This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, August 4, 2009. I'm Caleb Brown. What can

constrain U.S. Adventures Abroad? Robert Higgs believes some of the tales of U.S. hegemony have been overblown,

believing that the U.S. is still constrained somewhat.

But Higgs, author of books like Crisis and Leviathan, says the Federal Reserve has made profligate spending and war making cheaper

for politicians and the institution deserves the added scrutiny it is now receiving.

We spoke at Cato University last week.

How central do you think the role of voter preferences when it comes to American foreign policy?

Are voters clamoring for a foreign policy that looks like

the one we have, or are they insulated from the costs via debt in a large way so that it's more of like a second tier

thing they would care about it if the cost affected them more? I think in general the American public takes little interest in foreign affairs

except when some extraordinary event is taking place and when a war is beginning or a large war is being fought

and especially of course if a lot of Americans are being killed.

That's the most important thing for getting the general public's attention.

If a lot of other people are being killed, they may still have little interest in that.

That's been the case in the Iraq war, of course.

There's been a great deal of reporting on and talking about the number of American military personnel who've died, but of course

they're a tiny fraction of the number of Iraqis who've lost their lives as a result of the war and the occupation, but very few Americans

are much concerned about those other people.

And of course, if the war is very, very expensive and the public can make a

connection between that great expense and some burdens they are bearing then they will pay attention for that reason as well but

that has much less significance than the loss of American lives.

But the public's views on war are much more likely to be dependent variables than they are independent variables, largely because people are removed

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