Cato Event Podcast

Purchase BookIn a process that began some 250 years ago, most of humanity has managed a great escape from grinding poverty and early death that characterized its existence for thousands of years. Professor Angus Deaton will describe the dramatic scope and speed of that progress, why we are living longer, healthier lives, and how progress has created inequalities that can have positive or negative impacts. He will also discuss measures rich countries can take to help the world’s poor, including reducing foreign aid, which has been ineffective and often harmful. Charles Kenny will provide comments based on his own research on global improvements in human well-being. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The United States maintains nearly 1,600 deployed nuclear weapons and a triad of systems — bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) — to deliver them. Current plans call for modernizing all three legs of the nuclear triad, which could cost taxpayers over $100 billion. A just-released Cato paper explains why a triad is no longer necessary. U.S. nuclear weapons policies have long rested on Cold War–era myths, and the rationales have aged badly in the two decades since the Soviet Union's demise. Two of the paper's authors, Benjamin Friedman and Christopher Preble, will discuss the origins of the nuclear triad and explain why a far smaller arsenal deployed entirely on submarines would be sufficient to deter attacks on the United States and its allies and would save roughly $20 billion annually. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the 12 years since the creation of the TSA it has become clear that the federal takeover of airport security was a mistake. Cato scholar Chris Edwards writes in an upcoming paper that TSA operations should be privatized and passenger and baggage screening "moved to the control of airports and opened to competitive bidding." In a recent New York Times article, EPIC administrative law counsel Khaliah Barnes highlighted that the TSA deploys Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) squads to perform random sweeps of individuals outside of airports and argues that these practices are problematic because they are devoid of true legal standards like probable cause. Also in response to the growing use of VIPR squads, Congressman Scott Garrett (R-NJ) introduced the Freedom of Travel Act, which denies the TSA the authority to conduct random searches of surface transportation travelers. Join us for a discussion about restructuring airport screening to improve security, increase efficiency, and reduce civil liberties concerns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.