Heritage Events Podcast

The only program of its kind, the Conservative Women's Network is made up of nearly 1,000 women in the Washington, D.C. area. Often broadcast by C-SPAN to 90 million viewers, these monthly luncheons are co-hosted by the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute and The Heritage Foundation. CWN provides women with a forum for becoming informed on current issues, networking with area professionals, and the chance to listen to conservative leaders. Veronique de Rugy is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a nationally syndicated columnist. Her primary research interests include the US economy, the federal budget, homeland security, taxation, tax competition, and financial privacy. Her popular weekly charts, published by the Mercatus Center, address economic issues ranging from lessons on creating sustainable economic growth to the implications of government tax and fiscal policies. She has testified numerous times in front of Congress on the effects of fiscal stimulus, debt and deficits, and regulation on the economy. Her charts, articles, and commentary have been featured in a wide range of media outlets, including the Reality Check segment on Bloomberg Television's Street Smart, the New York Times' Room for Debate, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, CNN International, Stossel, 20/20, C-SPAN's Washington Journal, and Fox News. In 2015, she was named in Politico Magazine's Guide to the Top 50 thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American Politics.

On March 29, 2019, the United Kingdom will formally leave the European Union. There is strong and growing support for a US-UK free trade deal on both sides of the Atlantic. At the direction of the President, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has already notified Congress that the Trump Administration intends to negotiate a trade agreement with the United Kingdom. According to the USTR, US goods and services trade with the UK totaled an estimated $235.9 billion in 2017. Exports were $125.9 billion; imports were $110.0 billion, making it one of the largest bilateral trading relationships in the world. Join us as three leading British authorities on Brexit and international trade offer their views and expertise on the prospects for a US-UK free trade deal, and the future of Great Britain’s trading relationship with the United States in the Brexit era.

Many free market advocates view capitalism as a system as dominated by incentives, with economic agents treated as inhabitants of a Skinner box driven by rewards and punishments. But, in fact, capitalism is an information and learning system governed by information as entrepreneurial surprise. Wealth is knowledge; growth is learning; money is real and reflects the abiding scarcity of time. The source of all progress is human creativity, which always comes as a surprise to us, joining information and enterprise. For a complete list of speakers, topics, and dates of the Free Markets: The Ethical Economic Choice speaker series visit heritage.org/free-markets.

Every year, the Antipoverty Forum brings together the best policy experts and practitioners on conservative ideas in education, welfare, health care, and civil society to talk about the solutions can bring real change to the lives of the poor. Join us to hear updates from Members of Congress and the administration, celebrate stories of impact from real communities and families whose lives have been changed through conservative reforms, and participate in discussions with experts on how we can refocus policy for the good of people.

Finance and Philosophy provides a concise and witty account of how bankers and financial regulators think, of the alleged causes of the cycles of booms and busts, of the implicit and often un-thought-out assumptions shaping retirement finance, fiat money, corporate governance. Pollock deftly shows how poorly bankers have measured the risk their banks have been exposed to. With candor and clarity, he uncovers the persistent and unavoidable uncertainty inherent in the business of banking. We learn that a banker’s confidence in his ability to measure banking risk accurately is the lure which has repeatedly led to bank failures. Pollock has a modest and compelling suggestion: Acknowledge the unavoidability of ignorance with respect to financial risk, and, in the light of this ignorance of the future, act moderately. "Pollock tells us all we need to know about money and banking, risk and uncertainty, debt and temptation, and science and economics. He delights as he instructs.” - James Grant, founder and editor, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer

The Federal government owns 640 million acres of land and hundreds of thousands more in mineral rights below it. These lands are full of potential – natural resources, recreation, and wildlife habitat among them – and routinely involve tough management decisions. How these lands are managed and maintained is controversial, reaching even basic, fundamental questions of ownership and goals. For many Americans west of the Mississippi, such questions have a direct impact on livelihoods and quality of life. For all Americans, they have implications for where and how to use tax dollars, whether in collecting revenues or dealing with maintenance backlogs. Please join The Heritage Foundation and the Property and Environment Research Center for a robust conversation on where federal land management policy is going and creative policy ideas for the future. Reception to follow.

Opening Remarks - Lee Edwards, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation Introduction & Greetings - Michael Sawkiw, Jr., Chairman, U.S. Holodomor Committee - MC Prayer for the Victims of the Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide His Eminence Metropolitan Antony, Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA His Excellency John Bura, Auxiliary Bishop, Philadelphia Archeparchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church Introduction - H.E. Valeriy Chaly, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States of America Keynote Remarks H.E. Pavlo Klimkin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Welcome remarks - H.E. Wess Mitchell, Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Special Addresses The Honorable Rob Portman (R-OH), sponsor of Holodomor Resolution S.Res.435 The Honorable Sander Levin (D-MI), sponsor of Holodomor Resolution H.Res.931 The Honorable Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), co-chair – Congressional Ukrainian Caucus The Honorable Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), co-chair – Congressional Ukrainian Caucus The Honorable Andy Harris, MD (R-MD), co-chair – Congressional Ukrainian Caucus (invited) *(All U.S. Senators, Congressmen, and Department of State representative confirming their attendance will deliver brief greetings) BREAK (5:15 – 5:30) Presentation of mini-documentary When We Starve Lida Buniak, Ph.D., Documentary Co-producer Anne Applebaum, Author, The Red Famine (Video address) Presentation - Uncounted since 1932 Ukrainian Leadership Academy Video address – Myroslav Marynovych, Ph.D., Rector, Ukrainian Catholic University (invited) Closing Remarks - Lee Edwards, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation Reception of bread and water in symbolic remembrance of those who perished Prometheus Chorus – Philadelphia, PA (TBC)

The 2018 National Defense Strategy is predicated on the belief that “We are facing increased global disorder, characterized by decline in the long-standing rules-based international order – creating a security environment more complex and volatile than any we have experienced in recent memory.” Part of defending and enhancing that security environment is reducing the threat posed by WMD and their means of delivery, shaping the security environment, and working cooperatively with allies and partners, which are the mutually-reinforcing priorities of the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN).

In Asia’s Quest for Balance: China’s Rise and Balancing in the Indo-Pacific, a new book from Heritage Foundation Research Fellow Jeff M. Smith, leading author-experts from Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam take a deep dive into China’s evolving relationships with its neighbors at a time the U.S.- China rivalry is intensifying. The book explores how they are responding to China’s more assertive foreign policies and what it means for U.S. national security and the shifting balance of power in the region. Opening remarks will be delivered by Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FL), the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific and a leading voice on U.S. foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific. In his remarks, Chairman Yoho will discuss strengthening U.S. regional partnerships, efforts to revamp development finance in the face of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and meeting security threats throughout the region.

Heritage is pleased to host Mr. Cass for his first conversation in Washington about conservatism in an age of economic populism and the opportunities to build a constructive and coherent agenda for the post-Trump right. More so than the typical book event, this will be a dialogue with the audience about tensions and fault lines within the conservative movement and how to build from foundational principles up to a platform that addresses modern challenges. As we move beyond the mid-term elections, the time is right to step back and evaluate our translation of core convictions into a governing agenda. In Cass’s provocative argument, our conception of the economy as a “pie” to be grown and divided amongst consumers bears responsibility for decades of stagnant wages, a labor-force exodus, too many unstable families, and crumbling communities. It has reduced Americans to consumers and abandoned the interests of workers, who provide the foundation for a prosperous society. Conservativism, he says, demands much greater attention to the labor market’s operation and to fostering the conditions under which all people to become productive contributors. “A brilliant book. And among the most important I’ve ever read.” – J. D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy “Cass’s book . . . could either be the battle orders for a second Trump term or a to-do list for a successor stamped in the same mold.” – Time Magazine

Taiwan finds itself in a challenging position vis-à-vis U.S. trade policy. It is the target of the global steel tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. At the same time, its extensive involvement in Chinese supply chains confronts it with potential fallout from a US-China trade war. On the other hand, Taiwan remains, as it has for many years, an ideal candidate for negotiation of a free trade agreement with the U.S. – a move that could encourage others of its trading partners to follow suit. So where is US trade policy heading with regard to Taiwan? Will the U.S. administration and Congress take up the economic and strategic opportunity it represents or with they allow it to become collateral damage in the prosecution of a newly, aggressive American trade policy?

Our universities are now overwhelmingly dominated by a radical identity-based grievance culture in which a growing number of victim groups, whose priorities and assertions are rarely challenged, are given free rein to disparage, drown out, and silence views they deem offensive. As a result, our universities no longer value fearless inquiry, but rather seek to impose a reigning orthodoxy that offers an unrigorous and tendentious view of our intellectual traditions and politics. Amy Wax will analyze how that orthodoxy is enforced and, more importantly, how it can potentially be countered. Amy L. Wax is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where she teaches remedies, social welfare law and policy, the law and economics of work and family, and conservative political and legal thought. A graduate of Yale College, Harvard Medical School, and Columbia Law School, she served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice from 1988 to 1994, where she argued 15 cases before the United States Supreme Court. She has published widely in law reviews and journals of opinion, including the Wall Street Journal, Policy Review, Commentary, American Affairs, National Affairs, The New Criterion, and First Things. She is the author of Race, Wrongs, and Remedies (2009 Hoover Press).

After recent historic declines in student achievement following decades of increased federal involvement in K-12 education, it is time to re-think federal intervention in education. Ted Rebarber and Neal McCluskey, co-authors of the new Pioneer Institute White Paper, Common Core, School Choice & Re-thinking Standards-Based Reform, argue that government central-planning of education has blocked efforts to achieve international competitiveness, stifled innovation, and increasingly threaten the curricular autonomy of private schools. Instead, they propose eliminating key federal mandates and implementing school choice policies specially designed to prevent government control over private schools. Brad Thomas, House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Patrick Wolf, University of Arkansas, will provide commentary on the report and presentation, and participate in a discussion followed by questions from the audience.

In a timely book, Peter J. Wallison challenges the legitimacy of the modern administrative state. Rather than take up the burden of legislating, Congress has delegated lawmaking responsibility to regulatory agencies in direct violation of the Framers’ intent that the only government officials who should make law are the ones directly accountable to the electorate. The Supreme Court has aided and abetted this knowing violation of the Constitution by upholding a broad range of rulemaking delegations to political appointees and bureaucrats. The Court has aggravated the problem with the Chevron doctrine, which allows agencies to define the meaning of acts of Congress even though the Framers intended the federal courts to have that authority. This book argues that there is time to re-establish the constitutional system that the Framers created, but that we must act now or risk losing this opportunity forever.

Socialists have since the mid-19th century claimed the ethical high ground against conservatives and (19th-century) liberals. Let us help the poor, the socialists say. And so we all should. But the claim to virtue is faulty, both as theory and as practice. In a free society a bourgeois ethic should rule, not top-down direction by the great and good. For a complete list of speakers, topics, and dates of the Free Markets: The Ethical Economic Choice speaker series visit heritage.org/free-markets.