Want Cheaper Drugs?

Every imaginable product and service has a price, and yet there is something different about pricing prescription medicines. In the new issue of Regulation, Charles L. Hooper and David R. Henderson say that to “fix” drug pricing, we need more competition, more cost sharing, and the liberalization of some regulations. Also in this issue, Larry Downes describes how rent-seeking and public choice have put a telecom deregulation success story at risk, and Jason Scott Johnston looks at the social cost of carbon – how is it derived and how is it used to justify America’s climate policy?

Menu Mandates and Obesity: A Futile Effort

One provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that has been delayed until 2017 is a federal mandate for standard menu items in restaurants and some other venues to contain nutrition labeling. The stated motivation for such menu mandates is to reduce the number of overweight and obese Americans by reducing their consumption of calories. In a new study, Cato scholar Aaron Yelowitz finds that the impact of such labeling requirements on BMI, obesity, and other health-related outcomes is trivial.

Global Steel Overcapacity: Trade Remedy “Cure” Is Worse than the “Disease”

Domestic U.S. steel producers are exposed to unfairly low-priced steel and are understandably unhappy. Their traditional response has been to seek relief from troublesome imports, primarily by filing antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) petitions. In a new bulletin, Cato scholar Daniel R. Pearson argues that these measures do great harm to manufacturing companies by making steel in the United States higher in price than in most of the rest of the world.

Cato University 2016

Cato University is the Cato Institute’s premier educational event of the year, bringing together like-minded people to share ideas on how to advance, enhance, and defend the principles of liberty, free markets, and individual rights. This annual program – held this year at Cato in Washington, DC from July 24-29 – brings together outstanding faculty and participants from across the globe – all sharing a commitment to liberty and learning. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) will be giving a special lecture this year on “Defending Liberty in the Halls of Congress.”

Recent Commentary

Feinstein-Burr, Encryption and the “Rule of Law”

Julian Sanchez

The bill is somewhat misleadingly titled the “Compliance With Court Orders Act of 2016”—which you’d think would be a matter for the Judiciary Committee, not the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence—and begins with the high minded declaration that “no person or entity is above the law.” 

Events

April 25

The Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe

Featuring the author David Coltart, Senator, Human Rights Lawyer, and Former Minister of Education, Zimbabwe; with comments by Mark Bellamy, Former U.S. Ambassador to Kenya; Warburg Professor of International Relations, Simmons College; moderated by Marian L. Tupy, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute.

4:00PM to 5:30PM
 Hayek Auditorium

More Events

Of Special Note

Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America

Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America

Ten years after the Supreme Court’s infamous eminent domain decision, Kelo v. New London, Timothy and Christina Sanderfur’s Cornerstone of Liberty examines how dozens of new developments in courtrooms and legislatures across the country have shifted the landscape of private property rights since 2005. Through a combination of real-life stories and solid legal analysis, the authors explain how key issues like eminent domain, civil asset forfeiture, and environmental protection regulations have evolved and how they should be reformed.

Purchase your copy today

Special! 10 Copies for $10

Cato Pocket Constitution

To encourage people everywhere to better understand and appreciate the principles of government that are set forth in America’s founding documents, the Cato Institute published this pocket-size edition.

Now Available

The Libertarian Mind Audiobook

The Libertarian Mind, by David Boaz, longtime executive vice president of the Cato Institute, is the best available guide to the history, ideas, and growth of libertarianism, and is the ultimate resource for the current, burgeoning libertarian movement. This acclaimed book is now available as a fully unabridged audiobook, ready for immediate downloading, on Audible.com.

Lukewarming

The 2016 Friedman Prize: Register Now to Attend

The Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, named in honor of perhaps the greatest champion of liberty in the 20th century, is presented every other year to an individual who has made a significant contribution to advance human freedom. Registrations are now being accepted for the 2016 Biennial Dinner, which will be held on May 25, 2016 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton will be delivering the keynote address.