Travis Fisher and Alex Nowrasteh In a recent piece titled “Climate Change and Globalization,” Charles Kenny argues that globalization can help reduce the negative effects of climate change and even help reduce CO2 emissions. The essay was one of twelve in the Cato series Defending Globalization: Society and Culture. Although we agree with the call for liberalized global trade, we disagree with many of the essay’s recommendations regarding climate policy and multilateral agreements. First, let’s recognize some common ground. We greatly respect Dr. Kenny and value the open exchange of idea ..read more

Adam N. Michel Americans in ten states currently pay top tax rates above 49 percent, which is likely above the revenue‐​maximizing tax rate. Under President Biden’s proposed tax increases, almost three‐​quarters of the states would face top combined federal, state, and local tax rates above 49 percent.  Tax rates affect people’s decisions about how much to work and invest. The effects are often greatest for the highest‐​income individuals because they are able to change their behavior the most. Under the progressive tax rate system, additional income earned over certain income thresholds ..read more

Paul Matzko After years of legislative false starts, a TikTok ban bill has passed Congress. Notionally, the bill uses the threat of a ban to force a sale of the Chinese‐​owned app—thus allowing members of Congress to claim that it is not a ban—although the expert consensus is that China would rather stop US operations altogether than allow a sale to an immediate competitor. The legislation has been remarkably rushed; the bill was introduced in March and passed in April. During that time, no general and open hearings on the bill have been held and no unambiguous e ..read more

David Inserra In a ruling issued on April 17, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) issued a decision that could unravel the very viability of social media company business models. The technical, inside‐​baseball nature of the case involving advertising and data privacy means it has flown under the radar but nonetheless presents a dangerous precedent that uniquely targets American tech companies.  So first, what is going on in this case? In the EU, the sprawling General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) places many demands on companies in how they manage the data of us ..read more

Michael Chapman Uri Berliner, a 25‐​year‐​long journalist at National Public Radio (NPR), recently resigned from his job after being suspended because he wrote about the entrenched left‐​wing/​woke mindset at NPR, calling it a “progressive silo.” Berliner’s tell‐​all confirms what media critics have long known, and reveals why taxpayer funding of the news media is not a good idea.  It would not matter whether NPR was liberally biased or conservatively biased. The bottom line is that if politicians (bureaucrats) control the funding of the news, then the news likely will be polit ..read more

Paul Best Merry Oaks Baptist Church in Chatham County, North Carolina, near the site of a new VinFast factory. North Carolina officials announced a long sought‐​after victory in early 2022: VinFast, a Vietnamese electric vehicle startup, will invest $4 billion to build a 2,000-acre automotive factory in Chatham County, creating 7,500 jobs for the community as it helps to restore the state to its former industrial glory. But skepticism grew about the plan as more details were released. The state intends to use eminent domain to purchase and then demolish over two dozen home ..read more

David Inserra In recent weeks, a simmering conflict over the censorial practices of the Brazilian courts erupted into open conflict. Reporting from various sources shows how government forces— most notably Supreme Court Justice and President of the Superior Electoral Court Alexandre de Moraes—investigated, secretly censored, and arrested Brazilians accused of spreading “fake news” and “anti‐​democratic” misinformation, often with little due process. Social media companies were silenced and punished if they resisted. In response, X, formerly Twitter, declared that it would not comply with ..read more

John Mueller Impelled by an overwhelming desire to hunt down those who were responsible for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States launched military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, where it toppled regimes that had little or nothing to do with 9/11 and devolved into extended counterinsurgency wars that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 times as many people as perished on 9/11. There has been a tendency to see these exercises as misguided elements of a coherent plan to establish a “liberal world order” or to apply “liberal hegemony ..read more

Patrick G. Eddington Just shy of one year ago, the public learned that an FBI agent had conducted a query of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702 database for information on 19,000 American donors to a congressional campaign, among other episodes of 702 database query misconduct. The revelations, contained in a partially declassified Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinion, received massive media coverage and condemnation from House and Senate members across the political spectrum. The facts about these domestic surveillance abuses were no ..read more

Johan Norberg Today is Earth Day, an important moment to reflect on our broader responsibilities to the world. How are we really treating the planet and each other? Very well, thank you. At least relative to every other period in history and compared to less free societies. I make this case in a new Cato video based on my book The Capitalist Manifesto. Despite all the horrors of the world, this is the era in history when we have been most successful in increasing human opportunity. In the past 20 years, global extreme poverty was reduced by more than 130,000 people every day a ..read more