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In December, it was announced that the United States would enter into formal negotiations on a regional, Asia-Pacific trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. The first negotiating session of this group will meet this week. In a new paper, Cato scholar Sallie James says that the Obama administration's interest in engaging in trade liberalization is a good sign, but "the burden is on the administration to demonstrate that TPP negotiations are not a stalling tactic designed to distract policymakers from the more promising gains to be made from broader multilateral or, preferably, unilateral trade liberalization."
Although public schools are usually the biggest item in state and local budgets, spending figures provided by public school officials and reported in the media often leave out major costs of education and thus understate what is actually spent. In a new study, Cato scholar Adam B. Schaeffer reviews district budgets and state records for the nation's five largest metro areas and the District of Columbia. Schaeffer finds that, on average, per-pupil spending in these areas is 44 percent higher than officially reported.
The Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, named in honor of perhaps the greatest champion of liberty in the 20th century, is presented every other year to an individual who has made a significant contribution to advance human freedom. The prize, a cash award of $500,000, will be presented to the winner on May 13, 2010, at the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty's Biennial Dinner at the Hilton Washington in Washington D.C. The keynote address at the 2010 Dinner will be delivered by Pulitzer-prize winning columnist George Will.
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Gridlock
America's transportation system is on the verge of collapse and Gridlock reveals how we got into this mess and how to fix it by focusing on free market improvements to methods of transportation that pay for themselves and increase everyone's mobility.
Shifting Superpowers
This book aims to energize the debate over the proper direction of U.S. foreign policy in Asia, urging America to adapt to the realities of a changing world in which China is not automatically America's enemy, while India is not consistently America's ally.
Financial Fiasco
An easily accessible work on the economic crisis, the book guides readers through a world of irresponsible behavior, showing how many of the "solutions" being implemented are repeating the mistakes that caused the crisis.
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