The American Compass Podcast

For decades, Americans were told that success was simple: graduate high school, enroll in a four-year college, and launch a career from there. But as college enrollment has expanded and costs have skyrocketed, the results have become increasingly difficult to justify. Many students never complete a degree, others graduate without meaningful skills, all while the system continues to push young people into a single pathway that often fails to match their talents.

Dan Currell, author of The College Question, joins Oren to discuss how the college-for-all approach came to dominate Americans' jump from high school to adulthood. They discuss the incentives that keep the system expanding, the gap between what colleges promise and what many students actually gain, and how cultural expectations push families toward this path even when better options might exist for their children. They close by considering what it would take to rebuild credible alternatives, from technical education and apprenticeships to employer-led training, that could offer young Americans more reliable routes into productive work.

Further Reading:

• “One Big Question: Hands-On Training or a Free Ride on Campus?” Oren Cass, Commonplace

Artificial intelligence continues to advance, but the debate over its economic consequences takes place mostly in two separate spheres: amongst the technologists developing the technology and the workers whose jobs may be transformed by it. As technology gets deployed, the question is no longer whether it will reshape the labor market, but who will benefit and who will bear the costs.

American Compass co-hosted a recent Labor + AI Summit in Washington, D.C., where Oren moderated a conversation between Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, and Sean O’Brien, General President of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters. They discuss how AI may shift labor demand away from white-collar professions, the risks of deepening economic inequality if workers are excluded from the conversation, and why labor must have a “seat at the table” as new technologies are implemented. They also explore the role of unions, the pressures globalization and immigration have placed on wages, and what it would take to ensure that AI strengthens rather than destabilizes the American middle class.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision to limit the president’s use of emergency tariff authority set off a wave of commentary declaring the end of Trump’s trade agenda. But one week later, the reality looks far more complicated than what the chattering class might lead you to think. If IEEPA is off the table, what tools remain? What happens to the deals already struck? And does this ruling mark a retreat from tariff policy, or will the administration simply a shift to firmer legal ground?

Mark DiPlacido, senior political economist at American Compass, joins Oren to assess where things stand. They delve into the alternative authorities available to the administration—Sections 232, 301, and 122; what a “balance of payments” means in practice; and how sectoral tariffs on steel, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and critical minerals might reshape the next phase of trade policy. They also explore what a stable endpoint for Trump’s tariff strategy would actually look like and what Congress would need to do to make a better system of global trade permanent.

For decades, economists, armed with elegant models, powerful data, and firm conclusions about how markets should work, have claimed to be practitioners of a hard science. Yet in an era of financialization, political backlash, and rising skepticism of any “expert” consensus, many Americans are wondering whether the profession has grown too insular, too ideological, or simply too detached from reality.

Luigi Zingales, professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and director of the Stigler Center, joins Oren Cass to discuss what’s gone wrong. They explore the hierarchy of and conformity within the field, the temptation to defend models because of the conclusions they produce, and the gap between theoretical assumptions and real-world outcomes. The conversation closes with a look at whether a younger generation of economists is prepared to rethink the orthodoxy, and what it would take for economics to regain both its rigor and its relevance.

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