The American Compass Podcast

On this episode of Policy in Brief, Oren Cass and Chris Griswold discuss how we should finance higher education in the U.S. Instead of simply offering blanket student debt forgiveness, they explore how to rethink financing from the ground up. Their proposals include treating student debt like all other debt so it can be discharged in bankruptcy, and putting colleges and universities directly on the hook for their graduates' future success.Further Reading:American Compass policy briefs: Student Debt Relief the Old-Fashioned Way and Self-Financing by CollegesThe Banality of Student Loans (Oren Cass, American Compass)A Guide to College-for-All (American Compass)The False Promise of Good Jobs (Oren Cass & Richard Oyeniran, American Compass)Colleges Should Only Succeed When Students Do (Mike Reeser, Texas State Technical College)

On this episode of Policy in Brief, Oren Cass is joined as always by American Compass policy director Chris Griswold to discuss a proposal to allow workers to administer their own employee benefits through organizations they control. This would be an American version of the Ghent system, a successful European model that improves benefit provision because it's more accountable than either government or employers.Further Reading:American Compass policy brief: Worker-Run BenefitsA Better Bargain: Worker Solidarity and Mutual Support (Wells King, American Compass)Not What They Bargained For: A Survey of American Workers (American Compass)

On this episode of Policy in Brief, Oren Cass is joined by American Compass policy director Chris Griswold to discuss how U.S. trade fell so far out of balance—and some ideas for how to rebalance it. They explore three key ideas: the global tariff, the import certificate, and the market access charge. All three use market forces to bring trade into balance and help fix the decades-long erosion of American industry and innovation.Further Reading:American Compass policy briefs: The Global Tariff, The Import Certificate, and The Market Access ChargeRegaining Our Balance (American Compass)Searching for Capitalism in the Wreckage of Globalization (Oren Cass, American Compass)Where's the Growth? (American Compass)Here’s How I Would Solve the Trade Problem (Warren Buffett, Fortune)Robert Lighthizer on the need for tariffs to reduce America’s trade deficit (The Economist)Why the Market Access Charge is Necessary to Fix Trade Imbalances (John R. Hansen, Coalition for a Prosperous America)

On this episode of Policy in Brief, Oren Cass is joined by American Compass policy director Chris Griswold to discuss a proposal to create an online age-verification system to keep kids safe online. They discuss how the current system leaves children unprotected, potential privacy concerns, and why the public sector needs to step in to help parents protect their kids online.Further reading:Lost in the Super Market (American Compass)Protecting Children from Social Media (Chris Griswold, National Affairs)How Changing One Law Could Protect Kids From Social Media (Yuval Levin, The New York Times)The Dangerous Experiment on Teen Girls (Jonathan Haidt, The Atlantic)Kids Online Safety Act

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.