U.S. law grants the Food and Drug Administration the power to make consumers get a prescription before purchasing certain drugs. The rationale behind government‐​imposed prescription requirements is consumer safety—that is, the idea that some drugs are too dangerous for consumers to use without physician supervision. In a new study, Cato scholars Jeffrey A. Singer and Michael F. Cannon argue that government‐​imposed prescription requirements violate the rights of individuals to access the medicines they want, and actually make patients less safe, not more.

• “Drug Reformation: End Government’s Power to Require Prescriptions,” by Jeffrey A. Singer and Michael F. Cannon

To promote debate and help improve U.S. decision making about arms sales, the Cato Institute has released its 3rd edition of the annual Arms Sales Risk Index. By identifying the factors linked to negative outcomes of arms sales, such as dispersion, diversion, and the misuse of weapons by recipients, the index provides a way to measure the risk involved with selling arms to another nation. Though by no means an exact science, the Arms Sales Risk Index can help policymakers incorporate the risks and make better decisions about which nations should and should not receive American weapons.

• 2020 Arms Sales Risk Index

The unsustainable, and still rapidly growing, U.S. federal government debt is a classic case of ‘‘in denial.” Despite numerous congressional committees, bipartisan commissions, and votes, we are no closer to a solution to the debt crisis than we were more than a decade ago. In fact, in 2018, a congressional committee was appointed to recommend budget process reforms, but that committee could not agree on any recommendations to submit to Congress. In this timely volume, scholars and policymakers assess the United States’ fiscal constraints and provide new perspectives that are desperately needed in order to solve the nation’s debt crisis.

• A Fiscal Cliff: New Perspectives on the U.S. Federal Debt Crisis