2025 Annual Report
Staking Our Claim: American Compass’s 2025 Annual Report.
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2025 Founder’s Letter
Political economy has no inviolable truths. Anything that economists or political scientists claim as inviolable truth, then, is incomplete—it may hold within the narrow confines of their analysis, but it will not hold in reality over the long run.
Learning By Doing
Case studies in building the infrastructure for career pathways
Foreword: Building Blocks
A startling transformation is underway, in the economy, in the culture, and among policymakers.
The Data: An Inadequate American System
The American commitment to “College for All” has been an unmitigated disaster for the majority of young people.
Case Study: Fresno Unified School District
Across seven comprehensive high schools and seven specialty high schools, the district offers 81 different career pathways.
Case Study: Texas State Technical College
The single objective is training and placing a skilled workforce with Texas employers.
Case Study: Micron Technology
A Registered Apprenticeship pathway to train entry-level technicians for the company’s Idaho and Virginia fabs.
Case Study: electrical training ALLIANCE
A nonprofit national training organization associated with the joint apprenticeship system created by the IBEW and the NECA.
Case Study: Micron Technology & North America’s Building Trades Unions
The workforce plan includes a project-linked contractor funding contribution stream to support the Pathways to Apprenticeship pipeline and a first-source referral approach.
Learning By Doing: Policy Recommendations
Ten recommendations to advance opportunity pluralism: a diversified system of credible, work-connected pathways that meet people where they are and lead to good jobs.
Case Study: Hadrian
A Workforce Development Program that is a core investment and a competitive advantage.
Trump’s Challenge to Free-Market Capitalism
Stakes in private companies. Handshake deals with chief executives. The president’s economic policy has drifted far from principles that long defined the Republican Party. Is it capitalism at all?
Ban Noncompete Agreements Nationwide
Noncompetes hamper innovation and entrepreneurship.
Oren Cass joins The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart
As the stock market continues to break records, Jon is joined by Oren Cass, chief economist at American Compass, to examine how America’s economy was reengineered to serve shareholders instead Read more…
Tariffs vs. Free Trade: Oren Cass Debates Larry Summers at Harvard Business School
In November, Harvard Business School hosted a debate between Oren Cass and Katherine Tai on one side, and Larry Summers and Robert Lawrence on the other, over the question: Should Read more…
Oren Cass Joins Bannon’s War Room to Discuss Financialization
The real Wall Street problem isn’t just the edge-case fraudsters or looters; it’s the entire exercise. Private equity, hedge funds, private credit: all these layers atop legitimate markets that create Read more…
The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way.
It’s bonus season on Wall Street, and a record-setting 2025 is yielding bigger paychecks than ever for America’s investment bankers, thanks to their hard work doing, well, what exactly?
Summer Fellows
American Compass summer analysts will work in our Washington, D.C. office in research, policy, and communications. Applications are due by February 28.
‘I Have Been Dismayed About Warsh’s Tone’: Three Economists Debate Trump’s Pick for the Fed
Matthew Rose, an Opinion editorial director, hosted an online conversation with three contributing Opinion writers (Oren Cass, Natasha Sarin, and Jason Forman) about the Federal Reserve. Matthew Rose: After months of Read more…
