Cato Event Podcast

In The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels energy expert Alex Epstein argues that we are only hearing one side of a critical story. We are taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, not their positives — their ability to provide cheap, reliable energy for a world of seven billion people. The moral significance of cheap, reliable energy, Epstein illustrates, is woefully underrated. Energy enables us to improve nearly every single aspect of life, whether economic or environmental, and if we look at the big picture of fossil fuels compared with the alternatives, the impact of fossil fuels is to make the world a far better place.Epstein confronts the most common myths about fossil fuels: they are dirty, unsustainable, and harm the developing world. Drawing on original insights and cutting-edge research, Epstein offers facts to the contrary. Fossil fuels take a naturally dirty environment and make it clean; they take a naturally dangerous climate and make it safer; the sun and wind are intermittent, unreliable fuels that always need backup from a reliable source of energy — usually fossil fuels; and, fossil fuels are the key to improving the quality of life for billions of people in the developing world. Calls to "get off fossil fuels" are calls to degrade the lives of innocent people who merely want the same opportunities we enjoy in the West.Will The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels become the Silent Spring of its time? Decide for yourself after hearing Alex Epstein discuss this powerful, highly innovative book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Obama will soon announce that he plans to use executive power to delay the deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants, among other reforms. Join us and submit your questions via Twitter as we discuss the policy and politics of the President's plan.Follow @CatoEvents and use #CatoConnects to ask questions and join the conversation on Twitter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In National Security and Double Government, Michael Glennon examines the continuity in U.S. national security policy from the Bush administration to the Obama administration. Glennon explains the lack of change by pointing to the enervation of America's "Madisonian institutions," namely, the Congress, the presidency, and the courts. In Glennon's view, these institutions have been supplanted by a "Trumanite network" of bureaucrats who make up the permanent national security state. National security policymaking has been removed from public view and largely insulated from law and politics. Glennon warns that leaving security policy in the hands of the Trumanite network threatens Americans' liberties and the republican form of government. Please join us for a discussion of this timely book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American cities, once economic and social launching pads for residents, are all too often plagued by poverty and decay. One need only look at the ruins of Detroit to see how far some once-great cities have fallen, or at Boston and San Francisco for evidence that such decline is reversible. In Boom Towns, Stephen J. K. Walters argues that commonplace explanations for urban decay are seriously incomplete. He reconceives of cities as dense accumulations of capital in all of its forms—which makes our labor more productive and our leisure more pleasurable. Policymakers, therefore, must properly define and enforce property rights in order to prevent the flight of capital that weakens urban centers. With its fresh interpretation of one of the quandaries of our day, Boom Towns offers a novel contribution to the debate about American cities and a program for their restoration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Follow HumanProgress.org on Twitter at @HumanProgress and use #HPpinker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens if you throw a depression and nobody from the government shows up? No Quantitative Easers or fiscal stimulators or financial-firm rescuers? 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?Join us to hear James Grant, Jim Powell, and Lawrence H. White discuss this and other important questions raised by Grant's stimulating new book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Journalists face constant intimidation. Whether it takes the extreme form of beheadings, death threats, government censorship or simply political correctness—it casts a shadow over their ability to tell a story.No one knows this better than Flemming Rose, the editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten who, in 2006, published cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, inciting a worldwide firestorm. In his new book, The Tyranny of Silence: How One Cartoon Ignited a Global Debate on the Future of Free Speech he not only recounts that story, but takes a hard look at the slippery slope of attempts to limit free speech.Rose writes about the people and experiences that have influenced the way he views the world and his understanding of the crisis, including meetings with dissidents from the former Soviet Union and ex-Muslims living in Europe. 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. Please join us to hear this important voice favoring freedom of speech. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CATO'S 32ND ANNUAL MONETARY CONFERENCE —will bring together leading scholars and advocates for fundamental monetary reform to discuss:The bitcoin revolution and future of crypto-currenciesHow technology will drive further innovations so that private currencies become a realityThe role of gold in a decentralized monetary regimeThe steps necessary to return to constitutional money based on the convertibility principle and free bankingWhen the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, its powers were limited and the United States was still on the gold standard. Today the Fed has virtually unlimited power and the dollar has no backing. Limited, constitutional government requires a rules based, free-market monetary system with a stable-valued dollar, not the topsy-turvy fiat dollar that now exists under central banking. This conference will examine the case for sound money and the reforms needed to realize it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CATO'S 32ND ANNUAL MONETARY CONFERENCE —will bring together leading scholars and advocates for fundamental monetary reform to discuss:The bitcoin revolution and future of crypto-currenciesHow technology will drive further innovations so that private currencies become a realityThe role of gold in a decentralized monetary regimeThe steps necessary to return to constitutional money based on the convertibility principle and free bankingWhen the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, its powers were limited and the United States was still on the gold standard. Today the Fed has virtually unlimited power and the dollar has no backing. Limited, constitutional government requires a rules based, free-market monetary system with a stable-valued dollar, not the topsy-turvy fiat dollar that now exists under central banking. This conference will examine the case for sound money and the reforms needed to realize it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CATO'S 32ND ANNUAL MONETARY CONFERENCE —will bring together leading scholars and advocates for fundamental monetary reform to discuss:The bitcoin revolution and future of crypto-currenciesHow technology will drive further innovations so that private currencies become a realityThe role of gold in a decentralized monetary regimeThe steps necessary to return to constitutional money based on the convertibility principle and free bankingWhen the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, its powers were limited and the United States was still on the gold standard. Today the Fed has virtually unlimited power and the dollar has no backing. Limited, constitutional government requires a rules based, free-market monetary system with a stable-valued dollar, not the topsy-turvy fiat dollar that now exists under central banking. This conference will examine the case for sound money and the reforms needed to realize it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.