Yon Goicoechea Receives 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty

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."

Two Views on the Gas Tax Holiday

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 Rise of Disaster Polemics

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.