Every year it seems that sending your kid to college is going to take one more sack full of hundreds than last year. One of the biggest reasons for this, ironically, is student aid. When government gives students more money for college, it lets schools inflate prices. But it's not primarily students or their parents who are paying the difference. Rather, it's taxpayers who have to hand over the bag.

• "Every University a Junkie," by Neal McCluskey
• "Making College More Expensive: The Unintended Consequences of Federal Tuition Aid," by Gary Wolfram

The "Climate Security Act", sponsored by Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA) will be debated by the Senate next week. The bill would establish a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases from the manufacturing, transportation and electric power sectors. Cato scholar Patrick J. Michaels says of the bill, "It's going to cost trillions and do nothing measurable about climate change in the foreseeable future."

• Full statement on Warner-Lieberman from Patrick J. Michaels
• "Carbon Copies," by Patrick J. Michaels
• "Combating Global Warming," by Ian W.H. Parry and William A. Pizer

A recent Brookings Institution study suggests that cities should build more transit lines and promote more compact development to reduce their carbon footprints. However, Cato scholar Randal O'Toole argues that these recommendations are not supported by the data. O'Toole notes, "Actual numbers reveal that most transit systems produce more greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile than the average automobile, and nearly all produce more than a hybrid such as the Toyota Prius. ...Encouraging people to drive smaller cars will do more to reduce carbon footprints at a lower cost than building new transit lines."

• Full statement on the Brookings report from Randal O'Toole
• "Does Rail Transit Save Energy or Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?," by Randal O'Toole
• "Roadmap to Gridlock: The Failure of Long-Range Metropolitan Transportation Planning," by Randal O'Toole

Ethiopia's Supreme Court has sentenced exiled former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and 18 other former government officials to death. Mengistu, who lives in exile in Zimbabwe, was found guilty of genocide and sentenced in absentia. The other officials are in Ethiopian custody. Brook Beshah and Cato scholar Marian Tupy recently reported on the atrocities committed by Mengistu, and argued "[M]ost people have forgotten that Mengistu is still living in exile in Zimbabwe. As the situation in Zimbabwe deteriorates, we should remember that Robert Mugabe is not the only dictator whose future hangs in the balance. If Mugabe falls, Mengistu should also face justice."

• "Arrest This Man," by Brook Beshah and Marian L. Tupy

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George F. Will on Monday reviewed The Cult of the Presidency, the new book from Cato scholar Gene Healy. Will writes, "[R]hetorical — and related — excesses are inherent in the modern presidency. This is so for reasons brilliantly explored in the year's most pertinent and sobering public affairs book...Healy's dissection of the delusions of 'redemption through presidential politics' comes at a moment when liberals, for reasons of liberalism, and conservatives, because they have forgotten their raison d'être, 'agree on the boundless nature of presidential responsibility.'"

• "Caesaropapism Rampant," by George F. Will
• The Cult of the Presidency, by Gene Healy

Federal law requires metropolitan planning organizations in urban areas of more than 50,000 people to write long-range metropolitan transportation plans and to revise or update those plans every 4 to 5 years. In "Roadmap to Gridlock: The Failure of Long-Range Metropolitan Transportation Planning," Cato scholar Randal O'Toole shows in a review of plans for more than 75 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas that virtually all of them fail to follow standard planning methods. Ideally, O'Toole argues, the federal government should not be in the business of funding local transportation and dictating local transportation policies.

• "Roadmap to Gridlock: The Failure of Long-Range Metropolitan Transportation Planning," by Randal O'Toole

Steadily rising gas prices will keep some drivers off the road this year. For the first time since 2002, Americans drove less on Memorial Day weekend than they did the year before. As the summer driving season looms, Cato scholars offer their perspectives on the recent rise in energy prices.

• "Kingdom Done," by Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren
• "Understanding the Gas-Tax Holiday," by Peter Van Doren and Thomas A. Firey
• "McCain-Clinton 2008," by Jerry Taylor and Jagadeesh Gokhale
• "America's Drive for Energy Independence: Fueling the Oil Price Boom?," Policy Forum

In recent years, investors have rationally come to believe that the Federal Reserve will intervene to prevent or offset the effects of declining asset prices. The current financial crisis is at least partly the outcome of this new approach to monetary policy. In "Asset Bubbles and Their Consequences," Cato scholar Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr. argues that the Fed's recent actions will likely fuel a new asset bubble, and that the cumulative effects of recent monetary policy undermine the case for free markets.

• "Asset Bubbles and Their Consequences," by Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr.

• Full Issue in PDF (20 pp., 5 Mb)
• "Government, War, and Libertarianism", by Justin Logan [PDF] [HTML]
• "On Trees, Wind, and American Idol", by Edward H. Crane [PDF] [HTML]
• "Hayekian Insights on Development," [PDF] [HTML]
• "Cato Analysts Take a Skeptical Look at the Candidates" [PDF] [HTML]

Yon Goicoechea on Thursday accepted the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, the leading international award for significant contributions to advancing individual liberty. Mr. Goicoechea, leader of the pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela, plays a pivotal role in organizing and voicing opposition to the erosion of human and civil rights in his country. "Yon Goicoechea is making an extraordinary contribution to liberty," said Edward Crane, President of the Cato Institute. "We hope the Friedman Prize will help further his non-violent advocacy for basic freedoms in an increasingly militaristic and anti-democratic Venezuela."

Yon Goicoechea tonight accepts the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, the leading international award for significant contributions to advancing individual liberty. Mr. Goicoechea, leader of the pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela, plays a pivotal role in organizing and voicing opposition to the erosion of human and civil rights in his country. "Yon Goicoechea is making an extraordinary contribution to liberty," said Edward Crane, President of the Cato Institute. "We hope the Friedman Prize will help further his non-violent advocacy for basic freedoms in an increasingly militaristic and anti-democratic Venezuela."

Since its publication last fall, Canadian author Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism has become a bible for young anti-capitalist activists. Klein argues that capitalism goes hand in hand with dictatorship and brutality and that dictators and other unscrupulous political figures take advantage of "shocks" — catastrophes real or manufactured — to consolidate their power and implement unpopular market reforms. In "The Klein Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Polemics," Cato scholar Johan Norberg argues that Klein's analysis is hopelessly flawed at virtually every level.

With average prices for a gallon of gas continuing to rise from already record levels, John McCain and Hillary Clinton have proposed plans to temporarily suspend the federal gasoline tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Cato is pleased to offer some realistic assessments of this proposal.

• "Understanding the Gas-Tax Holiday," by Peter Van Doren and Thomas A. Firey
• "McCain-Clinton 2008," by Jerry Taylor and Jagadeesh Gokhale

The Founding Fathers wanted the judicial branch to serve as a check on the power of the legislative and executive, and gave the Supreme Court the responsibility of interpreting the Constitution in a way that would safeguard individual freedoms. But sadly, the Supreme Court has also handed down many destructive decisions. In The Dirty Dozen, authors Robert A. Levy and William Mellor shed light on the twelve worst decisions of the modern era.

• The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom, by Robert A. Levy and William Mellor

The official results of Zimbabwe's presidential election have been announced, with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai winning 47.9% of the vote. Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe's 43.2%, but both candidates fell short of the 50% needed for an outright win, forcing a runoff. Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), alleges that the government has been engaged in election tampering and has said it would reject the official results.

• "South Africa Plays Ball with Dictators," by Marian L. Tupy
• "A Decade of Suffering in Zimbabwe: Economic Collapse and Political Repression under Robert Mugabe," by David Coltart
• "How the Loss of Property Rights Caused Zimbabwe's Collapse," by Craig Richardson

In the most recent Cato's Letter, satirist and Cato H. L. Mencken fellow P. J. O'Rourke is at the top of his form. "We are besieged by pagans," O'Rourke contends, "savage, brutish worshippers of big government." O'Rourke then serves up politicians from across the ideological spectrum sliced and diced as only he can. Also in this edition, Cato scholar Andrew Coulson is profiled, and offers his thoughts on Cato policy initiatives in the area of educational freedom.

• "The Problem Is Politics," by P.J. O'Rourke
• Subscribe to Cato's Letter

The U.N. and World Bank this past week pledged to set up a task force to tackle the recent rise in global food prices. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the world faced "widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale" because of the recent escalation in prices. Cato scholars have argued recently that the only sustainable solution is for governments to pull back subsidies and protections.

• "New Delhi's Food Failure," by Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar
• "Freer Trade Could Fill the World's Rice Bowl," by Tyler Cowen
• "On Rice and Corn Laws," by Steve H. Hanke
• "Food Fight," by Sallie James

Hillary Clinton won a landslide victory in Kentucky on Tuesday, but Barack Obama followed that with a convincing win in Oregon later in the evening. Obama on Tuesday night also declared that he's won a majority of the total number of pledged delegates. With only Puerto Rico, Montana, and South Dakota left to vote, it appears that this race might soon be drawing to a close.

• "Bush's Bizarro World," by Ted Galen Carpenter
• "What's So Great About the Great Society?," by John Samples
• "The Pop Culture Presidency," by Gene Healy

In the current issue of Regulation, Andrea M. Dean and Russell S. Sobel show that Wal-Mart has no statistically significant impact on the overall size of the small business sector in the United States. In the same issue, Eric A. Posner and Cass R. Sunstein argue that standard ideas about distributive or corrective justice poorly fit the climate change problem. Also, W. Tom Whalen, Dennis W. Carlton, Ken Heyer, and Oliver Richard contend that the problem of airport delays could be solved by a market-based approach to the allocation of scarce takeoff and landing rights.

• Spring 2008 Issue of Regulation
• Wal-Mart vs. Mom and Pop, featuring Russell Sobel, 04/21/2008 (MP3 )

Pressing questions about the merits of market accountability in K-12 education have spawned a large scholarly literature. Unfortunately, much of that literature is of limited relevance, and some of it is misleading. In "Dismal Science: The Shortcomings of U.S. School Choice Research and How to Address Them", author John Merrifield argues, "To address the need for credible evidence on the effects of genuine education markets, economists should look to simulation models, indirect evidence such as outcomes in similar industries, and school systems abroad that enjoy varying degrees of market accountability."