Cato Event Podcast

In recent years, calls to limit, regulate, or ban social media platforms have escalated from all corners of the political spectrum. These concerns have been as varied as national security, foreign ownership, and the danger of disinformation in a divided democracy. Yet perhaps the most cross‐​partisan concern has come from increasing evidence of social media’s detrimental impact on youth mental health. Join Sphere Education Initiatives on March 10 from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for a timely webinar on social media and youth mental health featuring Jennifer Huddleston, senior fellow in technology policy at the Cato Institute, and Clare Morrell, fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.Offered during Civic Learning Week, which runs March 10–14 this year, this webinar seeks to highlight “the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions that provide the foundation for an informed and engaged populace.” For more information about Civic Learning Week, visit civi​clearn​ing​week​.org.

In conventional political debate—particularly in Washington, DC—“law” is understood as top-down legislation: rules consciously designed and imposed by central authorities. John Hasnas challenges this unspoken assumption, pointing to the Anglo-American common law, a decentralized, continually evolving system that produces order without conscious design or political control. In his important new book, Common Law Liberalism: A New Theory of the Libertarian Society, he offers a theory of liberalism that demonstrates that the common law can serve as an effective alternative to traditional politically created legislation. Hasnas’s thesis has implications ranging from modest (many government functions can be better supplied by the common law than by centralized legislation) to radical (if human beings do not need the state to make law, do they need the state at all?).Please join us for a discussion of this provocative new book featuring the author and Professor David Schmidtz, director of the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at West Virginia University, moderated by Cato’s Gene Healy.

Argentine President Javier Milei came to power nearly a year ago on the campaign promise to abolish the central bank and dollarize his country’s economy. As part of his ambitious reform agenda, the government has eliminated fiscal deficits and significantly reduced public spending and inflation. Milei remains committed to dollarization but has not yet implemented that reform. Given the progress in stabilizing the economy, Emilio Ocampo, Alfredo Romano, and Nicolas Cachanosky will discuss why Argentina should not wait to replace the peso with the dollar. Drawing from regional experiences and Argentina’s own history, they will explain how carrying out such monetary reform sooner rather than later—along with lifting capital controls and freeing the exchange rate—would boost confidence in the Argentine economy and produce tangible economic and political benefits.

From the founding of the republic through the early 1930s, Congress set tariff rates through legislative revisions to the US tariff schedule. Low tariffs were initially imposed to raise revenue for the federal government, but tariffs became a tool to protect domestic producers from foreign competition. Today, Congress has broadly delegated its constitutional tariff powers to the president, and there is a real risk that the legislative and judicial branches would be unwilling or unable to check a future president’s abuse of US trade law as currently written.In a recent briefing paper titled “Presidential Tariff Powers and the Need for Reform,” Cato scholars examine the current laws that might allow the president to impose broad tariffs without congressional input, as well as the reform options available to Congress for restoring balance between the legislative and executive branches.

Higher education is at a crossroads. American universities are facing important questions about accountability and viability, including concerns about ideological influences, rising administrative costs, shifting academic expectations, and the growing challenge of student loan debt. But what are the underlying causes of these challenges, and how can we address them?Join us for a thoughtful discussion with The Honorable Representative Burgess Owens, chairman of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee, alongside Cato experts Erec Smith, PhD, and Andrew Gillen, PhD as they examine the challenges facing academia today and explore practical solutions for the future.

Occupational licensing boards today act like protectors of cartels, often going beyond merely issuing licenses to launching witch hunts and boxing out their competitors. February 2025 marks the 10-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC. In that case, that state’s dental licensing board was ruled to be acting like a monopolist (using the power given to it by the state government) by trying to drive non-dentist teeth whiteners out of business. This policy forum will discuss the policy landscape that resulted from that decision and what it should mean for liberty-minded policymakers and litigators in the future.