America’s leading corporations appear poised for a dramatic escalation in engagement of Washington, D.C.  Baron explores this emerging phenomenon by examining Amazon’s massive investment in the nation’s capital, which threatens to ignite an influence arms race among the Fortune 100.

With Taiwan now a focal point of U.S. foreign policy, Episode 13 explores how Washington has come to view China-Taiwan tension. The Baron team explores major blind-spots on the U.S. side, including the role of predictions, the value of ambiguity, and concepts of sovereignty.

The federal government is the world’s biggest customer. Public sector procurement increasingly drives private sector innovation and tips markets. In Episode 12, the Baron team details the shifting dynamics of U.S. government procurement and offers a practical guide for understanding the business and political implications of the private sector’s public sector future.

The increasing wealth and near-total enlistment of the nation’s capital into a partisan mission risks creating a permanent state of conflict between the federal government and half the electorate. In Episode 11, the Baron team discusses how such tension threatens to mire the U.S. public sector in debilitating dysfunction and create massive challenges for business leaders. 

Will American populism meaningfully change policy? In Episode 10, the Baron team attempts to determine the actual resonance of the reformist ideas now challenging the postwar consensus. To test the thesis of populist ascendancy, the firm applied Influencer Analytics to antitrust, quantitatively studying the specific populist movement that aspires to reshape competition law and enforcement. The result: a detailed understanding of the Super Influencers who dominate the debate and a demonstration of their capacity to impact entire business sectors.

America’s defining quality – trust – appears in serious decline. If so, how will this redefinition of the nation’s civilizational character change business, politics, and the public square? In this episode, Baron investigates declining American trust and the implications.

Even as the geopolitical competition between the United States and China intensifies, China’s access to U.S. markets continues largely unconstrained.  Moreover, China’s largest companies appear poised to contest sectors long dominated by U.S. firms. In this episode, Baron offers key insights into China’s accelerating expansion into international markets, the implications for U.S. business and political leaders, and the overall state of the U.S.-China Great Power contest.

Antitrust policy in the Unites States has been dominated for four decades by the consumer welfare standard.  Now, a new generation of antitrust policy makers seeks to return to the doctrines of an earlier era and exact revenge for the alleged transgressions of neoliberalism.  In this episode, Baron offers key insights into America’s dawning age of reinvigorated antitrust enforcement, with profound consequences for the nation’s largest businesses and emerging enterprises.

The pursuit of influence consumes Washington, D.C. Companies and organizations spend billions to engage the thought leaders and decision makers who drive policy outcomes. Yet, determining the individuals who exert true and lasting influence often eludes even the most sophisticated political strategists. In this episode, Baron explores the challenge of reliably identifying and understanding influence. 

Corporations that assume policy-making powers invite the wrath of the ultimate monopolist: government.  Baron details what business leaders and policy observers should expect in the coming years from Washington as politicians seek to constrain companies as unwelcome competitors for political power.