Capitalism has undergone a profound shift, as our financial system has moved away from its primary role of channeling capital into productive investments. Corporate priorities have instead turned toward maximizing short-term shareholder returns and deploying complex financial engineering that boosts firms’ bottom lines. In the process, American communities and long-term economic growth have paid the price.

Oren joins guest host Chris Griswold to discuss how this process of financialization is distorting the American economy and undermining capitalism itself. He explains how practices like leveraged buyouts, stock buybacks, and speculative financial activity have reshaped corporate incentives, why critics often conflate profit with value creation, and how these trends affect Americans and their communities.

Further Reading:

• “The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way” by Oren Cass, New York Times.
• “Actually, the U.S. Financial Sector Is Good for the Economy“ by Judge Glock, City Journal.
• “‘The Finance Industry Is a Grift,’ Oren Cass Claims in the New York Times. Look Who’s Talking” by Ira Stoll, Washington Free Beacon.
• “The Oren Cass Case for Central Planning Does Not Indict Wall Street for Anything” by Capital Record with David Bahnsen.

America’s housing shortage is often framed as a simple supply problem, but building the kinds of homes families actually need has proven far more complicated. While capital continues to flow into large suburban developments and luxury apartment buildings, the market has stopped producing the modest, family-friendly housing that once anchored stable communities and enabled young families to remain in thriving cities.

Bobby Fijan, co-founder of the American Housing Corporation, joins Oren to discuss why the “starter home” has largely disappeared and how development incentives, zoning rules, and capital markets have reshaped what gets built. They explore why current housing designs increasingly favor singles and roommates over families, how housing supply shapes family formation, urban vitality, and economic mobility, and how prefab manufacturing and vertically integrated construction start-ups like the American Housing Corporation could help deliver row homes in established neighborhoods and begin to change the culture.

America’s welfare programs have long operated on the assumption that states and nonprofits could responsibly steward federal dollars with minimal oversight. But a series of explosive fraud cases—from California to Mississippi to Minnesota—have exposed just how broken that system has become, with lax oversight and minimal accountability leading to billions of dollars stolen from taxpayers.

Shad White, Mississippi’s state auditor and author of Mississippi Swindle, joins Oren to explain how his office uncovered one of the largest welfare scandals in modern history and what it reveals about America’s safety net. They discuss why grant-based welfare programs are uniquely vulnerable to abuse, how federalism often undermines accountability, and how practical reforms like stronger enforcement, clearer metrics, and simpler program design can restore public trust while helping the families who need support most.

The annual gathering of the world’s leadership class at the World Economic Forum in Davos bills itself as high-minded forum for increased global cooperation in the now-struggling old international order. But, in practice, it’s more of a concentrated mass of industry titans flexing with their various status badges, “bilaterals,” and AI slogans all while anxiously refreshing their phones for the latest updates on the Trump administration’s next moves.

Filming from his hotel room in the Alps, Oren, our intrepid correspondent in Davos, joins Drew to report what he heard and saw from these often panic-stricken elites. They discuss how the Davos crowd is really reacting to Trump’s approach to alliances and American leadership, why episodes like Greenland trigger outsized panic among our allies, and where legitimate concerns about trust and cooperation get lost in elite groupthink.

Further Reading:

“A Sharp Break over a Piece of Ice,” Oren Cass, Commonplace.

Inflation may have cooled, but Americans still feel squeezed. Groceries are still expensive, housing and health care costs continue to outpace wages, and consumer credit debt continues to balloon, leaving a gap between encouraging economic data and the daily experience of the average American. Voters continue to express concern, and the Trump administration has responded with a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing prices down.

Daniel Kishi, senior policy advisor at American Compass, joins Oren to make sense of what’s actually driving the affordability crisis and how policymakers should respond. They examine recent, sometimes unconventional, ideas from the administration to expand housing supply, cap credit card rates, overhaul health care, and empower more aggressive antitrust enforcement. Plus, they discuss the necessary role that Congress must play in codifying workable, populist solutions if the affordability crisis is to be solved.

Further Reading:

• “Trump's New Volcker Shock" by Henry Olsen
• “Our Concentrated Health Care Markets Are Anything but ‘Free’" by Chris Griswold

The CHIPS Act was billed as a once-in-a-generation effort to rebuild America’s manufacturing base in a strategically vital industry. But turning legislation into functioning factories and good paying jobs requires far more than slogans about “onshoring” or wish-casting. It demands a state-sponsored investment outside of America’s typical comfort zone.

Mike Schmidt, former director of the CHIPS Program Office and co-author of Factory Settings, joins Oren to discuss what it actually took to stand up the largest industrial policy initiative in decades. They explore how the government negotiated with global chipmakers, why grants and tax credits were combined, what critics missed in the “everything bagel” debate, and how permitting, labor, and geopolitical risk shaped their efforts. They close by discussing how we'll know if the CHIPS Act ultimately succeeds and the way the U.S. should think about future reindustrialization efforts.

Further Reading:

• "Chipping Away" by Chris Griswold

After running on a campaign centered on ending forever wars, the Trump administration has become increasingly aggressive toward Venezuela—and rumors are abuzz that the administration may soon attempt to topple the Maduro regime.

Michael Brendan Dougherty, senior writer at National Review, joins Oren to discuss why Venezuela has reemerged as a focal point in Washington and what that says about the state of American foreign policy. They examine how this pressure campaign, ostensibly over fentanyl, looks increasingly like an attempt at regime change and the risks of escalation without public buy-in or strategic clarity. They also broaden the conversation to consider how this same lack of focus appears in debates over trade, affordability, and energy, and undermines the administration’s ability to explain its policies to the public.

Further reading: "The Next Foreign Misadventure" by Michael Brendan Dougherty

For decades, antitrust policy rested on the assumption that markets would correct themselves and that consolidation posed little risk to consumers and workers. But across the economy, from housing and healthcare to Big Tech and labor markets, concentration has grown, competition has weakened our economy, and the assumptions that conservatives once held on antitrust are no longer holding.

Gail Slater, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice, joins Oren to discuss the renewed push to police monopoly power and why competition policy has reemerged as a conservative concern. They examine recent DOJ enforcement actions, from challenges to Google’s dominance and RealPage’s rent-setting scheme to increased merger scrutiny in the meatpacking and electricity markets. Finally, they make sense of what these actions signal about a conservative approach to competition that aims to restore market discipline without expanding the regulatory state.

The assumptions that once defined global trade are cracking. The United States can no longer absorb the world’s trade surpluses, China has become a near-peer adversary, and allies are facing hard choices about their own dependence on Beijing. This year has made it clear that the era of unquestioned free trade is over—and that America is charting a new course.

Mark DiPlacido, policy advisor at American Compass, joins Oren to discuss why the United States is embracing a new trade paradigm. They also explore the history that led to this turning point, how a results-oriented approach is replacing the old rules-based order, and what a post-WTO world could mean for America’s partners, competitors, and workers.

Further Reading:

• “On Balance“ by Mark DiPlacido

Globalization was once viewed as economic destiny: it would spread prosperity worldwide, destroy authoritarian regimes, and counterbalance industrial decline with innovation and growth. The reality has been far more negative, with communities hollowed out and a political landscape defined by resentment of elites, strategic rivalry with China, and skepticism that the system was ever meant to support American workers.

One of the leading architects of globalization, Ernesto Zedillo, former Mexican president and professor at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, joins Oren to make the case that the old international trade system remains sound and that the real failures lie in domestic policy and the lack of institutional reform. During the conversation, Oren presses him on whether those explanations can withstand the reality of deindustrialization, supply-chain vulnerability, and worker displacement.

Together, they examine what went wrong, what defenders of the old order still believe, and whether the next technological wave will intensify the debate rather than resolve it.