[inaudible conversation] good afternoon and welcome everybody to the Cato Institute. I direct the center for global liberty and prosperity here at cato. The title and the style of the book were featuring today, socialism sucks, is admittedly more irrev van the typical more staid pock policy book wed Public Policy books we organize evented around but i assure you the authors today are serious, accomplished economists to decade of scholarly work inform the publication. The subtitlele of the book, who economists drink the way through the enfree world, give us flavor of the unconventional purchase for a couple of academics. That subtitlelesurprise me. I ten to run into ben powell and bob lawson at economic or academic conferences around the country and around the world, and inevitably they have drinks in their hand probably because we chat at conventions and receptions and hotel bars and i the like. The conversation is always interesting, informative and fun and thats true of this new book
Here at cato. Its my pleasure to welcome you to a book forum today, where well be discussing the latest book from ralph naadir, unstoppable the emerging leftright alliance to dismantle the corporate state. You heard that right. Ralph nader is speaking at the Cato Institute. And that little popping sound you hear is heads exploding all over washington. The same sound you hear when people discover store the third time the Koch Brothers support drug legalization, because when you look at the world through ideological spectacles and see everything in terms of left versus right, the most interesting things in the world become invisible. In particular, if you look back at recent American History, important parts of the story get lost. So when we think back to the 1960s, and opposition to the military draft, we think of this as a heroic leftwing cause. Student cad cals opposing the war and radicals opposing the war conscription. But the other part of the story is that one of the most influent
And she was the one with the picture were soaked with the Russian Foreign minister with the Big Red Button reset and a big smile. Can you imagine such a thing . Did they not understand that people have very different ideas. Let them are putins objective may well be tube rebuild the russian empire but those mistakes combined with some other tactical mistakes in syria for instance to draw a red line and then say gosh i guess i cant react without getting congresses approval but right now hes willing to act in iraq without congresses approval. Nonetheless couldnt do it than in that sends a message to russia and others in the world that is extraordinarily unfortunate for america. We have seen an explosion of very bad things throughout the world because the rest of the world has calculated what is happening. That is a dramatic reduction in our military capabilities and theres a departmental review that was recently completed report on by commission including president clintons department of
Had a pretty cushy coming in now, life coming up. I didnt know a lot of people who would serve in the military and you talk about the scourge of Sexual Assault in the military you are trying to address, which i think is great. I dont know a lot about the military, so when i hear that senator Barbara Mccaskill added misery seems to have a different approach to your proposed solution, i dont really combat it with a lot of expertise. I was wondering if you could address the contrast. Being that women agree on a lot of things, but we disagree on many things, too. But claire and i agree on a lot more than we disagree. Now we are working hand in glove on the Sexual Assault a College Campus issue. I still think the way the women in the senate work is really special. Women in the senate have a quarterly dinner. Barbara mikulski when she was senator and there was finally too, she said im going to start having a caucus. The two women started having dinner and she kept the tradition up for 20 yea