The American Compass Podcast

The financial industry is supposed to be our economy’s plumbing, quietly channeling capital to investments where it’s needed most. But in today’s system, that plumbing is leaking. From rising credit card rates and opaque lending products to the decline of local banking and the growth of speculative activity, the financial sector is increasingly disconnected from the real economy it was built to serve.

Rohit Chopra, former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, joins Oren to examine how finance lost its purpose and what it would take to restore it. They discuss the limits of regulation versus enforcement, the rise of non-bank financial products, and the growing concentration of credit markets. They also consider whether novel activities like online sports betting and prediction represent genuine innovation or simply new ways to extract more money from consumers.

Immigration enforcement has long been framed as a question of border security, but the Trump administration's success at stopping illegal crossings has turned the public's attention toward removing illegal aliens who have become enmeshed in communities across America. Now, the administration's challenge will be enforcing immigration law in our labor market.

Daniel Kishi, senior policy advisor at American Compass, joins Oren to discuss what effective immigration enforcement actually requires. They explore why targeting employers may be more effective than high-profile raids, how weak enforcement distorts labor markets and suppresses wages, and what the administration’s shifting strategy reveals about the politics of immigration. They also examine the structural flaws in the H-1B visa program, from below-market wage rules to the lottery system, and consider whether temporary worker programs can truly serve the national interest. Finally, they turn to the trucking industry, assessing how relaxed standards and unauthorized labor reshaped the market and how recent crackdowns from the administration are beginning to restore wages, safety, and the rule of law.

Further Reading:
"Fix the H1-B Visa Program" by Daniel Kishi

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.