The American Compass Podcast

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 shifts risk on to workers.

One solution: Ban stock buybacks and repeal business interest deductibility.

Further Reading:

• American Compass policy brief: Back to Basics for Corporate Finance
• Confronting Coin-Flip Capitalism (Oren Cass, American Compass)
• The Rise of Wall Street and the Fall of American Investment (Oren Cass, American Compass)
• The Corporate Erosion of Capitalism (Oren Cass, American Compass)
• Profits Without Prosperity (William Lazonick, Harvard Business Review)

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)
• FreedomWorks Sends Letter to Members of Congress Urging Them To Oppose The Railway Safety Act

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 investment and innovative capacity, strained many communities’ social fabric, and contributed to a surge in “deaths of despair” concentrated among middle-aged Americans without college degrees.

Further Reading

• American Compass policy brief: End “Permanent Normal Trade Relations” with China
• Searching for Capitalism in the Wreckage of Globalization (Oren Cass, American Compass)
• “Where’s the Growth?” (American Compass)
• “The Balancing Act” (American Compass)
• “China Trade Relations Act of 2023," Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), Rick Scott (R-FL), Ted Budd (R-NC), and J.D. Vance (R-OH)
• “Ending Normal Trade Relations with China Act,” Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO)

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 Affordability by Angela Rachidi
• American Compass Family Affordability Survey

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 policymakers can step in to protect children online the same way we do in the real world.

Further Reading:

• American Compass policy brief: Making Social Media Safe for Kids
• Protecting Children from Social Media (Chris Griswold, National Affairs)
• Governing After a Revolution (Oren Cass, American Compass)
• The Dangerous Experiment on Teen Girls (Jonathan Haidt, The Atlantic)
• How Changing One Law Could Protect Kids from Social Media (Yuval Levin, The New York Times)
• An Online Age-Verification System (American Compass policy brief)
• Kids Online Safety Act (Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal)
• Protecting Kids on Social Media Act (Senators Tom Cotton, Brian Schatz, Chris Murphy, and Katie Britt)

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 in the market to work together on a common technology platform, sharing the resulting IP from which they can develop products to compete against each other. The collaboration pools resources and expertise, and provides a site at which public policy can constructively subsidize investment without “picking winners and losers.” 

Further Reading

• American Compass policy brief: Pre-Competitive R&D Consortia
• On Research and Development (Willy Shih, American Compass)
• Pass the Chips, Please (Oren Cass, American Compass)
• A Guide to the Semiconductor Industry (American Compass)

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 Boardroom
• A Better Bargain: Worker Voice and Representation (Chris Griswold, American Compass)
• Not What They Bargained For: A Survey of American Workers (American Compass)
• Workers of the World (Wells King, American Compass)
• Teamwork for Employees and Managers (TEAM) Act of 2022 (Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN))