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President Trump is taking a victory lap for brokering peace in Gaza—while simultaneously escalating the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine and launching airstrikes against suspected cartel boats. Our panel assesses Trump’s Nobel ambitions, celebrates this year’s actual Peace Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.
Justin Logan, "The Case for Withdrawing from the Middle East," Defense Priorities, September 2020.
Ian Vasquez, “Maria Corina Machado, Venezuelan Champion of Freedom, Wins the Nobel Peace Prize,” Cato at Liberty blog, October 10, 2025.
Ian Vasquez and Marcos Falcone, “Liberty Versus Power in Milei’s Argentina,” Free Society, October, 2025.
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President Trump’s new “Compact with Academia” aims to reshape higher ed using the leverage of federal funds. Our panel unpacks the constitutional risks of Washington’s latest salvo in the campus culture wars. Plus, shutdown week two: will the administration deliver on federal job cuts or is it Grim Reaper cosplay?
Neal McCluskey, "Higher Ed Compact Is More of the Same, Worse," Cato at Liberty blog, October 7, 2025.
Adam Michel, "Six Reasons to Not Extend the Enhanced Obamacare Subsidies," Cato at Liberty blog, October 7, 2025.
Neal McCluskey, "Court Rightly Finds for Harvard Against Trump Administration," Cato at Liberty blog, September 4, 2025.
Dominik Lett, "Revoking IEEPA Tariffs Will Not “Lead to Financial Ruin,”" Cato at Liberty blog, October 3, 2025.
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Robby Soave, senior editor at Reason and co-host of The Hill's Rising, join's Cato's Thomas A. Berry and David Inserra to discuss the state of free speech following the Charlie Kirk assassination and Jimmy Kimmel suspension. They examine how recent administrations have engaged in government jawboning to suppress speech and conclude that consistent First Amendment principles must prevail regardless of which party controls government power.
Show Notes:
https://www.cato.org/blog/kimmel-cancellation-dangerous-sign-free-speech
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The federal government shuts down as the Supreme Court returns. Our panel looks at the Trump team’s plan to use the shutdown for mass layoffs —and previews a new Supreme Court term packed with big fights over tariffs, emergency powers, and the future of “independent” agencies.
Romina Boccia, "Thoughts About The Impending Government Shutdown," The Debt Dispatch, September 30, 2025.
Jeffrey Miron, "Some Libertarians Cheer When Government Shuts Down: Here's Why They Shouldn't," Vox, January 21, 2018.
Ryan Bourne, "The Libertarian Experiment That Isn't," Cato at Liberty blog, January 11, 2019.
Thomas A. Berry, Brent Skorup, and Charles Brandt, "Learning Resources v. Trump," Cato Amicus Brief, July 30, 2025.
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Will congressional inaction lead to a government shut down? Do shutdowns halt the government in its tracks, and if not, who decides what stays and what goes? What does it mean for President Trump -- or the rest of us?
Cato's VP for Government Affairs, Chad Davis, in conversation with Patrick Eddington, senior fellow in homeland security and civil liberties at the Cato Institute.
Correction: The 35-day shutdown in late 2018 into early 2019 was over Trump's demand for $5.7 billion in federal funds for a border wall. The shutdown over Dreamers was three days in January 2018.
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FCC chair Brendan Carr’s “easy way or hard way” threat to TV broadcasters lit a censorship firestorm this week. Our Cato panel digs into the government's jawboning, broadcast licensees' “junior-varsity” First Amendment rights, and whether it’s time to scrap the FCC altogether. Plus, the latest on AI regulation and the art of the TikTok deal.
Brent Skorup, "Jimmy Kimmel, the FCC, and Why Broadcasters Still Have “Junior Varsity” First Amendment Rights," September 19, 2025.
Ilya Somin, "Abolish the FCC," September 18, 2025.
David Inserra and John Samples, "Kimmel Cancellation a Dangerous Sign for Free Speech," September 24, 202
Jennifer Huddelston, "Trump’s TikTok Reprieve Won’t Fix the Law’s Free Speech Problems," February 3, 2025.
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Are Americans becoming dangerously tolerant of political violence? After Charlie Kirk’s assassination, our Cato panel looks at trends in public opinion, past episodes of political terrorism, and new risks to free expression. Plus, Milei’s electoral setback in Buenos Aires province—what now for Argentina's libertarian experiment?
Alex Nowrasteh, "Politically Motivated Violence Is Rare in the United States," September 11, 2025.
Emily Ekins, "The State of Free Speech and Tolerance in America," October 2017 Survey Report.
YouGov, "What Americans really think about political violence," September 12, 2025.
Ian Vasquez, "Deregulation in Argentina." Spring 2025.
Lorenzo Bernaldo de Quirós, "Argentine President Milei Should Let the Peso Float," September 17, 2025.
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This week, Congress returns to looming shutdowns and a “pocket-rescission” power grab. Abroad, President Trump pushes “America First” by rebranding the Pentagon as the Department of War—and launching an airstrike on a Venezuelan cartel boat. Our panel asks what all this says about America’s fiscal sanity and its foreign-policy compass.
Adam N. Michel and Dominik Lett, “Reconciliation 2.0: Fix or Fiasco?,” Cato at Liberty (September 3, 2025)
Romina Boccia and [co-author unspecified], “Coming Budget Debates and How Congress Should Navigate Them,” Cato at Liberty (September 2025)
Brandan P. Buck, “The Lost Liberalism of America First,” Free Society (June 30, 2025)
Brandan P. Buck, “The Cognitive Shift: How the Terrorist Label May Lead to Another Forever War,” Cato at Liberty (March 19, 2025)
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Norbert Michel and Dominic Lett square off over whether fiscal or monetary policy is the bigger mess. Lett highlights how entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are driving unsustainable debt levels, while Michel explains how post-2008 Federal Reserve changes have created risks of “fiscal dominance,” where monetary policy is increasingly shaped by government borrowing needs. Both stress that without structural reforms and political restraint, the U.S. faces uncertain and potentially catastrophic economic consequences.
Show Notes:
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/comprehensive-evaluation-policy-rate-feedback-rules#
https://www.cato.org/books/crushing-capitalism
https://www.cato.org/blog/medicaid-driving-deficits-republicans-are-scarcely-tapping-brakes
https://www.cato.org/news-releases/senate-bill-could-increase-debt-6-trillion-cato-analysis#
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What should “public health in a free society” look like, and what limits should courts impose on executive trade powers? This week’s panel covers the shakeup at the CDC, asks whether America really needs a Surgeon General, and unpacks a blockbuster ruling from the Federal Circuit declaring most of President Trump’s global tariffs illegal.
Adam Thierer, “Breaking the Government’s Grip on the Medical Debate,” Cato at Liberty (August 28, 2025)
J.A. Singer, “Unnecessary Relics,” Policy Analysis (July 2025)
Thomas A. Berry, Brent Skorup, and Charles Brandt, “V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump,” Legal Briefs (July 8, 2025)
Brent Skorup, Ilya Somin, and Walter Olson, “Tariffs, Emergencies, and Presidential Power: A Conversation with Ilya Somin and Walter Olson,” Multimedia Event (May 27, 2025)
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Join Cato's Alex Nowrasteh and Travis Fisher as they unpack a pivotal moment in climate policy reform. The duo explores Fisher's tenure at the Department of Energy and the groundbreaking report that could reshape the discourse on greenhouse gases.
Travis Fisher, “Why I Helped Organize the Department of Energy’s Climate Report,” Cato at Liberty (August 6, 2025)
Travis Fisher and Joshua Loucks, “The Budgetary Cost of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Energy Subsidies,” Policy Analysis (March 11, 2025)
Patrick J. Michaels, “Cato Releases Report on EPA Endangerment Finding,” News Releases (October 31, 2012)
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"Golden shares” at home, grand bargains abroad. In this episode, Cato scholars weigh Trump’s push for equity stakes in U.S. firms under the CHIPS Act and his effort to strike a quick deal with Putin on Ukraine. What does state capitalism at home mean for American liberty—and can deal-making diplomacy abroad actually end the U.S. entanglement in Ukraine?
Scott Lincicome, “The government’s Intel stake is antithetical to American greatness”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/08/24/trump-intel-government-marketplace/
Justin (and Dan Caldwell) on security guarantees: https://thefederalist.com/2025/08/26/if-ukraine-wants-security-guarantees-it-should-get-them-from-europe/
Ryan Bourne, “Trump’s cronyism is quietly unravelling American capitalism,”
Ryan Bourne, Industrial Policy was the Gateway Drug to Cronyism
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Cato’s Jennifer Huddleston and Tommy Berry examine the 2024 TikTok divest-or-ban law and what it means for Americans. They explain how the law could reshape the app market, restrict free speech, and expand government power far beyond TikTok itself.
Jennifer Huddleston, “Could the Latest TikTok ‘Ban’ Pass Constitutional Muster?,” Cato at Liberty (blog) (March 12, 2024)
Jennifer Huddleston, “Competition and Content Moderation: How Section 230 Enables Increased Tech Marketplace Entry,” Policy Analysis no. 922 (January 31, 2022)
Jennifer Huddleston and Tommy Berry, “TikTok Users Await Looming US Ban; SCOTUS May Intervene,” Cato Daily Podcast (January 16, 2025)
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As President Trump’s “crime emergency” puts troops on D.C.’s streets, socialist Zohran Mamdani surges ahead in the New York mayoral race. On the panel, Cato scholars debate whether America’s capitals of politics and finance are becoming laboratories for failed ideas.
Ryan Bourne, “Zohran Mamdani’s ‘War on Prices’,” Commentary (June 13, 2025) cato.org
Scott Lincicome, “State-Run Supermarkets: A (Bad) Statist Solution in Search of a Problem,” Commentary (July 10, 2025) cato.org
Marian L. Tupy, “Marian L. Tupy Discusses His Experiences Living Under Communism on Prager U’s Stories of Us Podcast,” Media Highlights TV (November 14, 2023)
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