The American Compass Podcast

On the inaugural episode of Policy in Brief, American Compass executive director Oren Cass is joined by policy director Chris Griswold to discuss the Workforce Training Grant, a proposal to create a meaningful alternative pathway to college for the majority of young Americans who are being left behind by the current "college-for-all" model. They discuss the failings of our current system, how a program connecting trainees with employers would work, and the bill recently introduced by Senator Cotton that was modeled off of this proposal.

Further reading:
The Workforce Training Grant Policy Brief (American Compass)
The full Workforce Training Grant white paper (American Compass)
Rebuilding from the College Catastrophe Starts Here (Oren Cass, American Compass)
American Workforce Act (Sen. Tom Cotton)
What Republicans Should Do if They Win Big This Fall (Oren Cass and Chris Griswold, New York Times)
After Student-Debt Relief, America Must Move Beyond 'College for All' (Wells King, Newsweek)

In this episode, Michael Strain joins Oren in the Critics Corner to discuss what he calls "grievance-onomics," the reasons we should or should not have confidence in corporations pursuing their own profits will act in ways that benefit the American people, and policy implications on issues ranging from trade and investment to education and immigration. Michael is the director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

In this episode, Vinnie Vernuccio joins Oren in the Critics Corner to discuss issues with labor policy today, debating whether American workers would benefit more from collective action or individual flexibility. Vinnie is the president of the Institute for the American Worker and a senior fellow at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

On this episode of Critics Corner, Oren is joined by Jon Hartley, a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity and a former senior policy advisor to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee. They discuss the purpose of finance, the value it creates, the places it can go wrong, as well as the pros and cons of various policy responses—including some they actually agree on.

On this episode of Critics Corner, Oren is joined by Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform. They discuss the nature of the right-of-center political coalition, whether the average GOP voter simply wishes to be “left alone,” the state of the American economy, and how public policy can help the average household and worker. Spoiler: Oren is not convinced to sign the tax pledge.

On this episode of Critics Corner, Oren is joined by one of our most active critics and open-letter writers, Donald Boudreaux of George Mason University. They discuss a wide swath of disagreements, including public choice and the knowledge problem, whether the SEC or public schools should exist, and what role industrial policy played in the development of Japan and China. Plus, Professor Boudreaux gives some insight into his personal investment strategies.

What happens to personal data as the digital age deepens their quality, widens their availability, and creates new uses for them? Alec Stapp (Progressive Policy Institute) and Wells King (American Compass) exchange over the implications of “All-Knowing Algorithms” with Oren Cass.

 What happens to media as the digital age enhances their ability to engage consumers? As a part of our "Lost in the Super Market: Navigating the Digital Age" collection, American Compass convened contributing writers Matthew Crawford (UVA’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture) and Peter Suderman (Reason) to discuss the ramifications of the "Attention Economy" with Wells King (American Compass). 

What happens to markets as the digital age improves their efficiency and introduces them to new domains? As a part of our "Lost in the Super Market: Navigating the Digital Age" collection, American Compass convened contributing writers Wingham Rowan (Modern Markets for All) and Neil Chilson (Charles Koch Institute) to discuss the advent of frictionless exchanges with Wells King (American Compass).

Leader McCarthy joins American Compass to discuss his efforts to reach out and grow the Republican coalition, what it takes to build a GOP that is better attuned to the concerns of working class Americans, and where he sees the party going in the coming years.