This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, August 31st, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

As former President Jimmy Carter faces serious medical difficulties,

it's worth reflecting on what may have been his greatest domestic

achievement, a broad deregulation of shipping, travel, and oil, policy changes that are

still delivering massive dividends today. Peter Van Doren is editor of Regulation magazine.

He comments.

If Cato, well Cato did exist, it started in 1977,

so Cato existed early, or early Cato started in Jimmy Carter's presidency, but there wasn't much of a Cato presence in the media or in scholarship at that time.

If Cato had had more presence, I think they would, and by the way the

Journal I edit regulation was also started in 1977 during the Carter presidency. So ironically, the intellectual machinery

that was just gearing up to worry about deregulation

and the effective regulation on markets,

actually some of the most important deregulatory efforts in this century occurred

just as the intellectual machinery was gearing up to say this was a good thing. And it's rare for politics to be in front of intellectual machinery,

but in the way, and I could,

it's sort of in front of the intellectual machinery.

There actually was scholarship started in the late 50s and early 60s that started much of the deregulation that occurred under Carter and I can talk about that.

So what areas did Jimmy Carter deregulate?

And I think it's worth noting he had sizable majorities of Democrats in the House and Senate that were going along with all of these deregulatory

plans.

Yes.

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