tell me about the Cato Institute

[yorgatron]

i assume it's a right-wing think tank.does anyone have any material to debunk this article? http://www.cato.org/dailys/05-13-04.html

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. It's A Liberterian Not Conservative Think Tank...

I think some folks here would like their take on American foreign policy which is it that America be non-interventionist...


On economics they are big time anti-statists...

[acmejack]

2. Steven Moore was the president of the CFG

The Club For Growth launched the "latte drinking Volvo driving" etc ad in Iowa. Rick Santorum is now filling the CFG position vacated by Moore. The Cato Institute is headed by Pete Peterson and attempts to pass it self off as moderate.

[mcscajun]

3. They are also one of the leading supporters of SS Privatization!

Bastards.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. They Are Also Against The Iraq War And The Neocon Agenda..

eom

[Telly Savalas]

15. Broken clocks are right twice a day

[snowbird42]

4. Cato Intitute

This is the blue print for the SS campaign by Bush

Go to page eight and notice the title of the article.

Sorry I have trouble cut and pasting a PDF

http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj3n2/cj3n2-11.pdf

[ET Awful]

5. Isn't that the group that Cato Kailen started after the OJ trial?

:evilgrin:

[CindyDale]

7. It is supported by the "largest privately owned oil company"

The views will seem to be coming from an independent think tank–the Cato Institute or Citizens for a Sound Economy, for example. Yet behind these groups stands the brothers’ vast fortune: Koch Industries is the nation’s second-largest privately owned company and the largest privately owned oil company, with annual revenues of more than $30 billion.

http://www.mediatransparency.org/funders/koch_family_foundations.htm

It's yet another faction of the industry.

[Viking12]

13. and the nation's most egregious polluters

Koch Industries has been convicted of Felony environmental crimes. Of course, no one went to jail because corporations have rights but no culpability :puke:

[ret5hd]

18. wasn't the Koch family also involved in...

the founding of the John Birch Society?

[pocket]

8. they are hard-core libertarians

i.e. mercenary capitalist whores.

[Zynx]

9. Libertarian, and generally pretty acedemically sound.

That article is also *old*. The oil paradigm has changed since then, rendering most of the thoughts there obsolete. It's become clear that the price squeeze from supply and demand is quite real.

The inflation related comments are actually accurate.

[Viking12]

14. Depends on the subject, their environmental "science"

is CRAP. Particularly when it comes to global warming they are amonmg the most prominent purveyors of disinformation and outright lies.

[lostinacause]

10. As Zynx said the article is accurate in saying that gas prices have

gone down. Most people would probably say they have stayed the same as there decrease is not as large as the wording in this article suggests. (Most natural resources prices go down by a much larger extent then oil has.) It is best to look at a graph that shows the real price of oil to verify these statements. It is especially worthwhile to check the 1920. If I remember correctly the prices varied around that time.

As for libertarians; the one thing that I am really impressed with is their consistency. Both conservatives and liberals have policies that are contradictions to their philosophies. Beyond that some of the best debates that I have had have been with libertarians. The main shortcomings of the libertarian philosophy are issues that economists would call market failure. Market failures are things such as the free markets inability to deal with pollution control and inequality.

[RandomKoolzip]

11. Read "The Republican Noise Machine" by David Brock.

[Wilms]

12. Kick n/t

[da_chimperor]

16. Sometimes, I agree with them. But often I do not.

Some of their ideas are good, but they regularly oppose social welfare programs. I may be for free trade, but they're like free-marketeers out of the 1920's. They like bu$h's planned 'reform' of social security. That should say enough.

[da_chimperor]

17. Oops, dupe, n/t