Policy Forum

November 18, 2009


Don't miss the many interesting and compelling events coming up over the next few weeks. Unless otherwise noted, each free program is held in the spacious F.A. Hayek Auditorium here at the Cato Institute — 1000 Massachusetts Ave., NW — and is followed by a complimentary reception.


Bending the Productivity Curve: How Would Health Care "Reform" Affect Medical Innovation?
Friday, November 20, 12:00 p.m.
Featuring Raymond Raad, New York Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical Center; Gerard Anderson, Director, Center for Hospital Finance and Management, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health; and John E. Calfee, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute. Moderated by Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute

About the event - New research shows that America generates more medical innovations than any other country. The Democrats' health care legislation focuses on expanding health insurance coverage, which should encourage innovation—yet it does so by expanding price controls, government purchasing, and health insurance regulation, which reduce innovation. What would be the net effect? What are the alternatives?






Book Forum
Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice
Tuesday, December 1, 12:00 p.m.
Featuring the author, Tom G. Palmer, General Director, Atlas Global Initiative for Free Trade, Peace, and Prosperity, and Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; with comments by Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics, George Mason University

About the event - Tom Palmer's new book ranges from the theory of justice to foreign policy, from the economics of public goods to gay rights in Russia. He also takes on current events and concerns, from struggles for free speech to the war in Iraq. It is hard to find a contemporary scholar with more knowledge of the theory and history of liberty, and at last his major writings are collected in one place.






Policy Forum
The Great Debate: Can Smart Growth Cost-Effectively Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
Thursday, December 3, 12:00 p.m.
Featuring Chuck Kooshian, Transportation Policy Analyst, Center for Clean Air Policy and Randal O'Toole, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute. Moderated by Patrick J. Michaels, Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Cato Institute

About the event - Recent reports have argued that we must reduce our use of automobiles to meet greenhouse-gas reduction targets, and that smart-growth policies aimed at rebuilding urban areas are an effective way of meeting this goal. Randal O'Toole argues that such measures are risky and expensive, and should be rejected even by those who believe that we need to reduce greenhouse emissions.






Book Forum
Latin America and the West
Wednesday, December 9, 12:00 p.m.
Featuring the author, Carlos Alberto Montaner; with comments by Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Senior Fellow, Independent Institute. Moderated by Ian Vásquez, Director, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute

About the event - Latin America, though poor, is a part of the West. The institutions, pastimes, intellectual history, languages, and belief systems of the vast majority of Latin Americans are of Western origin. Renowned Cuban writer Carlos Alberto Montaner will explain why a better understanding by the region's inhabitants of their own cultural background will help Latin America relate to the United States and the rest of the world.