The American Compass Podcast

Oren Cass and the Heritage Foundation’s Steve Moore debate immigration and wages at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s American Economic Forum. The debate offers a stark illustration of the shift underway from a paradigm that celebrates cheap and plentiful labor to one that recognizes scarce labor and rising wages as drivers of productivity and prosperity has enormous implications for every f...

On this episode of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, Oren and Chris head to Wall Street to discuss our fourth Issues 2024 brief, exploring why 57% of GOP voters say that "Wall Street investors are getting rich doing things that weaken our economy"—and what policymakers can do to get things back on track. Financial markets have ceased to play their vital role channeling capital to productive uses. I...

On this episode of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, we’re diving into all things industrial policy. Oren and Chris discuss our third Issues 2024 brief and the importance of a strong industrial base. In short: Making things matters. Domestic industry is vital to workers and their communities, technological and economic progress, and national security. Thanks to rapid offshoring in recent decades, America is...

On this episode of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, Oren and Chris discuss the second brief in our Issues 2024 series. This one goes deep on worker power: why it matters for our economy, what voters think about it, and why conservative political leaders should make it a priority. Read the full issue brief here: Issues 2024: Worker Power

On this episode of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, Oren and Chris discuss the first Issues 2024 brief on declining middle-class security in America. They cover what’s gone wrong in the American economy over the past generation, the financial pressure families are under, and what a compelling agenda on this issue would look like. Read the full issue brief here: Issues 2024: Middle-Class Security .

This special episode of the American Compass podcast features a wide-ranging conversation between Oren Cass and Glenn Hubbard on the future of capitalism that took place recently at Columbia Business School. They cover the waterfront: everything from labor and productivity to private equity and investment, from technology and automation to China and globalization. Plus, Oren discusses what he call...

We’re back! Welcome to season two of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop. This season, Oren and Chris will be discussing Issues 2024, our new series of policy briefs covering the issues that are (or should be) driving the primary campaign. On the first episode of this season, we’re digging into the results of our new poll of GOP primary voters, which finds a substantial preference for the New Right’s worker-fir...

On this episode of Critics Corner, Tax Foundation senior economist Erica York joins Oren Cass for a conversation about tariffs: who bears the cost, who benefits, and much more. Further Reading: Trump’s $300 Billion Tax Hike Would Threaten U.S. Businesses and Consumers (Erica York, Tax Foundation) Tariffs on Chinese Imports Have Only Marginally Contributed to US Inflation (Peterson Institute) Tarif...

On this episode of Critics Corner, Oren Cass is joined by FREOPP president Avik Roy, who convened the recent Freedom Conservatism Statement of Principles. They discuss the current state of the conservative movement, the purpose of the statement, and how the “old right” and the “new right” differ on issues like trade, taxes, education, and more. Further Reading: Freedom Conservatism: A Statement of...

At our Rebuilding American Capitalism forum, Senator J.D. Vance joined Oren Cass for a conversation about what has gone wrong with investment in the American economy, as well as how conservatives should think about labor unions and labor's place in the future of a conservative political coalition. Read more in Rebuilding American Capitalism and watch the full video from the forum.

At our Rebuilding American Capitalism forum, Senator Marco Rubio joined Oren Cass for a conversation about globalization, what has gone wrong in the American economy, the policies we’ll need to recover, and his new book, Decades of Decadence.  Read more in Rebuilding American Capitalism and watch the full video from the forum.

At our Rebuilding American Capitalism forum, Senator Todd Young joined Oren Cass for a conversation about how conservatives should think about industrial policy, how public policy can support R&D and critical industries like semiconductors, and his push for prohibitions on noncompete agreements. Read more in Rebuilding American Capitalism and watch the full video from the forum.

At our Rebuilding American Capitalism forum, Senator Tom Cotton joined Oren Cass for a conversation about the future of conservative economics, and specifically education and workforce development. Read more in Rebuilding American Capitalism and watch the full video from the forum.

On this episode of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, Oren and Chris are joined by American Compass policy advisor Gabriela Rodriguez to discuss how financialization has disconnected economic activity from productive activity in the real economy. To further amplify shareholder returns, firms are leveraging their balance sheets with tax-advantaged debt that discourages investment, reduces resilience, and shift...

On this episode of Critics Corner, Oren Cass is joined by Phil Bell, director of external relations at FreedomWorks and veteran of the railroad industry, for a wide-ranging discussion of all things trains—and more specifically, the Railway Safety Act of 2023. Further Reading Railway Safety Act of 2023 Railway Safety Act Presents GOP Choice: Tired Dogma or the Common Good? (Chris Griswold, Newsweek...

On this episode of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, Oren and Chris discuss China’s “permanent normal trade relations” (PNTR) status and the case for revoking it. Granting PNTR to China as part of its ascension to the WTO was supposed to grant American firms and workers comparable benefits in the Chinese market. But the experts were wrong. The “China Shock” cost millions of American jobs, reduced domestic in...

On this episode of Critics Corner, Oren Cass is joined by Angela Rachidi, senior fellow and Rowe scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, to discuss family affordability. Is there a cost of living crisis? How can we measure the economic pressures on American families? And how should public policy respond? Further Reading:  The 2023 Cost-of-Thriving Index by Oren Cass The Evidence on Family Af...

On this episode of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, Oren and Chris discuss how to protect kids online. Children who use social media are more likely to suffer from anxiety, depression, and self-harm, are more vulnerable to exploitation, and are more at risk of exposure to dangerous or illicit material. Parents, meanwhile, are unable to adequately protect their children from these harms. That’s where policym...

On this special episode of the American Compass podcast, Senator Marco Rubio joins Oren Cass for a wide-ranging discussion of conservative economics and the common good. They cover the importance of domestic industrial capacity, seeing markets as a tool, dignified work as a key national interest, and, of course, TikTok.

On this episode of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, Oren and Chris are joined by Willy Shih, a professor at Harvard Business School, to discuss pre-competitive R&D consortia. At a time when America has lost its innovative edge, these consortia give government an opportunity to support industry while letting market forces work. Pre-competitive R&D consortia allow firms that are normally competitors i...

On this episode of Talkin’ (Policy) Shop, Oren and Chris discuss the issue of worker voice: how many American workers have less influence in their workplaces than they would like, and how we can reform labor law to create new avenues for their input from the shop floor to the boardroom. Further Reading American Compass policy briefs: Collaborative Labor-Management Committees & Workers in the B...

Policy in Brief is now Talkin’ (Policy) Shop! On this episode, Oren and Chris discuss the problems that arise when chronic pension underfunding pushes public pension managers to seek unrealistic returns, pushing them toward risky, opaque, and illiquid alternative investments like private equity and hedge funds. These investments charge enormous fees while avoiding disclosures that would allow the...

On this episode of Critics Corner, Oren Cass is joined by University of Chicago Booth School of Business professor and private equity expert Steven Kaplan . They discuss the pros and cons of private equity, the risk of bankruptcy during leveraged buyouts, and the effects—both good and bad—on both workers and investors. Further Reading: American Compass’s work on financialization Confronting Coin-F...

On this episode of Policy in Brief, Oren Cass and Chris Griswold discuss how to spur private investment, innovation, and competition by guaranteeing demand for domestic production. In recent years, industrial production has been increasingly offshored, leaving supply chains more fragile and entrenched abroad. America’s domestic industry has declined as a result, degrading our long-term ability to...

On this episode of Policy in Brief, Oren Cass and Chris Griswold are joined by special guest Jonathan Berry, partner at Boyden Gray & Associates and former Department of Labor assistant secretary. They discuss the “bachelor’s fad”—our over reliance in the labor market on bachelor’s degrees—and how public policy should respond. And listen to the end for some of our best bill title ideas yet. Fu...