Appearing on almost every major news channel, including NBC, CBS and CNN, Daniel J. Ikenson explains why the auto companies should not receive a federal government bailout. Ikenson writes that there's nothing wrong with letting one of the "Big Three" go down:

The "Big Three" auto producers - Ford, Daimler-Chrysler and General Motors - want the public to believe their industry faces an existential threat. It doesn't. They want the public to believe they are innocent victims of circumstances beyond their control. They're not. They want the treasury secretary to authorize a fresh $25 billion bailout for the industry and the President-elect to pledge support for their parochial cause.

After appearing on TV against the bailout, Ikenson received a letter from a viewer who disagreed with him. Here is his reply.

The fact is that much of the Big Three's problem is self-made. The credit crunch and the contraction of demand is just the latest dark cloud, and a problem that affects all industries, not just autos. Thus, if there is a bailout for Detroit, where, how, and why do we draw the line to exclude other manufacturers, home builders, coal miners, and masseuses, who are all suffering from the same contraction in demand caused in part by the credit crunch? Don't tell me we should bail everyone out. For starters, we can't afford that.

Meanwhile, Daniel J. Mitchell debates in opposition to an auto industry bailout on NPR.org:

Consumers, acting in the marketplace, should determine which companies succeed or fail. Business success should not depend on which companies can hire the slickest lobbyists.

With the election behind us-as well as eight years of big-government Republican rule-P.J. O'Rourke concludes, "we blew it."

None of this is the fault of the left. After the events of the 20th century--national socialism, international socialism, inter-species socialism from Earth First-anyone who is still on the left is obviously insane and not responsible for his or her actions....The financial crisis that is hoisting us on our own petard is only the latest (if the last) of the petard hoistings that have issued from the hindquarters of our movement. We've had nearly three decades to educate the electorate about freedom, responsibility, and the evils of collectivism, and we responded by creating a big-city-public-school-system of a learning environment.

Analyzing President Bush's policies over the past eight years, Michael D. Tanner writes, "Even before the Wall Street bailout, President Bush spent money in a way that would make any liberal proud."

David Boaz predicts how Obama and the Democrats will govern.

Prediction: Despite conservative fears, they won't move left enough to satisfy the bloggers, activists and permanent protesters who have been driven mad by the outrages of the Bush administration. ...[But] Obama might very well move too far left and create a Republican renaissance.

Chris Edwards analyzes Obama's tax promises. Find out how your taxes will be raised here. 

For the economy, for tax code complexity, and for the America ideal of equal treatment under law, Obama's tax proposals would be a disaster. With Obama's tax and spending proposals, government as Santa Claus has reached new heights.

Adding up Barack Obama's spending proposals, Alan Reynolds asks, "How's Obama going to raise $4.3 trillion?"

A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money. Altogether, Mr. Obama is promising at least $4.3 trillion of increased spending and reduced tax revenue from 2009 to 2018-roughly an extra $430 billion a year by 2012-2013.

How is he going to pay for it?

Reynolds also warns that yes, even if we were to face a recession, the government would still raise your taxes.

Those who imagine the government won't try to raise taxes during a recession have short memories. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act was signed by George Bush Sr. on Nov. 5, 1990-14months after the economy slipped into recession that July.

Looking beyond next year, the biggest fiscal danger is not the tax increases Obama describes as such, but the tax increases he describes as "tax cuts"-namely, $1.3 trillion of unfunded entitlements to "refund" checks amounting to $500 to $4,000 apiece.

What does Obama's historic victory signify for proponents of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace? Cato scholars weigh in.

Michael D. Tanner calls Obama's victory a "repudiation of George Bush and the current Republican congressional leadership....by almost every measure, government grew bigger, more expensive, and more intrusive under President Bush and the Republican Congres"." His book, Leviathan on the Right: How Big Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution, is essential for understanding where the GOP went wrong. 

While the Republicans are not in power, will they learn from their mistakes? Tanner writes, "Republicans will have gone from controlling every arm of government to controlling none....As it emerges from the electoral rubble, the Republican Party must decide what it actually believes in before beginning rebuilding its battered fortune."

Writing before the election, Tanner lays out Obama's plans and how they will affect the country. Tanner concludes that the future will bring "a much bigger, more intrusive, and costlier government."

David Boaz expands on the idea that the American people rejected Bush's big government conservatism on Tuesday. He also reminds us that small government is still more popular than Barack Obama. "Bush and the Republicans promised choice, freedom, reform, and a restrained federal government. They delivered massive overspending, the biggest expansion of entitlements in 40 years, centralization of education, a floundering war, an imperial presidency, civil liberties abuses, the intrusion of the federal government into social issues and personal freedoms, and finally a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street that just kept on growing in the last month of the campaign. Voters who believed in limited government had every reason to reject that record."

With Obama slated to become president, Will Wilkinson offers his advice to the new commander-in-chief. "You've been claiming that the government can simultaneously create millions of new jobs, spur growth-enhancing innovation, and save the Earth by politically picking winners among energy companies. It's a beautiful dream. But in reality, it means nothing more than the greening of corporate welfare and an increase in energy prices. Our struggling economy can't afford that."

Gene Healy, author of Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power, explains why Obama will do little to tame the executive power that has grown so much under Bush.

For daily analysis on a range of topics, including insight on Obama's policy proposals, don't miss Cato's blog, Cato@Liberty.

Immigration: The Cato Handbook for Congress provides a clear plan on how the government should handle immigration. 

The War in Iraq: Ted Galen Carpenter explains why it's time to exit Iraq.

Financial Bailout: Arnold Kling offers an exit strategy for taxpayers. To learn more about the future of the economy, don't miss Cato's 26th Annual Monetary Conference: Lessons From the Subprime Crisis on November 19.

Free Trade: Robert Krol argues in defense of expanding international trade.  

Looking back, Cato examines the Constitutional record of President George W. Bush.

In January, Cato will release the 2009 Handbook for Congress, with more than 600 pages of policy analysis for the incoming members of the House and Senate.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Alan Reynolds analyzes Barack Obama's spending proposals, adds them all up, and asks, "how's Obama going to raise $4.3 trillion?"  He writes, "The lavish spending policies of presidential candidate Barack Obama could cost $4.3 trillion over the next ten years. Where is he going to get that money?" Reynolds expands on his analysis in a recent podcast.

John McCain proposed a plan to spend $300 billion to buy "bad mortgages." Examining the proposal, Daniel J. Mitchell concludes, "Even if the myriad details were handled correctly, McCain's 'American Homeownership Resurgence Plan' would be a very costly and risky form of intervention....McCain's cure is worse than the disease."

Could there be a Democratic congressional super-majority in 2009? Richard Rahn lets us in on some interesting statistics when he reveals that stock prices increase dramatically more when Republicans control Congress than when Democrats hold a majority. "Over the last quarter of a century when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, the stock market rose by an average of about 20 percent per year. When the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, the stock market only rose at an average annual rate of 6.9 percent for the Dow Jones and a tepid 5.1 percent for the Standard and Poor 500."

The presidential race is nearly over, and Cato scholars have been following the candidates' policy proposals from the beginning. For comprehensive analysis, don't miss Cato's election coverage.

Auto industry lobbyists are gathering in Washington, seeking money to bail out the struggling companies. Dan Mitchell joins a debate on NPR.org that discusses the implications of bailing out the automakers. Mitchell argues against another bailout, and in the middle of the debate, NPR held an online poll that showed that 68 percent of listeners agreed with him.

David Boaz weighs in on the most recent government spending measures to save American companies from bankruptcy.  "We've already decided to tax the prudent and thrifty to bail out the imprudent and irresponsible. Now the prudent may face a danger even worse than taxes: inflation that erodes their hard-earned savings."

Who is really to blame for the financial mess? Steve H. Hanke reveals who holds the weight of the responsibility.  "There's plenty of blame to go around, but the main culprit is the Fed."

For a complete look at Cato's coverage of the financial mess, check out Cato's Global Financial Crisis Page.

With the economy trumping most political discussions, Justin Logan compares the presidential candidates' foreign policy proposals and Ted Galen Carpenter and Malou Innocent question John McCain's foreign policy judgment. "There is little doubt about McCain's lengthier foreign policy experience. But it is not at all apparent that his judgment is superior to Obama's. Indeed, the record indicates that McCain's own judgment is alarmingly bad."

Writing in The Washington Post, Visiting Fellow and Member of the South African Parliament Tony Leon takes us behind the scenes of African politics. 

Steve H. Hanke takes a look at another country's economy: Zimbabwe inflation hits 10.2 quadrillion percent.

Could tensions between China and Taiwan heat up again? Ted Galen Carpenter examines Taiwan's delicate détente in the Wall Street Journal Asia.

While comparing Obama's tax plan to IRS data, Chris Edwards reveals that Obama's tax plan isn't as "fair" as it's made out to be. 

Jack M. Mintz argues in favor of cutting the effective corporate tax rate in Cato's latest Tax and Budget Bulletin. "Corporate tax reform that lowers the rate and achieves a more neutral burden across business activities could boost capital investment, aid the adoption of new technologies, and increase the capacity of the economy to grow."

In the wake of the financial crisis, William Shipman urges the federal government to suspend capital gains taxes on toxic assets. "The U.S. is on a path that will accelerate its already well-established departure from free-market principles, individual liberty and personal responsibility."

Will Wilkinson calls all tax plans wealth redistribution, even McCain's. "In the system we have...democracy just is one big machine for spreading the wealth around. The real question is how much of whose money is taken, and who gets it. Politics gets nasty because everyone wants to control the business end of the tax-and-spend stick."    

Robert A. Levy dissects the recent legislation and asks, "Is the bailout constitutional?" "The federal government has no constitutional authority to spend taxpayers' money to buy distressed assets, much less to take an ownership position in private financial institutions.... Necessary or not, temporarily effective or not, the bailout is unconstitutional."

William Poole contends that the treasury has no right to coerce banks. "The capital-infusion program would be voluntary for the banks wanting to raise new capital this way. This approach was the right way to go. It promised to use federal resources in an effective and relatively market-friendly way. But we've since learned from press reports...that the program was not quite so voluntary for nine of the nation's largest banks."

In an ongoing discussion in the Los Angeles Times, Daniel J. Mitchell explains how to avoid the next housing bubble. "If politicians want a stronger economy (or, to be more accurate, if they want a stronger economy more than they want to curry favor with special-interest groups), they should get rid of the policies that caused today's mess. That means abolishing Fannie and Freddie, which hopefully should be easy now that they've gone bankrupt and have stopped giving campaign contributions. It also means repealing the Community Reinvestment Act and ot'er 'affordable-housing' mandates. Luring people into homes they cannot afford is bad for banks and bad for poor people."

Watch Jim Powell compare today's crisis with the Great Depression on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

Michael F. Cannon explains why universal coverage kills. "McCain, Obama, and the voters would do well to keep in mind what this month - October 2008 - has to say about the quality of medical care when government is in charge. Federal bureaucrats have announced that, as of this month, the Medicare program will no longer provide financial rewards to doctors and hospitals who harm patients. That is not a typo. For more than 40 years, Medicare has provided financial rewards to providers when a patient requires follow-up care following a medical error."

Michael D. Tanner answers frequently asked questions about Obama's health care plan.

Find out how government regulation of hospitals drives up the price of health care%u2014and how to cut those costs. Shirley Svorny writes, "Let's deregulate medical care so that providers can find innovative ways to deliver high-quality care cheaply. Let's eliminate the increasingly strict education requirements for clinicians and let medical professionals offer walk-in physicals or other services at competitive prices."

For an in-depth guide to market-based health care, read Healthy Competition: What's Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It, by Michael F. Cannon and Michael D. Tanner.

Chairman Emeritus William A. Niskanen comments on the lessons for libertarians in the financial crisis. "Congress and the president must correct the institutional flaws that led to this collapse."

Senior Fellow Gerald P. O'Driscoll weighs in on a tough solution to the country's current financial situation. "Personal and government consumption must fall. It will do so through prudent restraint on spending, or inflation that reduces the real value of all economic magnitudes."

Senior Fellow Dan Mitchell continues to debate the wisdom of the bailout at the Los Angeles Times and on Google's forum, Knol. Debated questions include "What should be done to improve the economy now that the economic stabilization act is law?",and "Who are the villains of the mortgage mess?"

In light of the economic crisis, John Samples, director of Cato's Center for Representative Government offers two reasons to be optimistic.

For a comprehensive guide to all of Cato's work on the financial crisis, see our Global Financial Crisis page.

 Daniel J. Mitchell weighs in on John McCain's economic plan in an LA Times debate. "During the Oct. 7 presidential debate, John McCain proposed to spend $300 billion of other people's money to buy "bad" mortgages. This is a very misguided proposal. Even if the myriad details were handled correctly, McCain's 'American Homeownership Resurgence Plan' would be a very costly and risky form of intervention."

Regardless of who is elected, Cato Vice President Gene Healy shows how neither of the candidates will curb executive power.

Associate Director of the Center for Educational Freedom Neal McCluskey gives his two cents on the educational polices put forth by each candidate during the presidential debate.

For in-depth analysis on where the presidential candidates stand on the economy, environment, trade, health care, foreign policy and the role of government, click here for Cato's special election coverage.

As drug-related violence increases in Mexico, Cato's Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies Ted Galen Carpenter reveals that there is little time for Mexico to improve. Could Mexico become the next Colombia?

Carpenter warned of the increasing violence in Mexico in a Cato study in 2005.

In an effort to slow drug trafficking violence, the president of Honduras has called for drug legalization. Cato's Project Coordinator for Latin America Juan Carlos Hidalgo explains thatthis is a becoming a growing trend in Latin America.

For more in-depth analysis on the Latin American drug war, read Carpenter's Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America.

Senior Fellow Daniel J. Mitchell is debating the aftermath of the financial bailout on Knol, a new interactive article forum from Google.  Forum readers can also post comments, reviews, or content of their own.

What if the financial bailout legislation doesn't work? Is there a Plan B? Senior Fellow William Poole explores our options in a recent podcast.

Since every crisis has led to thousands of new pages of regulation, why is it that regulation doesn't stop crises from happening again? Senior Fellow Johan Norberg on the problems with added regulation.

To learn more about the subprime mortgage problem, you're invited to join The Cato Institute's 26th Annual Monetary Conference: Lessons From the Subprime Crisis on Nov. 19th. Seating is limited and you must register for this event.

Also, check out the comprehensive listingof Cato research on the financial crisis.

On Oct. 6, the United States Supreme Court met for the first session of 2008. The court has decided to hear cases involving television vulgarity, religious expression, the Fourth Amendment, voters' rights and more.

For the best analysis of the last session's Supreme Court decisions, order your copy of the Cato Supreme Court Review.

Cato Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies Ilya Shapiro provides a sneak peak and analysis of the upcoming cases for the new session.

For a guide to the worst Supreme Court decisions of the modern era, you won't want to miss Chairman Robert A. Levy's The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom. For an analysis on what types of judges McCain and Obama would choose as president, read Levy's recent article, "Judicial Appointments: What's on Tap from Obama or McCain?"

For in-depth analysis on where the presidential candidates stand on the economy, environment, trade, health care, foreign policy and the role of government, click here for Cato's special election coverage.

Highlights include:

• "Two Kinds of Change: Comparing the Candidates on Foreign Policy," by Associate Director of Foreign Policy Studies Justin Logan.
  
• "Does Barack Obama Support Socialized Medicine?,"by Director of Health Policy Studies Michael F. Cannon
  
• "Standing Still and Falling Behind,"by Director of Tax Policy Studies Chris Edwards
  

Cato analysts have appeared on television and radio more than 100 times to discuss the financial crisis, the bailout plan and free market alternatives. Catch the highlights of our bailout commentary in our new feature, Cato Out Loud.

Adjunct Scholar Arnold Kling provided four reasons not to have a bailout. 

Senior Fellow Daniel J. Mitchell explained why the bailout is bad for America. 

For anyone who tries to blame this on the free market, Cato's Neal McCluskey has a few words for you.

In a Podcast interview, Senior Fellow Michael D. Tanner asked, "Does the bailout vote revive conservatism?" 

Director of Tax Policy Studies Chris Edwards blogged, "Congress is determined to rig the vote and grab the people's money anyway it can."

For a thorough compilation of Cato material on the bailout, click here.

For up-to-the-minute commentary on the bailout and other issues, read Cato@Liberty, the official blog of the Cato Institute.
 

A FoxNews.com report revealed that the Department of Homeland Security has field tested a new device that will scan airport passenger's bodies for clues that could predict if someone had the intent to cause harm to others.

"A new system called MALINTENT turns the old school approach on its head. This Orwellian-sounding machine detects the person%u2014not the device%u2014set to wreak havoc and terror....It's like an X-ray for bad intention"."

Cato's Director of Information Policy Studies Jim Harper explored security technology in his book, Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood.