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302. Renewing Federalism by Reforming Article V: Defects in the Constitutional Amendment Process and a Reform Proposal
- Author:
- Michael B. Rappaport
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The constitutional amendment procedure of Article V is defective because the national convention amendment method does not work. Because no amendment can be enacted without Congress's approval, limitations on the federal government that Congress opposes are virtually impossible to pass. This defect may have prevented the enactment of several constitutional amendments that would have constrained Congress, such as amendments establishing a balanced budget limitation, a line-item veto, or congressional term limits. The increasingly nationalist character of our constitutional charter may not be the result of modern values or circumstances, but an artifact of a distorted amendment procedure. Article V should be reformed to allow two-thirds of the state legislatures to propose a constitutional amendment which would then be ratified or rejected by the states, acting through state conventions or state ballot measures. Such a return of power to the states would militate against our overly centralized government by helping to restore the federalist character of our Constitution. Moreover, a strategy exists that would allow this reform to be enacted.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Government, Law Enforcement, and Law
- Political Geography:
- United States
303. Editor's Note
- Author:
- James Dorn
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Immigration has been instrumental in U.S. history in promoting economic development and increasing the range of options open to people. Millions of immigrants have come to America in search of opportunities to improve their lives and to raise their families. They have taken great risks and worked hard to ensure a better and freer future for themselves and their families.
- Topic:
- Immigration
- Political Geography:
- United States
304. Introduction: Is Immigration Good for America?
- Author:
- Daniel Griswold
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The question of whether immigration has been good for America has been on the minds of Americans since the beginning of our republic and continues in the pages of this issue of the Cato Journal. As the United States enters another presidential election year, President Obama has been calling on Congress to enact immigration reform while his administration has been deporting record numbers of unauthorized immigrants. Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidates have been competing with each other to adopt the toughest positions to enforce existing law, including the completion of a fence along the entire 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Outside of Washington, legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, and other states have enacted laws designed to make life more difficult for undocumented immigrants.
- Topic:
- Immigration
- Political Geography:
- America, Washington, Georgia, Mexico, Alabama, and Arizona
305. Why Should We Restrict Immigration?
- Author:
- Bryan Caplan
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Consider the following thought experiment: Moved by the plight of desperate earthquake victims, you volunteer to work as a relief worker in Haiti. After two weeks, you're ready to go home. Unfortunately, when you arrive at the airport, customs officials tell you that you're forbidden to enter the United States. You go to the American consulate to demand an explanation. But the official response is simply, “The United States does not have to explain itself to you.”
- Political Geography:
- United States
306. Immigration and Economic Growth
- Author:
- Gordon H. Hanson
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- As the 2012 presidential campaign gets under way, there will be intense public debate about the direction of economic policy. The continuing torpor of the U.S. economy and mounting government debt oblige candidates to detail how they would improve prospects for economic growth and reduce the federal budget deficit. We are sure to hear a great deal about plans to lower taxes, reduce government regulation, improve U.S. education, and rebuild infrastructure. But it is a near certainty that no candidate will make immigration part of his or her vision for achieving higher rates of long-run economic growth. To be sure, stump speeches will contain pat pronouncements about securing American borders, restoring the rule of law, or bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, depending on the candidate's political orientation. Yet, it is a safe bet that after getting through these bullet points candidates will seek to change the subject. Immigration is a divisive issue that most national politicians prefer to avoid. President Obama checked his immigration box by making a halfhearted call for immigration reform in May 2011. That proposal was quickly buried under many more pressing items in his legislative outbox.
- Topic:
- Immigration
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
307. Immigration, Labor Markets, and Productivity
- Author:
- Giovanni Peri
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- According to a survey in 2008, about 50 percent of Americans perceived immigration as a problem rather than as an opportunity (Transatlantic Trends 2008). Similar surveys conducted in the prerecession years of 2007 and before also showed that Americans were much less supportive of more open immigration policies than they were of other aspects of globalization such as free trade or free capital movements (Pew Research Center 2007). Since the onset of the recession of 2008–2009 and during the jobless recovery of 2010–11, public opinion about immigration further deteriorated. The idea that immigrants take American jobs, depress national wages, and threaten the U.S. economy has become even more rooted, as often happens during economic recessions. The political discourse accompanying the economic and labor market impact of immigrants is very intense and pervasive in the media but often generates “more heat than light”.
- Topic:
- Immigration
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
308. America's Demographic Future
- Author:
- Joel Kotkin and Erika Ozuna
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Perhaps nothing has more defined America and its promise than immigration. In the future, immigration and the consequent development of what Walt Whitman (1855: iv) called “a race of races” will remain one of the country's greatest assets in the decades to come.
- Political Geography:
- America
309. America's Incoherent Immigration System
- Author:
- Stuart Anderson
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- If the U.S. Congress and executive branch agencies formulated coherent policies, then here is what our immigration system would look like: highly skilled foreign nationals could be hired quickly and gain permanent residence, employers could hire foreign workers to fill niches in lower-skilled jobs, foreign entrepreneurs could easily start businesses in the United States, and close relatives of American citizens could immigrate in a short period of time. If all those things were true, then we wouldn't be talking about America's immigration system.
- Topic:
- Immigration
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
310. The Economic Consequences of Amnesty for Unauthorized Immigrants
- Author:
- Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Immigration policy reform has reached an impasse because of disagreement over whether to create a pathway to legal permanent residence and eventual U.S. citizenship for unauthorized immigrants. The United States first—and last—offered a large-scale amnesty as part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986. Despite increased border enforcement and provisions for employer sanctions, the law failed to curtail unauthorized immigration. The 9/11 terror attacks renewed the emphasis on national security and led to stricter policies regarding undocumented immigrants. Over the past decade, border and interior enforcement has increased, while avenues that allowed some illegal residents to adjust to legal status have been eliminated, and a growing number of states have adopted laws aimed at driving out unauthorized immigrants.
- Political Geography:
- United States
311. Immigration and Border Control
- Author:
- Edward Alden
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- For the past two decades the United States, a country with a strong tradition of limited government, has been pursuing a widely popular initiative that requires one of the most ambitious expansions of government power in modern history: securing the nation's borders against illegal immigration. Congress and successive administrations— both Democratic and Republican—have increased the size of the Border Patrol from fewer than 3,000 agents to more than 21,000, built nearly 700 miles of fencing along the southern border with Mexico, and deployed pilotless drones, sensor cameras, and other expensive technologies aimed at preventing illegal crossings at the land borders. The government has overhauled the visa system to require interviews for all new visa applicants and instituted extensive background checks for many of those wishing to come to the United States to study, travel, visit family, or do business. It now requires secure documents—a passport or the equivalent—for all travel to and from the United States by citizens and noncitizens. And border officers take fingerprints and run other screening measures on all travelers coming to this country by air in order to identify criminals, terrorists, or others deemed to pose a threat to the United States.
- Topic:
- International Security and Immigration
- Political Geography:
- United States and Mexico
312. Internal Enforcement, E-Verify, and the Road to a National ID
- Author:
- Jim Harper
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Successful “internal enforcement” of immigration law requires having a national identity system. If expanded, “E-Verify,” the muchdebated effort to control illegal immigration through access to employment, will become such a system, and it could easily be converted to controlling many dimensions of Americans' lives from Washington, D.C.
- Topic:
- Immigration
- Political Geography:
- America
313. Is Birthright Citizenship Good for America?
- Author:
- Margaret Stock
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The Declaration of Independence famously asserted that “all men are created equal,” but this assertion did not become an American constitutional reality until the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868. The Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause—intended to overturn the infamous U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott (1857) case—states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” Traditionally, the clause has been interpreted to confer U.S. citizenship on anyone born within the United States whose parents are subject to U.S. civil and criminal laws—which has historically meant that only babies born in the United States to diplomats, invading armies, or within certain sovereign Native American tribes have been excluded from birthright American citizenship. Alarmed by the thought that unauthorized immigrants, wealthy tourists, and temporary workers are giving birth to thousands of U.S. citizens, some want to change the long-standing rule by reinterpreting or amending the Citizenship Clause. But will this proposed change be good for America? Will it benefit America to reduce substantially the number of birthright U.S. citizens—and put in place more complex rules that would provide that U.S.-born babies are not created equal?
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
314. Immigration and the Welfare State
- Author:
- Daniel Griswold
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Among the more serious arguments against liberalizing immigration is that it can be costly to taxpayers. Low-skilled immigrants in particular consume more government services than they pay in taxes, increasing the burden of government for native-born Americans. Organizations such as the Center for Immigration Studies, the Heritage Foundation, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform have produced reports claiming that immigration costs taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year, with the heaviest costs borne by state and local taxpayers. No less a classical liberal than Milton Freidman mused that open immigration is incompatible with a welfare state. Responding to a question at a libertarian conference in 1999, Friedman rejected the idea of opening the U.S. border to all immigrants, declaring that “You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state” (Free Students 2008).
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
315. The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform
- Author:
- Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The U.S. government has attempted for more than two decades to put a stop to unauthorized immigration from and through Mexico by implementing "enforcement-only" measures along the U.S.-Mexico border and at work sites across the country. These measures have failed to end unauthorized immigration and have placed downward pressure on wages in a broad swath of industries.
- Topic:
- Economics and Immigration
- Political Geography:
- United States and Mexico
316. U.S. Immigration Policy in the 21st Century: A Market-Based Approach
- Author:
- Richard Vedder, Joshua C. Hall, and Benjamin J. VanMetre
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- On most issues of public policy one can predict the position that individuals will take based on their ideological orientation. Immigration policy, however, is one topic where ideological perspective is historically useless in predicting individual positions. The decision of whether or not to liberalize immigration policy or to place greater restrictions on it is something that creates a divide not only between political parties but also within the parties themselves. Peter Brimelow (1999) is one prominent voice from the right who believes that the current immigration policies not only second-guess the American people but threaten the American nation. Brimelow is a strong supporter of placing restrictions on immigration at levels that are much lower than those that currently exist. A similar position is taken by the libertarian political philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Specifically, Hoppe (1998) argues that the United States will continue to suffer until policies are implemented that subject all migration to the condition of legally binding contractual invitations between the private domestic persons and the arriving immigrants.
- Topic:
- Immigration
- Political Geography:
- United States
317. James Madison
- Author:
- John Samples
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Richard Brookhiser, a longtime senior editor of National Review, has contributed more than most to satisfying the revivified demand for books about the lives and works of the American Founders. He has published books about Washington, Hamilton, the Adamses, Gouverneur Morris, and now James Madison. His biography is both serious and readable.
- Political Geography:
- China, America, and Washington
318. The Ethics of Voting
- Author:
- Aaron Powell
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Grab anyone at a coffee shop, political rally, or cocktail party. Ask him, “Do you think we have a duty to vote?” Chances are he'll say “Yes.” Follow it up with, “Is it because there's something special about voting that places it above other duties we might have, like sayavoiding speeding or paying our taxes?” It's a safe bet you'll get a “yes” to this one as well.Jason Brennan calls the thinking behind these twin affirmatives the “folk theory of voting ethics.” It's the common view of civics classes, straw polls, and town hall meetings. The folk theory is what we all learn in school, along with the three branches of government and the Founding Fathers.
- Political Geography:
- America
319. The Concept of Justice: Is Social Justice Just?
- Author:
- Trevor Burrus
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Justice is the primary object of political philosophy. Yet, like so many of our highest aspirations, we are prone to use capacious words that can create consensus in their most abstract formulations but engender discord, if not worse, in more specific forms. “Justice” hasalways been like this. During a civil war or an intense political conflict, both sides will preach the justness of their cause, and neither will claim to be fighting on the side of “injustice.”
- Topic:
- War
320. Editor's Note
- Author:
- James A. Dorn
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This special issue of the Cato Journal stems from the Cato Institute's 29th Annual Monetary Conference—Monetary Reform in the Wake of Crisis—held in Washington, D.C., November 16, 2011. At no time since the founding of the Federal Reserve nearly a century ago has it been more important to reconsider the role of monetary policy in a free society. In particular, as F. A. Hayek noted, “All those who wish to stop the drift toward increasing government control should concentrate their effort on monetary policy.”
- Political Geography:
- Washington
321. The Eurozone Crisis and Global Monetary Reform: A Conversation
- Author:
- Robert B. Zoellick and Sebastian Mallaby
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Sebastian Mallaby: We are here to talk to Bob Zoellick. I have been in Washington 16 years, Bob is the personification of the kind of silo busting polymathic energy which says, I am not just interested in international economics, I am not just interested in international relations, I am not just a U.S. government official, I am also going to do multilateral diplomacy. So Bob has been on all sides of those various divides. He has a voracious intellect, so it is always interesting to speak with him whether he is in office or out of office.
- Topic:
- International Relations
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and Washington
322. Understanding the Interventionist Impulse of the Modern Central Bank
- Author:
- Jeffrey M. Lacker
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 was a watershed event for the Federal Reserve and other central banks. The extraordinary actions they took have been described, alternatively, as a natural extension of monetary policy to extreme circumstances or as a problematic exercise in credit allocation. I have expressed my view elsewhere that much of the Fed's response to the crisis falls in the latter category rather than the former (Lacker 2010). Rather than reargue that case, I want to take this opportunity to reflect on some of the institutional reasons behind the prevailing propensity of many modern central banks to intervene in credit markets.
- Topic:
- Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
323. Federal Reserve Policy in the Great Recession
- Author:
- Allan H. Meltzer
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Overresponse to short-run events and neglect of longer-term consequences of its actions is one of the main errors that the Federal Reserve makes repeatedly. The current recession offers many examples of actions that some characterize as bold and innovative. I regard many of these actions as inappropriate for an allegedly independent central bank because they involve credit allocation, fill the Fed's portfolio with an unprecedented volume of long-term assets, evade or neglect the dual mandate, distort the credit markets, and initiate other actions that are not the responsibility of a central bank.
- Political Geography:
- America
324. The Fed's Fatal Conceit
- Author:
- John A. Allison
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- I strongly believe that the recent financial crisis, ensuing recession, and slow recovery were primarily caused by government policy. The Federal Reserve made some very bad monetary decisions that created a bubble, i.e., a massive malinvestment. The bubble ended up being focused in the housing market largely because of government affordable housing policies—specifically, the actions of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, government-sponsored enterprises that would not exist in a free market. When Freddie and Fannie failed, they owed $5.5 trillion including $2 trillion in affordable housing (subprime) loans. It's true that a number of banks made serious mistakes, and I would have let them fail, but their mistakes were secondary and within the context of government policy.
- Political Geography:
- United States
325. Only a Crisis Will Bring Money Reform
- Author:
- George Melloan
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- “Well, if I had a nickel, I know what I would do. I'd spend it all on candy and give it all to you. . . . Cause that's how much I love you baby.” That wasn't a very generous proposition even in 1946, when country singer Eddy Arnold wrote those words. But at least a nickel would buy a good-sized Baby Ruth or Clark bar. Today? A jelly bean, perhaps?
- Political Geography:
- United States and United Kingdom
326. Banking Dysfunction
- Author:
- James A. Grant
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- "Has anyone bothered to study the cumulative effect of all these things?" the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase reasonably inquired of the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board at a bankers gathering in Atlanta last June. The CEO, Jamie Dimon, was referring to the combination of cyclical hangover and regulatory constriction. The chairman, Ben Bernanke, replied, "It's just too complicated. We don't really have the quantitative tools to do that" (Grant and Masters 2011: 1).
- Political Geography:
- America
327. What Should a Central Bank (Not) Do?
- Author:
- Benn Steil
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The financial crisis that began unfurling in 2008 has led to the refashioning of the model central bank governor along the lines of Churchillian war leader, willing to try anything with the money he conjures to restore economic growth. This raises important questions as to what limits, if any, elected officials should impose on such aspiring great men, and what limits markets will ultimately impose on them if elected officials forbear. This article focuses on the second of these questions.
- Political Geography:
- United States
328. L Street: Bagehotian Prescriptions for a 21st Century Money Market
- Author:
- George Selgin
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In Lombard Street, Walter Bagehot (1873) offered his famous advice for reforming the Bank of England's lending policy. The financial crisis of 1866, and other factors, had convinced Bagehot that instead of curtailing credit to conserve the Bank's own liquidity in the face of an “internal drain” of specie, and thereby confronting the English economy as a whole with a liquidity shortage, the Bank ought to “lend freely at high rates on good collateral.” Bagehot's now-famous advice has come to be known as the “classical” prescription for last-resort lending.
- Political Geography:
- England
329. Gold and Government
- Author:
- Judy Shelton
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Something has gone terribly wrong with the world's monetary system. It's evident that some kind of fundamental reform needs to be implemented. The question is: Can governments be trusted to issue sound money, or is money too important to be left to the politicians?
- Political Geography:
- United States
330. From Constitutional to Fiat Money: The U.S. Experience
- Author:
- Richard H. Timberlake
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the course of more than two centuries, the United States has had two monetary systems. The first was a gold-silver standard that was framed in its essentials by the U.S. Constitution. In practical terms, it said that any legal tender money created by the federal union or the states or the "people" had to be gold or silver coins, or redeemable in gold or silver coins of specified weight and fineness. Since both gold and silver were constitutional media, the country had a bimetallic standard that ultimately became a monometallic gold standard.
- Political Geography:
- United States
331. The Coming Fiat Money Cataclysm and the Case for Gold
- Author:
- Kevin Dowd, Martin Hutchinson, and Gordon Kerr
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- A recurring theme in monetary history is the conflict of trust and authority: the conflict between those who advocate a spontaneous monetary order determined by free exchange under the rule of law and those who wish to meddle with the monetary system for their own ends. This conflict is perhaps most clearly seen in the early 20th century controversy over the "state theory of money" (or "chartalism"), which maintained that money is a creature of the state. The one side was represented by the defenders of the old monetary order-most notably by the Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, and by the German sociologist Georg Simmel. The other side was represented by the German legal scholar Georg Friedrich Knapp and by John Maynard Keynes. They argued that on monetary matters the government should be free to do whatever it liked, free from any constraints of law or even conventional morality.
- Topic:
- War
- Political Geography:
- Germany and Australia
332. Why Monetary Freedom Matters
- Author:
- Ron Paul
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- I've thought about and have written about the Federal Reserve for a long time. I became fascinated with the monetary issue in the 1960s, having come across the Austrian economists, especially Hayek and Mises, and I was very impressed with August 15, 1971, because the predictions made in the 1960s came about. As a matter of fact, Henry Hazlitt made that prediction in 1944 when the Bretton Woods system was set up. He said it wouldn't work and it would fall apart—and it did—so that was a strong confirmation.
- Political Geography:
- United States and Australia
333. Where Is Private Note Issue Legal?
- Author:
- Kurt Schuler and William McBride
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- During the 18th and 19th centuries and for part of the 20th century, more than 60 countries had free banking. The major characteristics of free banking are competitive issue of notes (paper money) and deposits by commercial banks, low legal barriers to entry, little regulation unique to the industry, and no central control of reserves (the monetary base) within the national monetary system (Dowd 1992, White 1995). Among the countries that had a form of free banking was the United States. Even after the freest period of free banking ended, with the Civil War, banks continued to issue notes until the federal government effectively monopolized note issue in 1935.
- Topic:
- War
- Political Geography:
- United States
334. Making the Transition to a New Gold Standard
- Author:
- Lawrence H. White
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Suppose for the sake of argument that we all agree to the following proposition: If we could change the monetary regime with zero switching cost, merely by snapping our fingers, we would prefer the United States to be on a gold standard. In the most general terms, a gold standard means a monetary system in which a standard mass (so many grams or ounces) of pure gold defines the unit of account, and standardized pieces of gold serve as the ultimate media of redemption. Currency notes, checks, and electronic funds transfers are all denominated in gold and are redeemable claims to gold. We then face the question: What would be the least costly way for the United States to make the transition to a new gold standard? We need to choose a low-cost method to ensure that the agreed benefits of being on the gold standard exceed the costs of switching over.
- Political Geography:
- United States
335. Natural Rates of Interest and Sustainable Growth
- Author:
- Roger W. Garrison
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The evolution of macroeconomic theory and monetary policy has brought us to a state that calls for critical reflection. It is undoubtedly true that no newcomer to the field can even begin to understand the current state of macroeconomics and policy formulation without understanding just how, dating from the pre-Keynesian era, the profession has arrived at this state. High theory today takes the form of stochastic dynamic general equilibrium analysis, while policy discussion, which concerns itself with economy-wide disequilibrium, centers on the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of old-style fiscal and monetary stimulants. The market is a process and so too is the theorizing about it. The history of macroeconomic thought reasserts its relevance at times of economic crises and almost inevitably leads us to the question "How far back do we have to go to start all over?"
- Topic:
- Monetary Policy
336. Toward a Global Monetary Order
- Author:
- Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr.
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- I will begin by disputing that there is a global monetary system. We do not have a system in any meaningful sense. There are 182 independent currencies in the world. Some currencies are fixed in relation to other, larger currencies (e.g., the Hong Kong dollar to the U.S. dollar). Some currencies move within a band against other currencies (e.g., the Singapore dollar and the Chinese yuan). Many currencies float on foreign exchange markets, but few float freely. Four major currencies float against each other: the U.S. dollar, the euro, the pound, and the yen. Countries also change their foreign exchange regime (e.g., Mexico in recent decades).
- Topic:
- Foreign Exchange
- Political Geography:
- Mexico and Singapore
337. Political Philosophy Clearly: Essays on Freedom and Fairness, Property and Equalities
- Author:
- Aaron Ross Powell
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Political Philosophy, Clearly, part of Liberty Fund's "Collected Papers of Anthony de Jasay" series, gathers nearly two dozen essays from the prominent economist and philosopher. From them emerges a fascinating overview of de Jasay's thought on the nature of order, justice, and the state.
338. Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America
- Author:
- Ivan Osorio
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- President Ronald Reagan's firing of more than 12,000 illegally striking air traffic controllers in August 1981 is widely considered a defining moment both for Reagan's presidency and for American organized labor. For Reagan, it was the first of many lines in the sand he drew during his presidency. For organized labor, it marked an assault from an anti-union president determined to prevail against a Democratic constituency.
- Political Geography:
- America
339. Does the Elephant Dance? Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy
- Author:
- Malou Innocent
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- After more than 20 years of major market reforms that followed a foreign exchange crisis in 1991, India's stunning economic growth has enlarged its international profile. But unlike China, India's security challenges and perspectives on foreign policy remain largely unknown to the rest of the world. What kind of great power does India aim to be?
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and Foreign Exchange
- Political Geography:
- China and India
340. The Negative Effects of Minimum Wage Laws
- Author:
- Mark Wilson
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The federal government has imposed a minimum wage since 1938, and nearly all the states impose their own minimum wages. These laws prevent employers from paying wages below a mandated level. While the aim is to help workers, decades of economic research show that minimum wages usually end up harming workers and the broader economy. Minimum wages particularly stifle job opportunities for low-skill workers, youth, and minorities, which are the groups that policymakers are often trying to help with these policies.
- Topic:
- Economics, Labor Issues, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States
341. The Independent Payment Advisory Board: PPACA's Anti-Constitutional and Authoritarian Super-Legislature
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon and Diane Cohen
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- When a member of Congress introduces legislation, the Constitution requires that legislative proposal to secure the approval of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the president (unless Congress overrides a presidential veto) before it can become law. In all cases, either chamber of Congress may block it.
- Topic:
- Government, Politics, Governance, and Law
- Political Geography:
- United States
342. The Great Streetcar Conspiracy
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Streetcars are the latest urban planning fad, stimulated partly by the Obama administration's preference for funding transportation projects that promote "livability" (meaning living without automobiles) rather than mobility or cost-effective transportation. Toward that end, the administration wants to eliminate cost-effectiveness requirements for federal transportation grants, instead allowing non-cost-effective grants for projects promoting so-called livability. In anticipation of this change, numerous cities are preparing to apply for federal funds to build streetcar lines.
- Topic:
- Economics, Environment, Government, Political Economy, and Infrastructure
- Political Geography:
- United States
343. Competition in Currency: The Potential for Private Money
- Author:
- Thomas L. Hogan
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Privately issued money can benefit consumers in many ways, particularly in the areas of value stability and product variety. Decentralized currency production can benefit consumers by reducing inflation and increasing economic stability. Unlike a central bank, competing private banks must attract customers by providing innovative products, restricting the quantity of notes issued, and limiting the riskiness of their investing activities. Although the Federal Reserve currently has a de facto monopoly on the provision of currency in the United States, this was not always the case. Throughout most of U.S. history, private banks issued their own banknotes as currency. This practice continues today in a few countries and could be reinstituted in the United States with minimal changes to the banking system.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, and Monetary Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States
344. If You Love Something, Set It Free A Case for Defunding Public Broadcasting
- Author:
- Trevor Burrus
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Public broadcasting has been in critics' crosshairs since its creation in 1967. Assailed from all sides with allegations of bias, charges of political influence, and threats to defund their operations, public broadcasters have responded with everything from outright denial to personnel changes, but never have they squarely faced the fundamental problem: government-funded media companies are inherently problematic and impossible to reconcile with either the First Amendment or a government of constitutionally limited powers.
- Topic:
- Government, Communications, Mass Media, and Law
- Political Geography:
- United States
345. Questioning Homeownership as a Public Policy Goal
- Author:
- Morris A. Davis
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- For decades U.S. housing policy has focused on promoting homeownership. In this study, I show that the set of policies designed to further homeownership has been ineffective and expensive and that homeownership as a public policy goal is not well supported.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, and Urbanization
- Political Geography:
- United States
346. Ending Congestion by Refinancing Highways
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Although gasoline taxes have long been the main source of funding for building, maintaining, and operating America's network of highways, roads, and streets, the tax is at best an imperfect user fee. As such, Congress and the states should take action to transition from gas taxes to more efficient vehicle-mile fees.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Communications, and Infrastructure
- Political Geography:
- United States
347. The American Welfare State: How We Spend Nearly $1 Trillion a Year Fighting Poverty—And Fail
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 04-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- News that the poverty rate has risen to 15.1 percent of Americans, the highest level in nearly a decade, has set off a predictable round of calls for increased government spending on social welfare programs. Yet this year the federal government will spend more than $668 billion on at least 126 different programs to fight poverty. And that does not even begin to count welfare spending by state and local governments, which adds $284 billion to that figure. In total, the United States spends nearly $1 trillion every year to fight poverty. That amounts to $20,610 for every poor person in America, or $61,830 per poor family of three.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
348. What Made the Financial Crisis Systemic?
- Author:
- Patric H. Hendershott and Kevin Villani
- Publication Date:
- 03-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The current narrative regarding the 2008 systemic financial system collapse is that numerous seemingly unrelated events occurred in unregulated or underregulated markets, requiring widespread bailouts of actors across the financial spectrum, from mortgage borrowers to investors in money market funds. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, created by the U.S. Congress to investigate the causes of the crisis, promotes this politically convenient narrative, and the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act operationalizes it by completing the progressive extension of federal protection and regulation of banking and finance that began in the 1930s so that it now covers virtually all financial activities, including hedge funds and proprietary trading. The Dodd-Frank Act further charges the newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council, made up of politicians, bureaucrats, and university professors, with preventing a subsequent systemic crisis.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, Global Recession, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
349. Libertarian Roots of the Tea Party
- Author:
- David Kirby and Emily McClintock Ekins
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Many people on the left still dismiss the tea party as the same old religious right, but the evidence says they are wrong. The tea party has strong libertarian roots and is a functionally libertarian influence on the Republican Party.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, Politics, Insurgency, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
350. Regulation, Market Structure, and Role of the Credit Rating Agencies
- Author:
- Mark A. Calabria and Emily McClintock Ekins
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- During the financial crisis of 2008, the financial markets would have been better served if the credit rating agency industry had been more competitive. We present evidence that suggests the Securities and Exchange Commission's designation of Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs) inadvertently created a de facto oligopoly, which primarily propped up three firms: Moody's, S, and Fitch. We also explain the rationale behind the NRSRO designation given to credit rating agencies (CRAs) and demonstrate that it was not intended to be an oligopolistic mechanism or to reduce investor due diligence, but rather was intended to protect consumers. Although CRAs were indirectly constrained by their reputation among investors, the lack of competition allowed for greater market complacency. Government regulatory use of credit ratings inflated the market demand for NRSRO ratings, despite the decreasing informational value of credit ratings. It is unlikely that this sort of regulatory framework could result in anything except misaligned incentives among economic actors and distorted market information that provides inaccurate signals to investors and other financial actors. Given the importance of our capital infrastructure and the power of credit rating agencies in our financial markets, and despite the good intentions of the uses of the NRSRO designation, it is not worth the cost and should be abolished. Regulators should work to eliminate regulatory reliance on credit ratings for financial safety and soundness. These regulatory reforms will, in turn, reduce CRA oligopolistic power and the artificial demand for their ratings.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, Financial Crisis, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States
351. Corporate Welfare in the Federal Budget
- Author:
- Tad DeHaven
- Publication Date:
- 07-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Rising federal spending and huge deficits are pushing the nation toward a financial and economic crisis. Policymakers should find and eliminate wasteful, damaging, and unneeded programs in the federal budget. One good way to save money would be to cut subsidies to businesses. Corporate welfare in the federal budget costs taxpayers almost $100 billion a year.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
352. Editor's Note: A Tribute to William A. Niskanen
- Author:
- James A. Dorn
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This issue of the Cato Journal is dedicated to William Niskanen, who passed away on October 26, 2011, at the age of 78. From 1985 to 2008, Bill served as chairman of the Cato Institute and a full-time economic scholar. He continued working as chairman emeritus and distinguished senior economist until his death. He was also on the editorial boards of Regulation magazine and the Cato Journal.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
353. Alternative Political and Economic Futures for Europe
- Author:
- William A. Niskanen
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Defeat of a proposed constitution for the European Union by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005 should have provided an opportunity to reflect on a broader range of alternative political and economic futures for Europe. But it did not. For the Lisbon Treaty, which became effective in December 2009, implemented most of the provisions of the proposed constitution that the voters rejected more than four years prior. It was important to reconsider the major current European political and economic institutions as well as alternative steps toward further European integration. For the major current institutions were created under different conditions, and the experience suggests that they may not best serve the peoples of Europe under current and expected future conditions.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief
- Political Geography:
- Europe, France, and Netherlands
354. The Keynesian Path to Fiscal Irresponsibility
- Author:
- Dwight R. Lee
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The basic idea behind Keynesian policy for achieving stable economic growth is straightforward, and superficially plausible. When the economy is in a downturn with underutilized resources, Keynesians believe the federal government should increase aggregate demand by increasing deficit spending through some combination of more spending and lower taxes. With the aid of a multiplier effect augmenting the government's increase in aggregate demand, the economy will move back toward full employment. In contrast, they believe that when aggregate demand exceeds the productive capacity of the economy, the federal government can prevent inflationary overheating by reducing demand with a budget surplus generated by some combination of less spending and higher taxes. The resulting decrease in government demand will be augmented by a reverse multiplier effect, which will reduce inflationary pressures by bringing aggregate demand back in line with the economy's productive capacity. As discussed by Keynes and his early followers, there was nothing fiscally irresponsible about such a policy. While the budget would not be balanced on a yearly basis, it would be balanced over time as budget deficits intended to moderate recessions would be offset by budget surpluses used to restrain economic exuberance.
355. Is the Washington Consensus Dead?
- Author:
- Deepak Lal
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the postwar years, most Third World countries turned inward partly in response to what they thought were the disastrous consequences of their 19th century integration into the world economy as the global economy collapsed in the Great Depression. The seeming success of Soviet central planning under Stalin also persuaded the leaders of these newly independent countries to substitute the plan for the market. Planning was all the rage, with the state seeking to control the commanding heights of the economy. Furthermore, the many theorists who created a seemingly "new development economics" provided the intellectual basis for the complex system of dirigiste controls on "anything that moved" (as one wit put it) in a market economy.
- Political Geography:
- Washington
356. Asset Bubbles and Supply Failures: Where Are the Qualified Sellers?
- Author:
- Bruce K. Gouldey and Clifford F. Thies
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- From their peak during the third quarter of 2007, to their trough during the first quarter of 2009, stock prices as measured by the S 500 fell 48 percent (see Figure 1). Through the third quarter of 2009, stock prices subsequently increased more than 40 percent. In contrast, housing prices, as measured by the Case-Shiller index, which fell 31 percent from their peak in the first quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2009, had not yet shown any sign of recovery.
357. Decisionmaking, Risk, and Uncertainty: An Analysis of Climate Change Policy
- Author:
- Kruti Dholakia-Lehenbauer and Euel W. Elliott
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This article explores four questions. First, what theoretical frameworks help describe policy failure and success? Second, how might the decision that leads to failure or success be understood in terms of differing concepts of rationality and decisionmaking? Third, how does the discussion of risk and uncertainty as originally proposed by Frank Knight (1921) apply to a better understanding of both the first and second questions? Fourth, what is the relationship between serial and parallel processing and how are these administrative systems related to important aspects of the prior questions? Our chief contribution in this article is to show the ways in which these questions and their respective theoretical frameworks are interrelated as applied to one important contemporary policy question-climate change. We think our proposed integration of the various literatures offers important insights into the challenges policymakers face in deciding whether or not to adopt a particular policy.
- Political Geography:
- United States
358. School Choice and Achievement: The Ohio Charter School Experience
- Author:
- Nathan L. Gray
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- K–12 education policy has recently received much scrutiny from policymakers, taxpayers, parents, and students. Reformers have often cited increases in spending with little noticeable gain in test scores, coupled with the fact that American students lag behind their foreign peers on standardized tests, as the policy problem. School choice, specifically charter school policy, has emerged as a potential remedy. School choice is hypothesized to have both participant and systemic (sometimes called competitive) effects. This article concentrates on the latter by using a novel design not used before in studies of this subject. School level data from Ohio are analyzed to estimate if traditional public schools potentially threatened by charter schools respond with positive test score gains. Specifically, an exogenous change to the education system in 2003 provides a natural experiment to examine potential systemic effects. Results indicate that the threat of charter schools seems to have had a small positive effect on traditional public school achievement.
- Political Geography:
- America
359. The New Monetary Economics Revisited
- Author:
- David Cronin
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This article revisits the key conceptual aspects of the New Monetary Economics (NME) by examining the idea of “monetary separation” and objections raised against it. So long as a dominant role for base money in exchange exists, using it to provide the unit of account remains advantageous and is likely to outweigh any mooted benefits of separation. Recent quantitative analysis, however, shows the transaction demand for government base money to be falling, a development that can be expected to continue in the years ahead. The passage of time thus seems to be weakening the principal basis on which monetary separation has been criticized—namely, the superiority of base money in payments. That development fits into the history of money told by Austrian economists, which emphasises payment practices evolving over time in response to technological improvements and market forces.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Germany, Cyprus, and Luxembourg
360. Starving the Beast Revisited
- Author:
- Masoud Moghaddam
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The determinants of government budget deficits have been studied extensively, especially during the years in which the discrepancy between federal income taxes and expenditures has widened. In that respect, it is of interest to explore the causal relationship between government revenues and expenditures. If the direction of causation is from taxes to spending, then enjoying tax cuts without cutting expenditures necessitates starving the beast, as suggested by Milton Friedman (1978) and confirmed by a number of studies including Garcia and Henin (1999), and Chang, Liu, and Caudill (2002). On the other hand, if a tax cut is perceived by rational agents to be a cut in the cost of public goods, then spending would increase. In that case, taxes and spending are inversely related. Support for that relationship—the so-called fiscal illusion hypothesis—is provided by Wagner (1976), Niskanen (1978, 2002, 2006), and more recently by New (2009) and Young (2009). There are also a few studies in which no significant causal relation between tax and spend variables has been reported (e.g., Baghestani and McNown (1994).
- Topic:
- Government
361. The Behavior of the Labor Market between Schechter (1935) and Jones Laughlin (1937)
- Author:
- Todd C. Neumann, Jason E. Taylor, and Jerry L. Taylor
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Recent research on the Great Depression emphasizes the role New Deal economic policy played in slowing recovery. Policies promoting cartels and higher wage rates during a time that the economy was experiencing unprecedented unemployment were likely to have created a negative supply shock that exacerbated economic depression rather than helped to alleviate it. Still, for 22 months between two important Supreme Court rulings, labor and product markets were relatively free of intervention. In A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (May 1935), the Court ruled that the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) was unconstitutional. In addition to setting up industry cartels, the NIRA had imposed relatively high minimum hourly wage rates and restrictions on work- weeks and required firms to recognize the right of labor to organize.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States
362. The Scope of Government in a Free Society
- Author:
- James A. Dorn
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The purpose of this article is to delineate the legitimate functions of government in a free society. This exercise differs from determining the “optimal” size of government, which economists have estimated at 15 to 30 percent of gross domestic product. James Madison, the chief architect of the U.S. Constitution, was not primarily looking for an engine of economic growth; he was seeking an institutional design to limit the powers of government and protect individual rights. People would then be free to pursue their happiness and, in the process, create wealth.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
363. The Money Trap: Escaping the Grip of Global Finance
- Author:
- Judy Shelton
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- To read Robert Pringle's new book, The Money Trap, is to experience the slow joy of recognizing that someone out there in the world of intellectual propriety and academic correctness is willing to state the case that the global financial crisis can be traced in large part to the lack of an orderly international monetary system.
364. The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and the Quest to Ban the Bomb
- Author:
- Matt Fay
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Can four former Cold War policymakers and a prominent physicist of the era change the world through sheer force of personality? Former New York Times columnist Philip Taubman certainly thinks so, and in his new book he attempts to be the first to tell their story. The Partnership is the chronicle of how George Shultz, Sam Nunn, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, and Sidney Drell decided to take up the cause of nuclear abolition.
- Topic:
- Cold War and Nuclear Weapons
365. Stochastic Optimal Control and the U.S. Financial Debt Crisis
- Author:
- Peter Clark
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- At one point during the recent financial crisis the queen of England reportedly asked economists at the London School of Economics a seemingly straightforward question: “Why did academic economists fail to foresee the crisis?” This question can be broadened to include central banks, the International Monetary Fund, and technical specialists on Wall Street (“quants”). Jerome L. Stein, professor of economics (emeritus) and research professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at Brown University, has written a timely book that provides a cogent and convincing answer to this question.
- Political Geography:
- United States
366. Sustaining China's Economic Growth after the Global Financial Crisis
- Author:
- James A. Dorn
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- As one of the world's leading experts on China's economic reforms, Nick Lardy has produced two earlier books that have become keys to understanding the challenges China faces in making the transition to a market economy and becoming a full-pledged member of the global liberal economic order. His 1998 volume on China's Unfinished Economic Revolution and his 2002 text on Integrating China into the Global Economy were both published by the Brookings Institution, where he was a senior fellow from 1995 until 2003, at which time he joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics, where he is now Anthony M. Solomon Senior Fellow.
- Political Geography:
- China
367. Warfare State: World War II Americans and the Age of Big Government
- Author:
- Charles Zakaib
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In 2008, many Americans feared another Great Depression had begun. Amidst all the gloom and doom, however, Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff, sounded more hopeful: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before.” There is no greater example of that mantra in American history than World War II, a time of unprecedented government spending and unsurpassed government control over daily life. In Warfare State: World War II Americans and the Age of Big Government , James T. Sparrow demonstrates how, in a crisis, the government can increase its reach into Americans' lives by promising an ever-expanding set of rights and benefits.
- Political Geography:
- America
368. World Hyperinflations
- Author:
- Steve H. Hanke and Nicholas Krus
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This chapter supplies, for the first time, a table that contains all 56 episodes of hyperinflation, including several which had previously gone unreported. The Hyperinflation Table is compiled in a systematic and uniform way. Most importantly, it meets the replicability test. It utilizes clean and consistent inflation metrics, indicates the start and end dates of each episode, identifies the month of peak hyperinflation, and signifies the currency that was in circulation, as well as the method used to calculate inflation rates.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Monetary Policy, and Financial Crisis
369. The Economic Case against Arizona's Immigration Laws
- Author:
- Alex Nowrasteh
- Publication Date:
- 09-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Arizona's immigration laws have hurt its economy. The 2007 Legal Arizona Workers Act (LAWA) attempts to force unauthorized immigrants out of the workplace with employee regulations and employer sanctions. The 2010 Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neigh¬borhoods Act (SB 1070) complements LAWA by granting local police new legal tools to enforce Ari¬zona's immigration laws outside of the workplace.
- Topic:
- Political Economy, Labor Issues, Immigration, and Law
- Political Geography:
- United States and Arizona
370. Still a Protectionist Trade Remedy: The Case for Repealing Section 337
- Author:
- K. William Watson
- Publication Date:
- 09-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 gives the United States International Trade Commis¬sion (ITC) the power to exclude products from the United States that are imported pursuant to “unfair methods of competition.” The range of potential activities covered by the law is broad, but the most common claim brought before the ITC is patent infringement. In addition to fil¬ing a lawsuit in federal district court, U.S. pat¬ent holders can often use Section 337 to bring a second case over the same subject matter as long as the defendant imports the impugned product from abroad. This tactic has become increasing¬ly popular because the ITC renders its decisions relatively quickly and has the authority to order a very powerful remedy—total exclusion of the product from the U.S. market.
- Topic:
- International Organization, International Trade and Finance, World Trade Organization, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- United States
371. Economic Effects of Reductions in Defense Outlays
- Author:
- Benjamin Zycher
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This study examines the prospective economic effects of a reduction below the current baseline in defense outlays of $100 billion per year over 10 years.
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, Economics, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- United States
372. The Case for Gridlock
- Author:
- Marcus E. Ethridge
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the wake of the 2010 elections, President Obama declared that voters did not give a mandate to gridlock. His statement reflects over a century of Progressive hostility to the inefficient and slow system of government created by the American Framers. Convinced that the government created by the Constitution frustrates their goals, Progressives have long sought ways around its checks and balances. Perhaps the most important of their methods is delegating power to administrative agencies, an arrangement that greatly transformed U.S. government during and after the New Deal. For generations, Progressives have supported the false premise that administrative action in the hands of experts will realize the public interest more effectively than the constitutional system and its multiple vetoes over policy changes. The political effect of empowering the administrative state has been quite different: it fosters policies that reflect the interests of those with well organized power. A large and growing body of evidence makes it clear that the public interest is most secure when governmental institutions are inefficient decisionmakers. An arrangement that brings diverse interests into a complex, sluggish decisionmaking process is generally unattractive to special interests. Gridlock also neutralizes some political benefits that producer groups and other well-heeled interests inherently enjoy. By fostering gridlock, the U.S. Constitution increases the likelihood that policies will reflect broad, unorganized interests instead of the interests of narrow, organized groups.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Government, Politics, Power Politics, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
373. Markets and Morality
- Author:
- Dwight R. Lee and J.R. Clark
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Adam Smith was a moral philosopher, and economics clearly began as a discipline concerned with both normative and positive considerations. Over time, however, as economics became more “scientific,” positive analysis of the consequences of economic activity increasingly crowded out normative analysis of the morality of that activity. It is now common for economists to boast that economics is “value free.”
374. Envisioning a Free Market in Health Care
- Author:
- D. Eric Schansberg
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Although President Obama and the Democratic Congress were able to pass landmark health legislation, their efforts to reform health care ran into predictable political roadblocks. In a severe recession, taxing business and labor is obviously not helpful to economic recovery. Moreover, an array of overreaching sales pitches—claims of additional coverage without additional costs or rationing—piqued the cynicism of the general public. Given historical spending and budget deficits, an expensive new federal program is difficult to swallow. Mandates and restrictions on health insurance can only exacerbate the problem of rapidly rising health care costs (Tanner 2010).
375. Why Some States Fail: The Role of Culture?
- Author:
- Claudio D. Shikida, Ari Francisco de Araujo Jr, and Pedro H.C. Sant'Anna
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- There are many studies on the relationship between economic development and institutions. Institutions can be classified as formal or informal. This article emphasizes the importance of the relationship between culture (informal institutions) and the quality of public goods supplied by the government, using a measure of state failure: the Failed States Index. The results suggest that culture is more important than formal institutions in explaining differences in the degree to which states fail.
376. Giving Up on Foreign Aid?
- Author:
- Gustav Ranis
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Andrei Shleifer (2009) and David Skarbek and Peter Leeson (2009) offer devastating critiques of foreign aid. Following Peter Bauer's and, more recently, William Easterly's lead, they assert that if aid has any impact at all it is most likely to do harm. The only exception, offered by Skarbek and Leeson, is that it may do some good at the micro-project level. I would like to raise what is rapidly becoming a contrarian point of view.
377. What Aid Can't Do: Reply to Ranis
- Author:
- David B. Skarbek and Peter T. Leeson
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Gustav Ranis addresses our recent article in this journal where we argued that foreign aid is unable to solve the economic problem and thus unable to make poor countries rich (Skarbek and Leeson 2009). The following quotations from his article summarize his main objections to our argument.
378. An Austrian Rehabilitation of the Phillips Curve
- Author:
- Robert F. Mulligan
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- William Niskanen (2002) estimated a Phillips curve for the United States using annual 1960–2000 data. By adding one-yearlagged terms in unemployment and inflation, he was able to show that this familiar equation is misspecified. In his improved specification, Niskanen found that the immediate impact of inflation is to reduce unemployment, confirming the traditional understanding of the Phillips-curve relationship, but also finding that after an interval as short as one year inflation has generally been followed by increased unemployment. Though Niskanen was perhaps unaware of it, his results lend strong support to the Austrian model of the business cycle. In that model, credit expansion results in a temporary but unsustainable expansion. Unemployment is lowered in the short run, but once the policy-induced malinvestment is recognized, total output and income will be permanently reduced, and unemployment will increase.
379. Deposit Insurance and Banking Stability
- Author:
- Kam Hon Chu
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Many financial systems were plagued by bank runs or subject to the risk of contagion when the recent financial tsunami unfolded. The runs on the U.S. banks Countrywide and IndyMac, Britain's Northern Rock, and Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia, among others, occurred about a few years ago, but they are still vivid to us. These runs were, of course, the symptoms rather than the root cause of the financial tsunami. In response to the most severe systemic global financial crisis since the Great Depression, policymakers and regulators in many countries have implemented various drastic regulatory measures to rescue the financial systems from meltdowns and to avert deep economic downturns. Such measures vary from country to country, but generally speaking they include governments' takeovers of banks or capital injections, quantitative easing techniques, provisions of liquidity by lax lender-of-last-resort lending, lower discount rates, and more generous deposit insurance.
- Political Geography:
- United States, Asia, and Hong Kong
380. An Analysis of the Financial Services Bailout Vote
- Author:
- Jim F. Couch, Mark D. Foster, Keith Malone, and David L. Black
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Washington's remedy to the financial problems that began in 2008 was the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)—the so called bailout of the banking system. Whatever its merits, it was, for the most part, unpopular with the American public. Lawmakers, fearful that the economy might actually collapse without some action, were likewise fearful that action—in the form of a payout to the Wall Street financiers—would prove to be harmful to them at the polls. Thus, politicians sought to assure the public that their vote on the measure would reflect Main Street virtues, not Wall Street greed.
- Political Geography:
- America
381. Restructuring the U.S. Postal Service
- Author:
- Robert Carbaugh and Thomas Tenerelli
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- From 1775 when Benjamin Franklin was appointed as the first postmaster general of the United States, the agency known as the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has grown to become an institution that delivers about half of the world's mail in rain, snow, and the dark of night. Employing about 656,000 workers and 260,000 vehicles and operating about 38,000 facilities nationwide, the USPS is the second-largest civilian employer in the United States, after WalMart. If the USPS was a private sector company, it would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500 (U.S. Postal Service 2010).
- Political Geography:
- United States
382. This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
- Author:
- Kurt Schuler
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff's wide-ranging, quantitative study of financial crises is a landmark work. Reinhart and Rogoff have taken advantage of the advances of the last 20 years in economic history, personal computers, and the Internet to assemble a large data set covering most countries of any importance for the world economy. They are the first researchers to base their generalizations about financial crises on data that combine geographic breadth with great historical depth.
383. Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History
- Author:
- Malou Innocent
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the Western mind, Afghanistan conjures up a rugged land of fractious, tribal people. From Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, to Tamerlane and Mughal emperor Babur, virtually no conqueror has escaped “the graveyard of empires” unscathed. Even modern, industrial empires—the British and the Russian— suffered heavy losses. Why have foreign attempts to conquer Afghanistan proved so ineffective? Why did the U.S. invasion fail to bring stability?
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan and United States
384. The Ideological Origins of American Federalism
- Author:
- Ilya Somin
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- As has often been the case in American history, federalism is once again a major focus of political debate. Numerous recent political conflicts focus at least in part on the constitutional balance of power between the states and the central government. The lawsuits challenging the recently passed Obama health care plan, the federal bailout of state governments during the current economic crisis, and the conflicts over social issues such as medical marijuana and assisted suicide are just a few of the more prominent examples.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- America
385. The Economics of Microfinance
- Author:
- Bryan Barnett
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- It is one of the sad facts of recent human history that the economic prosperity enjoyed by so many remains unknown to most of the rest. The causes of poverty have long been debated and much has been spent in the effort to ameliorate it. Reliable estimates suggest as much as $2.3 trillion has been spent over the last several decades, most of it in the form of sponsored aid programs conceived and pursued by governments and large foundations in developed countries. Despite this investment, however, poverty remains widespread and has worsened in many places, especially in Africa. These basic facts now fuel a vigorous debate over the scale and ultimate value of traditional aid programs and a search for more effective solutions.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- Africa
386. Fannie, Freddie, and the Subprime Mortgage Market
- Author:
- Mark A. Calabria
- Publication Date:
- 03-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The recent financial crisis was characterized by losses in nearly every type of investment vehicle. Yet no product has attracted as much attention as the subprime mortgage.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
387. Estimating ObamaCare's Effect on State Medicaid Expenditure Growth
- Author:
- Jagadeesh Gokhale
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Unless repeal attempts succeed, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ObamaCare) promises to increase state government obligations on account of Medicaid by expanding Medicaid eligibility and introducing an individual health insurance mandate for all US citizens and legal permanent residents. Once ObamaCare becomes fully effective in 2014, the cost of newly eligible Medicaid enrollees will be almost fully covered by the federal government through 2019, with federal financial support expected to be extended thereafter. But ObamaCare provides states with zero additional federal financial support for new enrollees among those eligible for Medicaid under the old laws. That makes increased state Medicaid costs from higher enrollments by "old-eligibles" virtually certain as they enroll into Medicaid to comply with the mandate to purchase health insurance. This study estimates and compares potential increases in Medicaid costs from ObamaCare for the five most populous states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, Markets, and Health Care Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, New York, California, and Florida
388. The Virtues of Free Markets
- Author:
- Mark A. Zupan
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Free markets have many virtues. Arguably, the most recognized is the expansion of individual choice—and thus freedom—through mutually beneficial exchange (see Bauer's definition of economic development in Dorn 2002: 356). This proposition is at the heart of the enduring impact of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations ([1776] 1937) which aptly spells out the benefits of the Invisible Hand for citizens and societies.
- Topic:
- Government
389. The Diversity of Debt Crises in Europe
- Author:
- Jerome L. Stein
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The foreign debts of the European countries are at the core of the current crises. Generally, the crises are attributed to government budget deficits in excess of the values stated in the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), as part of the Maastricht treaty. Proposals for reform generally involve increasing the powers of the European Union to monitor fiscal policies of the national governments and increasing bank regulation.
- Political Geography:
- Europe
390. Markets, Tort Law, and Regulation to Achieve Safety
- Author:
- Paul H. Rubin
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Markets, tort law, and regulation are alternative methods of achieving safety. Of these, the market is the most powerful, but it is often ignored in policy discussions. I show that both for the United States over time and for the world as a whole, higher incomes are associated with lower accidental death rates, and I discuss some examples of markets creating safety. Markets may fail if there are third-party effects or if there are information problems. Classic tort law is a reasonable (although expensive) way to handle third-party effects for strangers, as in the case of auto accidents. In theory, regulation could solve information problems, but in practice many regulations overreach because of different information problems—consumers are unaware of unapproved alternatives. A particularly difficult information problem arises in the case of what I call “ambiguous goods”— goods that reduce some risks but increase others (for example, medical care and malpractice.) Product liability focuses on these goods; over half of the litigation groups of the American Association for Justice are for ambiguous goods.
- Topic:
- Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
391. Economic Freedom and Happiness
- Author:
- Daniel M. Gropper, Robert A. Lawson, and Jere T. Thorne Jr.
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- That liberty is necessary for greater happiness and a better life is a notion deeply rooted in the American sensibility. But is there a link between greater freedom and greater happiness across countries? In this article we explore this question by examining the empirical relationship between liberty, as measured by economic freedom, and happiness across more than 100 countries.
- Political Geography:
- America
392. The Impact of Ohio's EdChoice on Traditional Public School Performance
- Author:
- Matthew Carr
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the course of the last 35 years, traditional public school student achievement in the United States has been stagnant, despite myriad reform efforts and a doubling in total expenditures on K–12 education (Ravitch 2000, Hanushek 1986, Greene 2005). The ramifications of this academic achievement plateau on human capital development and thus the country's global economic standing are of paramount importance (Heckman and Masterov 2007). Thus, one of the most important public policy questions that government and society faces is how to improve the academic performance and quality of the nation's public education system.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
393. Why Some Cities Are Growing and Others Shrinking
- Author:
- Dean Stansel
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the last three decades, large cities like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Toledo have seen their populations shrink, while areas like Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, Tampa, and Phoenix have seen their populations grow rapidly. Examining the policy differences between high-growth and low-growth areas can provide evidence that may help declining cities reverse their fortunes.
- Political Geography:
- New York
394. Gustav Cassel: In Defense of Private Property Rights
- Author:
- Benny Carlson
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In their book on property rights, Terry Anderson and Fred McChesney (2003: 13) make the following statement: The idea that property rights might themselves be a distinct and explicit area of economic inquiry is relatively recent. In classical economics, well-defined and secure property rights were typically assumed to exist, not analyzed or explained.
395. Property Rights and Environmental Quality: A Cross-Country Study
- Author:
- Carrie B. Kerekes
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Public policy often regards pollution and other measures of poor environmental quality as public bads that result from market failure and require government intervention through regulatory policies and more stringent environmental standards. In this article, I argue that pollution and environmental quality should instead be regarded from a property rights perspective, in which institutions of clearly defined and enforced property rights create incentives that lead to reduced levels of pollution and an overall improvement in environmental quality. Using cross-country data, I examine the relationship between property rights and environmental quality.
396. Dollarization: The Case of Zimbabwe
- Author:
- Joseph Noko
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This article investigates the recent monetary experience of Zimbabwe with dollarization. It shows how dollarization has allowed Zimbabwe to quash hyperinflation, restore stability, increase budgetary discipline, and reestablish monetary credibility. Zimbabwe's hyperinflationary past and the stabilization measures taken by the government are outlined, and the consequences defined. Problems arising from a lack of financial integration, an error in the choice of currency to dollarize under, and the inability of the government to enter into a formal dollarization agreement are discussed.
- Political Geography:
- Zimbabwe
397. Why Do Federal Funds Trade at the FOMC's Target Rate?
- Author:
- Jerry H. Tempelman
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The role of inflation expectations on the part of economic agents is being increasingly recognized and incorporated into frameworks for the setting of monetary policy (for example, Piger and Rasche 2008, Hetzel 2008). In this article, I describe how expectations are also critical in the implementation of monetary policy. According to the textbook view, the Federal Reserve controls the federal funds rate by varying the supply of reserves available to the banking system. I will argue, however, that fluctuations in the supply of reserves are not the full explanation, thus providing additional support for Taylor (2001), who found that federal funds trade at or around the Federal Open Market Committee's target rate in part because market participants expect that if they don't, the Fed will step in and react.
398. Suckers, Punters, Pathbreakers: When Homo Oeconomicus Is Selflessly Selfish
- Author:
- Anthony de Jasay
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Rational choice presupposes that people do what they like better than any available alternative. If, however, we mistrust what they declare to like or what psychology is supposed to tell us about it (a pardonable enough mistrust), we can only infer what they like from observing what they do. We must be content with revealed preference. The theory of choice is locked into the tautology of “they do what they like because they like what they do,” and requiring their preferences to be orderly and consistent is of little practical help. In its elegance, modern choice theory, as represented in neoclassical economics, is too smooth and slippery to be very useful.
- Topic:
- Economics
399. Alchemists of Loss: How Modern Finance and Government Intervention Crashed the Financial System by Kevin Dowd and Martin Hutchinson
- Author:
- Steven Horwitz
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The combination of the recession and financial crisis of the last few years has led to quite the outpouring of books by economists purporting to explain what happened and why, and how to avoid a repeat performance. This very crowded field has seen a range of quality, but a good number of these books have been quite well done. Alchemists of Loss by Great Britain's Kevin Dowd and Martin Hutchinson is another very good treatment of the issues. The authors bring a wealth of experience to their book. Dowd has had a long career as an academic, with much of his work focusing on the history and theory of “free banking” and other forms of financial deregulation. Hutchinson is a longtime financial journalist and has worked in the merchant and investment banking industries in Britain. They have written a comprehensive, fairly detailed, and surprisingly entertaining account of the historical context, theoretical framework, and actual events of the crisis.
- Topic:
- Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Britain
400. Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America by Craig Shirley
- Author:
- Victor Gold
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Nearly every presidential election in my lifetime appeared to be the most critical in the nation's history, with America's very survival hanging in the balance—at least according to the candidates involved. In truth, however, only two campaigns for the White House could be described as historically transformative.
- Political Geography:
- Britain