After WWII, nations tore down trade barriers. Living standards soared. Lifespans rose. Now that progress is reversing. Cato’s Tom G. Palmer traces how zero-sum thinking transforms win-win exchange into lose-lose outcomes—and what history teaches us about the cost. Read more:
According to election administrators and investigators, confirmed cases of unlawful voting are vanishingly rare. In a new Cato Podcast episode, Walter Olson and Stephen Richer explore how voter roll audits work and what the evidence reveals about the scale of the problem.
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The SEC’s Consolidated Audit Trail collects billions of Americans’ financial records, creating massive privacy and security risks. Its scope exceeds necessity, undermines Fourth Amendment protections, and should be dismantled before it becomes a dystopian surveillance tool.
Americans trust their own doctors more than federal health agencies, a new study finds. Policy should reflect that. Public health works best when it’s decentralized and leaves medical decisions to patients and clinicians, Cato’s Jeffrey Singer explains.
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What really causes economic crises?
When the economy crashes, families and businesses suffer. Discover how well-intentioned policy decisions can trigger and worsen recessions.
Learn more with Cato Courses. Always free. Learn anytime, anywhere.
www.cato.courses
When Martin “Bud” Mattern left nearly $1 million to the Cato Institute in his estate plans, he was securing a future for the principles and ideas that guided his own life. Learn his story, how Bud developed libertarian principles, and how he chose to carry them forward.
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Turning foreign policy into a series of threats and coercive deals risks weakening alliances and undermining long-term US interests, says Cato’s Doug Bandow. Read his latest article analyzing President Trump’s foreign policy.
Two recent Supreme Court cases reveal a growing “invincibility gap,” where government officials can violate constitutional rights or engage in deliberate misconduct yet remain protected by complex immunity doctrines, writes Mike Fox. Read more as he explains the cases.
Cato Institute scholar Ilya Somin argues that the attack on Iran is clearly large enough to constitute a war. “That means it just as obviously requires congressional authorization. Trump didn’t get any—in fact, he did not even try to do so.”
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Uncertainty clouds both the legal foundation and strategic endgame of US involvement in Iran. In this episode of the Cato Podcast, Justin Logan, Thomas Berry, and Brandan P. Buck explore the constitutional and political questions raised by the US war on Iran.
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Markets are everywhere—and the more freedom there is, the greater the chances for creating social and economic harmony. In this article, Cato’s James A. Dorn explores the ideas of Adam Smith and ancient Chinese thinkers.
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A new study suggests that liberalizing immigration would improve long-term care quality—in part by increasing home care and reducing nursing home use—and thereby save thousands of elderly lives every year, writes Michael F. Cannon.
Congress should move America away from the existing housing finance system, testified Cato’s Norbert Michel before the House Financial Services Committee. In a new article, he outlines three key questions lawmakers should ask about the GSEs and the secondary mortgage market.
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Cato Institute legal scholar Ilya Somin calls the war against Iran blatantly unconstitutional, emphasizing that “The Framers of the Constitution deliberately gave Congress exclusive control over the power to initiate war.”
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“Automatically refunding unlawfully collected IEEPA tariffs is the right thing to do, likely to be politically popular, and feasible today for most imports. It would only be a logistical nightmare if the Trump administration chooses to make it one,” say Cato scholars.
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People have diverse beliefs. One school can't serve them all. A new Ten Commandments ruling just made that clearer. Cato's Neal McCluskey argues school choice is the answer for progressives, conservatives... everyone.
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Congress should dissolve the Office of the Surgeon General and the Commissioned Corps, transfer legitimate public health functions elsewhere, and end the politicization of public health, Cato’s Dr. Jeffrey Singer argues.
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“The president took the nation to war without authorization from Congress, a decision in direct contravention of the Constitution. Protecting the separation of powers is the sworn duty of all 535 duly elected members of Congress,” says Cato’s Katherine Thompson.
"President Trump has plunged the US into an open-ended war with Iran without clearly defined and achievable objectives, a discernible endgame, or a viable exit strategy. Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States—this is another US war of choice in the Middle East," says Cato’s Jon Hoffman.
“War demands clarity of purpose and constitutional legitimacy. Americans deserve both. They deserve representatives in Congress who will jealously maintain their solemn warmaking prerogative and take seriously their duty to check the presidency,” says Cato foreign policy expert Brandan Buck.
Can we expect IEEPA tariff refunds any time soon (if at all)? The money at stake is enormous.
According to CBP data, tariffs collected under the IEEPA totaled $133.5 billion through December 14, 2025.
In this article, Cato scholars discuss the possible scenarios: t.co/jHI5Jkd11d
Argentina’s new labor law is a step in the right direction, even if more measures will be needed to fully liberalize the labor market, explains the Cato Institute’s Marcos Falcone.
“If presidents routinely spring crooked government officials from jail, it signals that public corruption is no big deal, and we will get more of it,” says Cato’s Chris Edwards. In his latest article, he examines pardons issued by Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
“Inflation may not wait for debt to pile up. It can arrive the moment Congress commits to that debt-ridden path,” says Veronique de Rugy.
Learn more about how Washington’s reliance on borrowing fuels inflation:
It is unclear why the US struck Iran in the first place, says Cato’s defense and foreign policy expert Benjamin Giltner.
“If anything, Americans are now in more danger from this war than they were before,” he adds.
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“Elections are always high-stakes, and public trust in election processes is important. Invoking vague emergency statutes to exert more control over elections would raise the stakes—and reduce public trust in elections,” Cato’s Brent Skorup explains.
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Tariff refund delays could cost US taxpayers billions of dollars in needless interest payments, equal to about $700 million every month that the government delays tariff refunds—or about $23 million per day.
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2026 marks the 30th anniversary of Section 230, also known as “the 26 words that created the internet.”
Watch Cato Institute’s discussion on the past, present, and future of online speech and Section 230: buff.ly/xi0meLd
Cato scholars have been at the center of the IEEPA tariff debate from the start—in the courts, the press, and Congress. Visit Cato’s dedicated IEEPA resource page, which collects research, legal analysis, data, and commentary on the tariffs and the Supreme Court case.
Administrative subpoenas are issued without a judge, without probable cause, and often in secret. When challenged, governments claim they're "voluntary." Cato's Brent Skorup explains why the Supreme Court may soon weigh in.
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