Cato Video

Top officials in the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Union blame Europe's ills on fiscal austerity and advise Europeans to pursue stimulus spending or delay spending cuts. Simeon Djankov and Anders Aslund will show how the evidence counters that prevailing view. Countries that have reined in their spending are growing briskly while the profligate founder. Aslund will discuss why the level of debt and access to international markets still matter to responsible fiscal policy; Djankov will explain why Europe badly needs a growth plan that includes reducing the burden of regulation. Both speakers will explain why Europeans should focus on policy reform rather than devaluation or exit from the Euro. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Since Otto von Bismarck's social insurance programs rolled out in the 1880s, governments across the globe have followed suit, creating state programs to manage or provide retirement, education, medical care, housing, income, and many other benefits. Yet, in recent years, economic turmoil has exacerbated a serious challenge to welfare states: long-term sustainability. Unfunded liabilities are mounting and estimates suggest that benefits of existing programs may evaporate long before today's youth retire. The headlines from Europe have caused some to question the welfare state's viability, especially pay-as-you-go retirement and medical care entitlement systems. Will benefit cuts, tax increases, delaying of retirement age, and similar adjustments be sufficient to salvage the welfare state? The shrinking base of the demographic pyramid suggests that young people are paying taxes for current beneficiaries but will not be able to rely on succeeding generations to support their retirement and medical expenses. Not surprisingly, they are less involved in politics than currently retired seniors. Can the political system deal with such problems justly? Are there ways to sustain existing programs? How can multi-generational interests be balanced? If welfare programs are to be replaced, what happens to those who have paid in and with what will they be replaced?

Featuring Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Chairman of the Congressional Constitution Caucus; Neal McCluskey, Associate Director, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute; and Lindsey Burke, Will Skillman Fellow in Education, Heritage Foundation; moderated by Laura Odato, Director of Government Affairs, Cato Institute. The Constitution gives the federal government no authority to govern education, and numerous laws prohibit Washington from influencing school curricula. How has the federal government gotten around these barriers? Primarily by attaching demands to federal money, which is exactly what it did to get states to adopt the supposedly "state-led" and "voluntary" Common Core curriculum standards. This unprecedented drive to national uniformity is dangerous for many reasons, not the least of which is that it puts Washington in control of what almost all schools teach. But just as the federal government has been the most powerful entity behind forced standardization, it is also the key to halting it. Video produced by Evan Banks and Blair Gwaltney.

Featuring Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Professor of Law, Georgetown Law Center, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; with comments by Hon. Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; moderated by Roger Pilon Director, Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute. In 1920, in Missouri v. Holland, the Supreme Court seemed to say, contrary to basic constitutional principles, that a treaty could increase the legislative power of Congress. That issue is now back before the Court in Bond v. United States, a case with deliciously lurid facts involving adultery, revenge, and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Cato has filed an amicus brief in the case, written by Nicholas Rosenkranz, based on his Harvard Law Review article on the subject. Please join us for a discussion of this fundamental constitutional question. Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.

Featuring J. Harvie Wilkinson III, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; and Roger Pilon, Vice President for Legal Affairs, Cato Institute; moderated by Walter Olson, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute Center for Constitutional Studies. Does the climate of opinion among legal commentators improperly encourage judges to be "activist"? Or should judges be forthrightly active and vigorous about fulfilling their role in the Constitutional scheme by striking down unconstitutional measures, even as they take care not to read rights into the document that aren't there? Few voices have spoken on behalf of judicial restraint as eloquently as the distinguished Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, who served as Chief Judge of that circuit from 1996 to 2003 and was originally appointed in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan. In his new book Cosmic Constitutional Theory: Why Americans Are Losing Their Inalienable Right to Self-Governance, Judge Wilkinson strongly criticizes the liberal "living Constitution" movement, but also takes issue with many libertarians and other legal theorists who have successfully urged the Supreme Court to apply closer constitutional scrutiny to government action in areas such as eminent domain and gun control. Responding to Judge Wilkinson, and defending a tradition of vigorous judicial protection of constitutional liberty, will be Roger Pilon, founder and director of Cato's Center for Constitutional Studies.

Doug Bandow discuses Syria on CNN's The Situation Room

The National Security Agency has been collecting more than telephone call data. The secretive federal agency has also been gathering far more sensitive internet metadata. Cato Institute research fellow Julian Sanchez discusses the implications of that data gathering and the institutional challenges posted by secret courts. Video produced by Caleb O. Brown, Kevin Sennett and Austin Bragg.

Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick argue in their new book that the three broad components of immigration reform — better immigration enforcement, a lawful pathway for future migrants, and the legalization of current unauthorized immigrants — must work together to produce a viable immigration policy. Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Blair Gwaltney.

The Heller Ruling, Five Years On (Emily Miller)

Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know featuring the author Jason Brennan

The Heller Ruling, Five Years On (Alan Gura)

The Heller Ruling, Five Years On (Clark Neily)

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's 'least untruthful' formulation of an answer to Ron Wyden made clear that the volume of information stored by the federal government about Americans' communications has been dramatically understated. Julian Sanchez, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, argues that an honest debate about the supposed tradeoffs between liberty and security is one that can be had in public without giving over essential information to bad actors. Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Blair Gwaltney.

Doug Bandow discusses Turkey on FOX's Happening Now

The Heller Ruling, Five Years On (Robert Levy)