Free markets have lifted billions out of poverty, fueling what Cato scholar Deirdre McCloskey calls the Great Enrichment—an explosion of prosperity so transformative that today’s middle class enjoys luxuries beyond the imagination of past kings.

And yet the fight for economic freedom is far from over. Governments continue to impose barriers that stifle growth, innovation, and wealth creation. That’s why the Cato Institute is on the front lines, defending capitalism and shaping the conversation in ways that even a decade ago might have seemed impossible.

Today, some of the world’s most influential voices are echoing Cato’s arguments. On Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk quoted Milton Friedman while making the case for economic freedom. On X, Musk reposted an interview with Cato senior fellow Johan Norberg, amplifying our ideas to his 219 million followers. Sen. Rand Paul (R‑KY) called Norberg’s The Capitalist Manifesto “a must-read,” and used it to remind his millions of followers to “give thanks for progress” on Thanksgiving.

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, a fierce defender of free markets, recently declared Cato scholars “the patron saints of optimism,” specifically naming Johan Norberg, Deirdre McCloskey, and Marian Tupy. And it’s no wonder—Tupy’s work on Superabundance and Cato’s HumanProgress project have shown, with hard data, that the world is getting richer, healthier, and more innovative thanks to economic freedom.

But influence isn’t enough—we turn ideas into action. In 2024, Cato scholars led the charge against industrial policy, exposing the failures of corporate welfare in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Our research dismantled the case for President Biden’s Buy American mandates, while our work on permitting reform helped build the case for cutting red tape on infrastructure and energy projects.

At a time when economic freedom is under siege, Cato is shifting the tide—winning the battle not just in Washington, but in the minds of millions.

Washington’s reckless spending isn’t just a policy debate—it’s a looming crisis that threatens to mortgage the futures of our children and grandchildren. With the national debt soaring past $36 trillion, unchecked federal expansion risks slower economic growth, higher inflation, and crushing tax burdens on future generations. The fight to rein in spending isn’t just about balance sheets—it’s about protecting the American dream.

That’s why Cato is leading the charge to stop the debt spiral. In December 2024, Cato scholars Romina Boccia, Adam N. Michel (director of tax policy studies), and Chris Edwards (Kilts Family Chair in Fiscal Studies) held a standing-room-only Capitol Hill briefing for more than 100 congressional staffers. They laid out a road map for the 119th Congress—alongside President Trump and the DOGE team—to take bold steps to streamline federal operations, curb inflation, and reignite economic growth.

Their work is getting noticed. The House Budget Committee reposted Boccia’s urgent call to strengthen requirements that force any administration to offset new executive actions that would increase mandatory spending by more than $1 billion over a decade. Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan also praised Boccia’s innovative proposal for a bipartisan commission to cut federal spending, urging legislators to embrace it with this stark reality check: “It’s either chaos, or this plan you don’t like, but that’s better than the chaos.”

And momentum is building. In January 2024, the House Budget Committee passed the Fiscal Commission Act of 2024, incorporating key elements of Boccia’s proposal—including independent experts on a congressional fiscal commission to stabilize the debt by reining in Washington’s runaway spending.

Cato is proving that the fight for fiscal sanity isn’t a lost cause. With bold ideas and growing support, we’re pushing Washington to confront the debt crisis before it’s too late.

Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy Romina Boccia and policy analyst Dominik Lett’s research on Congress’s misuse of emergency spending—supported by a unique dataset tracking three decades of such spending—has shaped the debate on emergency spending reforms. Six bills introduced in Congress reflect recommendations from their work, including efforts to offset new emergency spending and improve oversight. Nearly 50 congressional staff members, including senior staff from both parties on the House and Senate budget committees, attended their May 2024 briefing on how excessive emergency spending fuels federal debt.

Boccia has also been a prominent voice calling on Congress to address our dire fiscal situation. She has developed strategies to take on two of the most significant fiscal threats we face today: Social Security insolvency and the national debt.

Boccia has decried the current Social Security system as a “reverse Robin Hood” model that robs the working class to pay the already wealthy. She explains it as an “income transfer program,” in which retirees are paid with the taxes currently paid by their children and grandchildren, or someone else’s children and grandchildren.

In May 2024, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R‑LA) delivered a keynote speech at Cato’s Social Security symposium, organized by Boccia, where he urged politicians to take responsibility for solving the impending Social Security crisis.

Cato has long been at the forefront of the battle for lower, simpler, and more pro-growth taxation. Our work played a key role in shaping the historic 2017 tax cuts, which slashed corporate rates and spurred economic growth. Now, as new tax battles emerge, Cato is once again leading the charge.

In 2024, Adam N. Michel’s work helped secure two major tax policy victories early in the second Trump administration. He was instrumental in opposing the Global Tax Deal, an effort led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to impose extraterritorial taxes on US businesses. Through congressional briefings, testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, and behind-the-scenes engagement with key legislators, Michel helped drive a Senate push to halt US funding for the OECD’s tax scheme. His efforts contributed to a major shift in policy: Trump issued an executive order withdrawing the United States from the deal, marking a decisive departure from his first administration’s stance.

At the same time, Michel successfully advanced a critical reform to IRS rulemaking. In Cato’s handbook on executive orders, Michel called for restoring Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs oversight of IRS regulations, arguing that tax rules—some of the most economically consequential government actions—should not be exempt from regulatory review. His recommendation became reality in Trump’s “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation” executive order, signed in January 2025.

Michel’s work extended far beyond these early policy victories. He developed a comprehensive tax reform plan for Cato, emphasizing the need to lower rates while broadening the tax base. Alongside Chris Edwards, he also crafted a spending reform proposal that outlined 14 targeted cuts to reduce federal spending by $4.8 trillion over the next decade—an essential step toward controlling deficits and ensuring long-term economic stability. His research was featured prominently in congressional testimony, including a Joint Economic Committee hearing in which Vice Chairman Rep. David Schweikert (R‑AZ) cited Cato’s work. In June, Michel’s tax reform briefing drew more than 100 attendees, including senior staff members from the House Ways and Means Committee and leading tax policy journalists.

Travis Fisher, director of energy and environmental policy studies, has been a leading voice in exposing how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) distorts energy markets. He has made the case for repealing all IRA energy subsidies and has championed a pro-innovation agenda to unleash free enterprise in meeting the electricity demands of artificial intelligence.

Fisher has pinpointed three major barriers preventing the energy sector from growing and adapting:

1. A power grid already facing severe backlogs, unable to expand fast enough to meet demand;
2. A federal regulatory and permitting system that punishes builders instead of enabling progress; and
3. State-level monopoly protections that block entrepreneurs from bringing new solutions to market.

In 2024, Fisher testified five times, including before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, detailing how President Biden’s energy policies are driving up costs for Americans. He also provided critical testimony at a public hearing led by Rep. Andy Harris (R‑MD) on offshore wind, exposing the complex web of subsidies, regulations, and mandates that have turned the power grid into a growing liability.

A US central bank digital currency (CBDC) would be the death of financial privacy. By giving the federal government a direct line into every American’s transactions, a CBDC would mean sweeping financial surveillance, the power to freeze or censor purchases, and a serious threat to free markets and cybersecurity. It is the mother of all privacy concerns—and Cato is leading the fight to stop it.

Cato’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives (CMFA) has been the driving force in exposing the dangers of a CBDC to lawmakers, the media, and the public. When Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R‑WY) thanked Cato policy analyst Nicholas Anthony on X for briefing her Senate colleagues, she was one of many policymakers relying on Cato’s expertise. About 75 congressional staffers attended the CMFA’s briefings on Capitol Hill, ensuring that key decisionmakers understood the risks.

This work is paying off. In January 2025, President Trump’s executive order prioritized “taking measures to protect Americans from the risks of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which threaten the stability of the financial system, individual privacy, and the sovereignty of the United States.”

Anthony’s research has earned major recognition, including two Anthem Awards—part of the prestigious Webby Awards—for his work on the Human Rights Foundation’s CBDC Tracker. His analysis of financial surveillance also made it into the Congressional Record, submitted by Rep. Warren Davidson (R‑OH) during a House hearing on the future of finance. At one point, Davidson could be seen holding Anthony’s statement as he made the case against a CBDC.

The CMFA’s influence extends beyond Washington. Entrepreneur and investor Marc Andreessen, with 1.6 million followers on X, amplified Cato’s work by reposting CMFA Director Norbert Michel’s Forbes column on Operation Choke Point—an exposé on how government agents attempted to freeze law- abiding citizens out of the financial system. Andreessen has also shared multiple posts by Nicholas Anthony on how regulators have pressured banks to crack down on crypto- currency-related activity.

Cato has made stopping a CBDC one of its top priorities—and thanks to our relentless research, policy engagement, and public outreach, we are winning the fight.

When Javier Milei, a libertarian economist, won the presidency of Argentina on a platform of radical free-market reform in 2023, the world took notice. As Milei began his promised paradigm shift away from statism, Cato convened a two-day Buenos Aires conference in June alongside Argentine think tank Libertad y Progreso. The aim of the conference was to shine a light on Milei’s libertarian reform efforts and make the global case for classical liberalism. With more than 900 policymakers, journalists, business leaders, and students packing the venue and over 2.5 million tuning in online, it was one of the most significant gatherings of free-market advocates in Latin America in decades.

Over many years, Cato Vice President for International Studies Ian Vásquez has established Cato’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity as a prominent resource for the global liberty movement and a hub of intellectual activity. This helped Cato and Libertad y Progreso to quickly assemble an exceptional range of leading experts from throughout Latin America and the world to discuss the importance of economic and other freedoms.

Milei—who took office pledging to dismantle the country’s bloated bureaucracy and end its crippling inflation—delivered a keynote address at the conference, outlining his pro-market vision and pledging to make Argentina the freest country in the world. His talk came in the run-up to a key legislative vote on his economic omnibus package, which passed in the hours after his talk. At the conclusion of his remarks, Milei led the crowd in an energetic chant: “Viva la Libertad, carajo!”

Milei’s top advisers and Cato scholars also joined to discuss how libertarian principles should shape policy. Speakers included Federico Sturzenegger, an adviser to Milei who has since become minister of deregulation and state transformation; Argentinian Minister of the Economy Luis Caputo; Nobel Laureate James Heckman; and Cato experts Ian Vásquez, Deirdre McCloskey, José Piñera, Marian Tupy, Daniel Raisbeck, and Gabriela Calderón de Burgos. A panel on “Latin America and Human Rights,” led by Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, included remote remarks from María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who united her country’s opposition movement to win presidential elections there last July and expose the regime’s fraud that has kept it in power. And in a conversation that drew worldwide attention, Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined Cato senior fellow Johan Norberg via live stream to discuss the power of free markets, innovation, and economic freedom.

The event’s impact traversed borders, earning more than 800 mentions in international media. Conference speaker Mary Anastasia O’Grady covered dollarization in her first Wall Street Journal column after the conference.

“What’s happening in Argentina is not just important for Argentina,” says Vásquez. As he explained to the conference at its close, “We want Argentina to be successful because a successful Argentina can set an example for the rest of the world at a time when so many countries are moving in the other direction.”

Our Spanish-language platform, ElCa​to​.org, edited by Gabriela Calderón de Burgos, continues to reach Latin American audiences with libertarian analysis by leading thinkers on the issues most relevant to the region. In February 2024, Cato also hosted a policy forum, “The Resurgence of Argentina’s Classical Liberal Tradition,” featuring Alberto Benegas Lynch, Jr.—Milei’s intellectual mentor, Cato adjunct scholar, and a lifelong champion of liberty. Then, in November 2024, we held an online policy forum from Buenos Aires, “Why Argentina Must Still Dollarize.”

Cato’s role in the global liberty movement is the product of decades of work to build a worldwide network, foster intellectual exchange across borders, and make the most of opportunities to advance the cause of liberty.