Cato at Liberty

Doug Bandow President Barack Obama has been evidently reluctant to go to war in Syria, but has started down the long and winding road by deciding to provide weapons to the insurgents. Why he is risking involvement in another conflict in another Muslim nation is hard to fathom. However, the president did act only after former president Bill Clinton warned tha […]

Daniel J. Ikenson Has the intellectual debate about free trade been won? The close-to-consensus answer among several scholars discussing that question at Cato last week is “yes.” The better answer is “wrong question.” After all, how much does it really matter that free traders have won the intellectual debate when, in practice, trade policy is distinctly ant […]

Andrew J. Coulson Last week, a NY district court ruled unpaid internships illegal. Note that if you voluntarily choose to take such an internship, it’s because you think you’ll acquire job skills that will advance your career—and if you decide you aren’t learning such skills you can leave any time. Contrast this with college. Researchers Richard Arum and Jos […]

Andrew J. Coulson Yesterday, the Washington Post published a poignant, ably-written piece on the plight of DC’s high school graduates. Even the city’s top students struggle with college-level work because they’re so ill prepared. The story is heavy on “heart interest” but bereft of “head interest.” It will sadden or even anger most readers, but won’t enlight […]

Daniel J. Mitchell At the European Resource Bank conference earlier this month, Pierre Bessard from Switzerland’s Institut Liberal spoke on a panel investigating “The Link between the Weight of the State and Economic prosperity.” His presentation included two slides that definitely are worth sharing. The first slide, which is based on research from the Bosto […]

Emily McClintock Ekins Based on a bevy of polls conducted in the wake of revelations that the NSA surveiled millions of ordinary Americans’ private communications, many have prematurely concluded public support or opposition to the government surveillance program (for instance here, here, and here). These polls are insufficient gauges for what Americans actu […]

Simon Lester A number of my Cato colleagues have offered good criticisms of developments related to the latest farm bill here, here, here, here, here, and here. (That’s a lot of “heres,” but farm subsidies deserve a lot of criticism!) But there is one possible element of the farm bill that would actually count as “reform”: a proposal to take some of the prot […]

Christopher A. Preble Ankara, Turkey — We arrived in Ankara this evening after some sightseeing on the Aegean coast, from the resort town of Kusadasi we traveled to the ancient city of Ephesus. These are the most impressive ruins from the Roman period that I’ve ever seen (excepting Rome). The amphitheater (pictured below) seats over 24,000 people and is appr […]

Ilya Shapiro Last Thursday, a federal district court judge issued an injunction blocking the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet – the genteel name given the Bluegrass State’s department of transportation – from enforcing the state’s anti-competitive licensing law for movers. In Bruner v. Zawacki, which is being litigated by Cato adjunct scholar Timothy Sandefur […]

Jason Bedrick Earlier today, a New Hampshire district court upheld the “Live Free or Die” state’s nascent scholarship tax credit (STC) program, but limited the use of scholarships to non-religious private schools. Earlier this year, the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit claiming that New Hampshire’s school choic […]