blue-tent-sky-how-lefts-war-guns-cost-me-son-freedom In 2009 Brian Aitken, a media consultant and web entrepreneur, ran afoul of New Jersey's draconian gun laws when he was arrested while transporting two handguns unloaded and locked in the trunk of his car. Despite the fact that Aitken owned the guns legally and had called the New Jersey State Police for advice on how to legally transport his firearms, he found himself sentenced to seven years in prison. In 2010 New Jersey governor Chris Christie commuted Aitken's sentence. But Aitken's experience, like that of other law-abiding gun owners who've faced long prison sentences for honest mistakes, raises troubling questions about gun-law overreach, prosecutorial discretion, and judicial abdication.

Follow the link to watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/tyranny-silence Flemming Rose, is the editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In 2006, the newspaper published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, inciting a worldwide firestorm. Rose offers more than a personal account of a riveting event. He defends freedom of speech as essential to a world that is increasingly multicultural, multireligious, and multiethnic.

Michael F. Cannon and Trevor Burrus discuss the legal and policy concerns over King v. Burwell, a statutory challenge to the IRS's interpretation of a critical portion of the Affordable Care Act.

Follow the link to watch the full event: http://www.cato.org/events/forgotten-depression-1921-crash-cured-itself What happens if you throw a depression and nobody from the government shows up? And what would happen if, instead of lowering interest rates and spending more to spur recovery, the government did nothing? The answer, in 1921 at least, is that the economy not only recovers but is "roaring" in less than two years. Was "The Crash that Cured Itself," as the subtitle of James Grant's fascinating new book refers to it, a fluke, or does it offer useful lessons for today's erstwhile depression fighters?

Follow the link below to watch the full video: If Everything Is Getting Better, Why Do We Remain So Pessimistic? Evidence from academic institutions and international organizations shows dramatic improvements in human well-being. These improvements are especially striking in the developing world. Unfortunately, there is often a wide gap between reality and public perceptions, including that of many policymakers, scholars in unrelated fields, and intelligent lay persons. To make matters worse, the media emphasizes bad news, while ignoring many positive long-term trends. Please join us for a discussion of psychological, physiological, cultural, and other social reasons for the persistence of pessimism in the age of growing abundance.  Video produced by Blair Gwaltney and Tess Terrible.

Flemming Rose is a Danish journalist, author and cultural editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. He is author of the book "Tyranny of Silence." Create your own Why Liberty video and SHARE using #WhyLiberty. Produced by Tess Terrible

Rand Paul is the Junior Senator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He spoke at the Cato Institute's 27th Annual Benefactor Summit held in Naples, Florida.

Live Free and Learn: Scholarship Tax Credits in New Hampshire, a short film detailing the struggle over New Hampshire’s scholarship law and some of the families it has touched. In 2012, the Live Free or Die state launched a bold initiative to advance educational freedom: scholarship tax credits. The New Hampshire Opportunity Scholarship Act grants tax credits to businesses worth 85 percent of their contributions to nonprofit scholarship organizations that fund low- and middle-income students to attend private or home schools. The scholarship law then faced both a repeal effort in the legislature and a bitter lawsuit that went to the state’s highest court. Written, Produced and Directed by Caleb O. Brown Produced, Shot and Edited by Austin Bragg Associate Producer, Tess Terrible

http://www.cato.org/blog/cato-scholars-respond-2015-state-union Cato Institute scholars Alex Nowrasteh, Aaron Ross Powell, Neal McCluskey, Mark Calabria, Bill Watson, Chris Edwards, Gene Healy, Chris Preble, Julian Sanchez, Pat Michaels and Trevor Burrus respond to President Obama's 2015 State of the Union Address. Video produced by Caleb O. Brown, Austin Bragg and Tess Terrible.

http://www.cato.org/events/everything-getting-better-why-do-we-remain-so-pessimistic Evidence from academic institutions and international organizations shows dramatic improvements in human well-being. These improvements are especially striking in the developing world. Unfortunately, there is often a wide gap between reality and public perceptions, including that of many policymakers, scholars in unrelated fields, and intelligent lay persons. To make matters worse, the media emphasizes bad news, while ignoring many positive long-term trends. Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.

Podcast audio: http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/prospects-surveillance-reform-2015 Amendments to reform NSA surveillance powers have narrowly failed in the last two years. U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is confident the next Congress will be more supportive of reform efforts. On the just-passed trillion-dollar "CRomnibus" legislation, Massie says there is very little for fiscal conservatives to like. Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.

Lawrence Lessig's Mayday PAC was supposed to bring about the end of superPACs. Instead, it may have violated some of the least complicated elements of campaign finance regulation. David Keating of the Center for Competitive Politics comments. Podcast: http://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/mayday-pacs-missteps Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.

Buy the book: http://store.cato.org/books/tyranny-silence When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad nine years ago, Denmark found itself at the center of a global battle about the freedom of speech. The paper's culture editor, Flemming Rose, defended the decision to print the 12 drawings, and he quickly came to play a central part in the debate about the limitations to freedom of speech in the 21st century. In The Tyranny of Silence, Flemming Rose writes about the people and experiences that have influenced his understanding of the crisis, including meetings with dissidents from the former Soviet Union and ex-Muslims living in Europe. He provides a personal account of an event that has shaped the debate about what it means to be a citizen in a democracy and how to coexist in a world that is increasingly multicultural, multireligious, and multiethnic. Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.

President Obama has pledged to delay deportations for potentially millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Cato Institute immigration policy analyst Alex Nowrasteh discusses the policy implications. http://www.cato.org/events/executive-action-immigration Video produced by Caleb O. Brown, Austin Bragg, Kevin Sennett and Tess Terrible.