In "Washington Is Quietly Repudiating Its Debts," Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr., Cato senior fellow and former vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, writes:

"In his famous treatise, 'The Wealth of Nations,' Adam Smith noted there had never been a 'single instance' of sovereign debts having been repaid once 'accumulated to a certain degree.' We may have reached Smith's threshold. The bond markets are certainly not protecting creditors from the risk of what Smith called 'pretended payment' through inflation. ... Investors are already being taxed by inflation and can rationally expect that tax rate (the inflation rate) to be raised going forward. Wages are not keeping up. Main Street is being taxed to fund Wall Street excess. Anyone who works, saves and invests is exposed to confiscation of his capital and earnings through inflation. If the Fed maintained its independence of action and said no to the inflationary finance of Congress's profligacy, we wouldn't have reached this point. But the Fed has forsaken that independence amid an absence of leadership."

Neal McCluskey, associate director of Cato's Center for Educational Freedom, comments:

"The annual U.S. News & World Report college rankings are a terrific sign that American higher education is a market-based system that works. Providing all kinds of data to parents and students, and measuring what different schools bring to the table, the rankings demonstrate that American higher education is a vibrant, powerful, customer-driven system.

"Of course, the U.S. News rankings are not the sole, all-encompassing method to find the college that's just right for you. It is important to also look at other factors, and competing guides such as those put out by Forbes, the Princeton Review, Newsweek and others.

"These guides show, however, that when it comes to higher education--in stark contrast to our dreadful elementary and secondary system--it's the needs of the students, not schools or bureaucrats, that come first."

In "Real Reform Can Fix Immigration," Daniel Griswold, director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, writes:

"We can't close our eyes and hope illegal immigration goes away. Nor can we simply throw money at the same enforcement programs that have failed to fix the problem for more than 20 years. To solve this vexing problem, we need to reform our immigration system in a way that recognizes economic reality, guards our security and reduces the incentives for illegal immigration. ... The answer is not to merely spend more to enforce the existing, dysfunctional law, but to change it. Immigration reform must include an expanded visa program so that willing workers from Mexico and elsewhere can enter the United States legally to help us build a more vibrant economy, and reform must offer a path to legal status for workers already here.

Immigrants come to America to work, not to go on welfare or cause trouble."

In "Who Will Decide When We Leave Iraq?," Christopher Preble, Cato's director of foreign policy studies, writes:

"In the past, members of the Bush administration have said that the U.S. military would leave if asked to do so by the Iraqi government. ... Of course, military decisions should not be dictated solely by political considerations. If an enormous military presence inside of Iraq were necessary to protect Americans from terrorism, then we might have to override the wishes of Iraqi elected officials. But the visible U.S. presence in Iraq is not needed in order to hunt down terrorists in Iraq, and it has obviously failed to resolve sectarian tensions there. ... The United States will continue to hunt down terrorists in Iraq, even after the occupation ends, in the same way that we do it everywhere else in the world: by deploying small units of military personnel at times and in places of our choosing, usually in concert with the host nation's forces."

For more information please see "Questions About Iraq" by Stanley Kober.      

In the Policy Analysis "Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Housing Finance: Why True Privatization Is Good Public Policy," Lawrence J. White, former member of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and a board member of Freddie Mac, writes:

"The special governmental links that apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac yield little that is socially beneficial, while creating significant potential social costs. The best policy would be to privatize them completely -- that is, to sever all governmental links and convert them to truly 'normal' corporations -- as well as to pursue other measures that would better address the positive externality of home ownership and efficiently reduce the cost of housing. In the event that true privatization does not occur, suitable 'secondbest' policies would include stronger statements by Treasury officials that the federal government has no intention of supporting the two companies, improved safety-and-soundness regulation of the two companies, limits on the amounts of their debt that can be held by regulated depository institutions, and increased efforts to focus Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the segment of the housing market where their social benefits would be greatest."

Thomas Fiery, managing editor of Cato's Regulation magazine, comments:

"The college presidents should be applauded for taking this stand. It's clear that the current drinking age law has led young adults engage in all sorts of risky and harmful behavior, just as we should expect when government prohibits something that is broadly socially accepted. The college presidents get to deal with the consequences of this law first-hand every semester."

Malou Innocent, Cato foreign policy analyst, comments:

"While the judge issue continues to dominate the civilian government's attention, the militant Islamist insurgency continues to spread along Pakistan's western frontier with Afghanistan, a development that slowly threatens the integrity of Pakistan itself. The only way Islamabad can counteract the radicalism is to focus on increasing, rather than reducing, the footprint of the Pakistani Army in the tribal areas. Until then, domestic power struggles and ceaseless political infighting will continue to overshadow a menace more sinister than mere legislative rivals."

Jim Harper, director of Cato's information policy studies and a member of the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, comments:

"Mass surveillance of American citizens' border crossings has essentially nothing to do with terrorism. DHS' collection and databasing of law-abiding citizens' movements may be done in the name of security, but it's really about control -- federal government control of the citizen. The DHS didn't even consult its own experts on the privacy consequences of this program. The Border Crossing Information System was not reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee before it was implemented. This is an agency at odds with Americans' privacy."

Cato Senior Fellow Michael Tanner comments:

"The study points to a legitimate concern -- the rising cost of health care. But it ignores the role that government plays in driving up those costs. Moreover, the authors simply assume that any decision to forgo medical care results in poorer health outcomes. In reality, however, studies indicate that such decisions may be perfectly rational and have no actual impact on health. Finally, the authors assume universal insurance would solve cost and access problems. However, if one looks at national health care systems in other countries, one finds that health care costs are rising and patients often forgo care, not because of choices that they make, but because care is not available."

Michael Cannon, Cato's director of health policy studies, adds:

"Government controls half the nation's health care spending, gives employers control over a further 25 percent, and voila! health care costs are devouring everyone's paycheck because everyone is spending someone else's money. Universal coverage would just let government devour even more of workers' paychecks. The madness will end only when government returns the money to the workers and gets out of the way."

In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Earmarks," Chris Edwards, director of Cato's tax policy studies, writes:

"[T]he real issue is federalism, not earmarks. Many of these funding projects are not federal responsibilities at all. But the idea of federalism has disappeared from public discussion in an orgy of state and local lobbying of compliant Washington politicians."

John Samples, director of Cato's Center for Representative Government, comments:

"It's no surprise that Congress is passing lots of resolutions. Such praise and admonitions offers benefits to some constituents and cost little to everyone else, apart from the cost of having Congress in session, a cost taxpayers are struck with in any case. Beyond that, we should be wary of measuring Congress' performance by legislation. By that standard, the most successful Congress would be the 89th which served from 1965 to 1967 and passed over 200 laws that expanded the federal government well beyond its Constitutional constraints. Congress is not the solution to most problems in the society, and we should stop expecting legislation about every complaint. A 'do-nothing' Congress might well be a tonic for what ails the nation."

In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Chavez: Do We Need Any More Evidence?," Cato's Executive Vice President David Boaz writes:

"We know from theory and history that socialism -- state ownership of the means of production and the attempt to eliminate for-profit economic activity -- leads inevitably to tyranny. We saw it in Russia, China, and Cuba. ... Chavez has promised to bring socialism to Venezuela. If he succeeds, we know that the result will be tyranny."

Malou Innocent, Cato foreign policy analyst, comments:

"Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation is an important development with unpredictable implications. Those people who hope that Pakistan's turbulent politics will disappear along with Musharraf are likely to be disappointed. Pakistan's political class has been a revolving door of military and civilian leaders for most of its 60-year history. Exacerbating that country's political and constitutional roller coaster has been numerous American administrations, both during the Cold War and the so-called 'War on Terror,' which continually sought the assistance of Pakistani army generals even at the cost of that country's rule of law. After Musharraf, it is important for leaders in Washington to understand that America's heavy reliance on Pakistani military leaders is a policy not passively accepted by the majority of Pakistan's population. Perhaps the next administration can learn from President Bush's mistakes and begin to step away from the belief that a particular leader can serve as the linchpin in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban."

In "Cracks in the Foundation: NATO's New Troubles," Stanley Kober, Cato research fellow in foreign policy studies, writes:

"When the Cold War ended and the Warsaw Pact dissolved, Russia agreed to live with NATO -- even with a NATO that expanded to include a united Germany. But a triumphant alliance decided it should expand and take in new members. Incredibly, like Germany's leaders a century before, American leaders (and their foreign allies) did not appreciate that alliances provoke the formation of counter-alliances. [A]s NATO has expanded, Russia's relations with China, in particular, have grown apace, leading initially to the formation of the Shanghai Five and then to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In other words, just as the Triple Entente gradually emerged in opposition to the Triple Alliance, so the SCO seems to be emerging in response to NATO expansion."

But for the majority of analysts, the price decline still is not enough to put the sector on the road to recovery."

Cato Senior Fellow Jagadeesh Gokhale comments:

"The travails of the housing and financial sectors appear unlikely to end soon. According to recent studies, home price declines will not stop until excess numbers of homes for sale have left the market.  Despite the slowdown in home construction, excess home inventories won't be reduced quickly unless potential home buyers step up to the plate and begin buying again. But with home prices falling, the incentive is to wait: Why buy a home immediately when prices will likely be lower after a few weeks or months? And the sluggish economy--which means larger unemployment and smaller incomes--is constraining the budgets of potential home purchasers. 

"One silver lining on the horizon, however, is that oil price increases are reversing. That means one of the two compounding shocks to economic growth is abating and the economic slowdown may not turn out to be as long-lasting as predicted earlier.  If the general economy improves soon after the end of this year, we may see housing and financial sectors stabilize--perhaps even reverse course and begin growing again.  Thereafter, promoting robust economic growth will require congressional intervention to maintain low taxes by making the growth-promoting Bush tax cuts permanent."    

Stanley Kober, Cato research fellow in foreign policy studies, comments:

"The conclusion of a missile defense deal between the United States and Poland, following on the heels of the conflict in the Caucasus, raises the specter of a new Cold War.  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has canceled a visit to Poland scheduled for September.  'Europe is dividing.  A few small countries dependent on the USA are following the political path of Washington. Poland is among them,' Gennadiy Gudkow, deputy chairman of the Russian Parliamentary Safety Committee, has warned.  The implication is that Russia will respond by exploiting the divide among other European countries, attempting to undermine the unity of NATO."

In "Sink This SCHIP," Michael F. Cannon, Cato's director of health policy studies and co-author of Healthy Competition: What's Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It, writes:

"SCHIP is senseless. Like its much larger sibling, Medicaid, the program forces taxpayers to send their money to Washington so that Congress can send it back to state governments with strings attached. Both programs force taxpayers to subsidize people who don't need help, discourage low-income families from climbing the economic ladder -- and make private insurance more expensive for everyone else."

Cato Foreign Policy Analyst Malou Innocent comments from Pakistan:

"[D]espite the widespread sense that [President Musharraf] has drastically eroded the public trust, there is growing doubt that a civilian government is any better equipped to improve Pakistan's shaken economy and fragile rule of law.

"In the looting and lawlessness that followed last December's assassination of opposition politician Benazir Bhutto, Pakistanis went to the polls and voted out Musharraf's ruling party, and voted in civilian leaders of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), led by Asif Ali Zardari, and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. As luck would have it, immediately after civilians came to power the country experienced a precipitous economic downturn. Now, there is a growing consensus among some of Pakistan's business elite that the army should be back in power."

In "A Boon Rather Than a Burden," Daniel Griswold, director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, writes:

"For the U.S. economy, foreign-born workers provide needed flexibility, allowing the supply of workers to increase relatively quickly to meet rising demand. ... According to the Department of Labor, the largest growth in absolute numbers of jobs during the next decade will be in several categories that require onl' 'short-term on-the-job training' of one month or less. We all know what those jobs are: retail sales, food preparation, landscaping and grounds keeping, janitors, cashiers, waiters and waitresses, teaching assistants, and home health aides. The net employment growth in those categories in the next decade will total more than four million.

"Meanwhile, the supply of American workers willing and happy to fill such jobs continues to shrink. We are getting older and better educated. The median age of workers in the U.S. labor force will soon reach 41.6 years, the highest level ever recorded in U.S. history. At the same time, workers in the U.S. labor force are more educated than ever."

In the Cato-@-Liberty blog post "Much Ado about Offshore Drilling," Thomas Firey, the managing editor of Regulation magazine, writes:

"Good public policy would examine the risks and costs underlying [the environmental and economic considerations], and then make a decision (or perhaps a compromise) about drilling. However, this issue will not be decided in such a rational way. The debate will be dominated by two ideological camps -- the 'drill at any cost' crowd and the 'don't drill at any cost' -- and their ideological priors and political power will preempt any good policy discussion. Unfortunately, that's how we roll here in Washington, D.C."

In "The Big Squeeze," Cato Senior Fellow Michael D. Tanner writes:

"Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama owe the American people an explanation of how they are going to deal with the entitlement crisis. Are they willing to cut benefits and reform these programs? Or do they think we can tax our way out of the problem? Do we really want government taking more than a third of GDP? There is no doubt that we are currently going through some tough economic times. But the current slow-down is nothing compared to the economic crisis we will face if the government fails to get its financial house in order."

Stanley Kober, Cato research fellow in foreign policy studies, comments:

"Many foreign policy experts are outraged by Russia's behavior in the Caucasus but seem at a loss to provide useful recommendations.  For example: Ronald Asmus and Richard Holbrooke warn that 'Moscow is sending a message that, in its part of the world, being close to Washington and the West does not pay (Washington Post, Aug. 11)."  And what should Washington and its allies do to change that perception?  They should tell Moscow that 'its own prestige project -- the Sochi Olympics -- will be affected by its behavior.'  If that is the best response proponents of NATO expansion can devise, we might as well roll up the alliance right now. The Western guarantee has morphed from the three musketeers to the three little pigs, but all that huffing and puffing will not blow Putin's house down."

Chris Edwards, Cato's director of tax policy studies, comments:

"The GAO report did not make any determination about whether corporations were doing anything abusive at all. Thus Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is using his vivid imagination to claim that the GAO study shows that U.S. corporate behavior is 'shameful.' Dorgan also opined that corporations were not paying their 'fair share,' yet federal corporate income tax payments have soared in recent years from $207 billion at the peak of the last boom to $345 billion this year. The GAO report identifies numerous legitimate reasons why some companies don't pay taxes in some years. In particular, many do not earn any profits in some years -- just look at the airlines and automobile companies."

Daniel Griswold, director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, comments:

"Contrary to the claims of free trade critics, the trade deficit tells us almost nothing about the success or failure of U.S. trade policy. The deficit reflects the continuing inflow of foreign investment to the U.S. economy. Without that investment, millions of homeowners and businesses would be saddled with higher interest payments. 

"It's ironic to hear Democrats complain about the trade deficit. Under President Clinton in the 1990s, the trade deficit exploded from $70 billion to $380 billion and by all accounts the American economy performed well. The biggest failure of U.S. trade policy is not the trade deficit, but a protectionist and subsidy-laden farm bill, continuing high tariffs on mass consumer goods such as shoes and clothing, unfair and much-abused antidumping laws, and a Congress that refuses to even vote on free trade agreements with key allies."