Cato Event Podcast

Over the span of 30 years, NATO went from an alliance of 16 states optimized to contain the Soviet Union to a grouping of 31 (soon to be 32) states spread across Europe, divided by threat perception and capability. In Evaluating NATO Enlargement: From Cold War Victory to the Russia‐​Ukraine War, Cato nonresident senior fellow Joshua Shifrinson and coeditor Jim Goldgeier of the Brookings Institution capture the debates about the effects of NATO enlargement and the alliance’s impact on European and global security. On the eve of NATO’s annual summit and at a time when debates over NATO’s role in the Russia‐​Ukraine war hang over international politics, please join us for an online book forum with Shifrinson, Goldgeier, and two of the volume’s contributors for a discussion of how NATO enlargement has affected U.S. national security, transatlantic politics, and relations with Moscow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recently, De Anza Community College fired Tabia Lee as its faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education for taking an inclusive and dialogical approach to her job that did not align with the school’s particular version of social justice. What makes this different from others who have lost their jobs for not toeing this ideological line? Lee is black, and she was accused of being a white supremacist. Erec Smith of York College of Pennsylvania has also been vilified for questioning the efficacies of contemporary anti‐​racist theories and practices.In this online forum, Lee and Smith will discuss their experiences and theorizations about being black academics who embrace classical liberal values in academic spaces that seem to grow increasingly hostile to such views, especially from people of color. As cofounders of Free Black Thought, an organization that celebrates viewpoint diversity among black Americans, their perspective may provide a different and nuanced understanding of social justice and anti‐​racist initiatives in higher education (and beyond). 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.

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

For longer than modern health insurance has existed—and nearly as long as there has been a federal income tax—the federal tax code has treated employee health benefits differently from cash compensation. Cash compensation is subject to income and payroll taxes. When employers instead pay workers with health insurance, that compensation avoids both types of tax.Economists have argued for decades that Congress should limit or eliminate the tax exclusion for employer‐​sponsored health insurance. They argue that the exclusion distorts labor and health care markets, such as by increasing medical prices and health insurance premiums. Some say the exclusion is the single most harmful federal intervention in health care. Others say it is simply a tax cut that benefits workers by making health care coverage more accessible.Please join our panel of experts to explore the impact of the tax exclusion and whether Congress should reform or end it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The United States has expansive goals in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo‐​Pacific, and spends nearly a trillion dollars per year on defense. Yet the strategy is still arguably insolvent. Former Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller argues that the defense budget should be cut dramatically to support a fundamentally different grand strategy. Please join Secretary Miller and Justin Logan, Cato’s director of defense and foreign policy studies, for a conversation on defense budgets and strategy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Few 20th‐​century figures have had as much impact, and been so criticized, as Friedrich Hayek—Nobel Prize‐​winning economist, social theorist, leader of the Austrian School of Economics, and champion of classical liberalism.In Hayek: A Life, historians of economics Bruce Caldwell and Hansjoerg Klausinger draw on never‐​before‐​seen archival and family material to produce an authoritative account of Hayek’s first five decades. This includes portrayals of his early career in Vienna; his relationships in London and Cambridge; his family disputes; and definitive accounts of the creation of The Road to Serfdom and of the founding meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.