In "Bootleggers, Baptists, and Tobacco Regulation," in the summer 2007 edition of Regulation Magazine, Joseph A. Rotondi writes: "FDA chairman Andrew von Eschenbach opposes this legislation. Altria, the largest U.S. cigarette producer with 51 percent of the market, supports it. This seeming paradox grows from and is explained by tobacco roads paved with 'bootlegger-Baptist' coalitions.

"The current bill in Congress has support from Baptists such as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Heart Association, former FDA chairman Kessler, and 77 percent of American voters. Even the Southern Baptist Convention's president wants the legislation. In contrast, current FDA chairman von Eschenbach seems to have learned from the mistakes of FCC, FTC, and FDA chairmen past. FDA regulation will likely be dominated by the most politically connected tobacco companies, which will be able to increase or at least maintain market share as regulation does what it usually does when bootleggers and Baptists connect: cut competition."

In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Venezuela: Plus ça Change, Plus C'est la Même Chose," Marian Tupy, policy analyst with Cato's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, writes:

"Since the collapse of the Soviet empire, many defenders of socialism have argued that dictators, including Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot, were aberrations; they took Marx's ideas in the wrong direction. They claim that nationalization of the means of production (call it communism, socialism, or Marxism) and democracy can be compatible. In The Road to Serfdom, Hayek showed that it cannot. Some 50 years later, Hayek's argument holds. Every socialist regime tends toward authoritarianism of some sort." 

The recipient of the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty is Yon Goicoechea, the leader of the pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela that successfully prevented President Hugo Chávez's regime from seizing broad dictatorial powers in December 2007. The award ceremony will be held this Thursday, May 15 in New York.

In "Doing Little Is Doing Right, or You'll Wreck Economy," Cato senior fellow Patrick J. Michaels writes:

"If we want to significantly slow warming, emissions [of greenhouse gasses] have to be cut by more than 60 percent. Pending legislation in the Senate, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, drops them 66 percent by 2050. The only problem is that no one knows how to do this. The fact is that we simply don't have -- and can't realistically imagine -- the suite of technologies that would bring about such a sweeping change, nationally or globally."

In "Fool Me Once... North Korea Does It Again," Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato's vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, writes: "U.S. officials must stop letting hope triumph over experience when it comes to dealing with North Korea on the nuclear issue. ... Relying on deterrence supplemented by a regional missile defense program may be the most feasible option. Another possibility is to induce China to remove the current ruling elite in its troublesome client state and replace it with a more pliable regime, in exchange for a U.S. promise to end its military presence on the peninsula.

"There may be other policy options as well. The crucial point is that U.S. leaders need to be considering alternative strategies now, rather than investing all hope in a diplomatic solution that looks increasingly shaky."

In "South Africa Plays Ball with Dictators," Marian L. Tupy, policy analyst at Cato's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, and James Kirchick, assistant editor at the New Republic, write:

"Friends of Zimbabwe have long hoped for a peaceful transfer of power in that country. But in spite of losing the March 29 elections to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the regime of Robert Mugabe is clinging to power. Once again, the world's democracies look to Zimbabwe's southern neighbor to stem the growing violence against the Zimbabwean people unleashed by the ruling regime. South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, however, maintains that there is 'no crisis' in Zimbabwe. He has even ordered his U.N. representative to block debate about the situation in the Security Council, which South Africa currently chairs. South Africa has not only tolerated Mugabe, it has been complicit in keeping him in office. Indeed, far from facilitating peaceful change in Zimbabwe, South Africa's government has been complicit in violating the human rights and the democratically expressed will of Zimbabweans--which is why opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has called on Mbeki to relinquish his role as the Southern African Development Community's designated mediator of the Zimbabwean crisis."

On BBC's "HardTalk with Stephen Sakur," Cato senior fellow and former adviser to Vladimir Putin Andrei Illarionov said: "Putinism" would be characterized as "some level of nationalism, some level of aggressiveness, first of all directed against people inside the country, and to some extent, outside the country as well." 

When asked if Putinism might end with Putin's departure from the Kremlin, Illarionov responded: "I don't think so, because we are talking about the policy and philosophy of aggression against Russian people, against Russia's neighbors, against other countries in the world. It does not and should not be attributed to one particular person. This is the philosophy and ideology of a group of people, of the Corporation, of the organizations that exist in the country for a long period of time, almost for a century."

In the Free Trade Bulletin "Food Fight," Sallie James, trade policy analyst, writes:

"Facts on the demand side suggest that the recent price increases are more structural compared to the cyclical, supply-driven booms of the past. Government policies in developed countries that seek to support farmers by creating artificial demand for ethanol are an important culprit. In addition, economic growth in countries such as China, Brazil, and India has created a large and growing middle class that is acquiring western-style eating habits. The Chinese, for example, have almost doubled their consumption of meat from about 44 lbs. per capita in 1980 to 110 lbs. per capita today. That in turn has pushed up demand for feed grains, because one lb. of beef requires about 13 lbs. of grain to produce. Although high prices will encourage entrepreneurs to increase production, and infrastructure investment will help increase yields and correct the current market imbalance, government actions are impeding the efficient allocation of resources that would normally see lower prices."

In the Cato policy analysis "A Gift of Life Deserves Compensation: How to Increase Living Kidney Donation with Realistic Incentives," Arthur Matas writes: "The best way to increase the supply of kidneys without drastically changing the existing allocation system is to legalize a regulated system of compensation for living kidney donors. Such a system could be established using the infrastructure already in place for evaluating deceased donors and allocating their organs. The only change required to ease and probably even solve the organ shortage is some form of payment for donors.

"The potential practical and theoretical concerns with compensated donation can be overcome, and alternative proposals will not do enough to solve the shortage. Upon careful analysis, it is clear that the benefits of a regulated system of compensated donation (chiefly, increasing the number of donated kidneys) outweigh any risks."