Beware “Social Insurance” Salesmen
Redistribution is a vital topic for conservatives as we question stale orthodoxies and reexamine how first principles can help to address modern challenges. In this respect I agree entirely with Read more…
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The “Enormous Social Value” of Private-Equity Fees
The Wall Street Journal’s defense of private equity (“Populists Don’t Know Much About Private Equity”) is an impressionist masterpiece of market fundamentalism, relying on the unexamined assumption that fees paid to private-equity partners represent “social value.” One can simply step back and gawk in amazement, but true appreciation requires poring over each brushstroke.
An Industrial Policy by any Another Name…
The opinion pages of both the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal have featured calls for industrial policy in the past week, an encouraging trend toward realism about the necessary role for government in a free-market economy.
The Fight On The Right: A Pre-Trump Or Post-Trump Future?
American Compass’s Oren Cass describes the parameters of the fight on the right and makes the case for a Post-Trump conservatism.
Does Aggressive Policing Create its Own Cycle of Dependence?
I was jolted by the familiar echo, reading Chris Arnade’s “Cops and Teachers,” of an argument I’ve made a thousand times. It was an obviously conservative point, turned suddenly into a refutation of a popular conservative stance.
A Better Model for Worker Training
A Response to Samuel Hammond
Balanced Trade, Robust Industry, and Rising Productivity: Pick All Three
Professor Dan Drezner is again illustrating how we ended up with a misbegotten consensus on globalization built upon inadequate assumptions and shallow analysis. A couple of weeks ago, we encountered him badly mischaracterizing a study about the supposed value of trade liberalization. Breezing past that issue, he is back now with a more outlandish claim, that: “a world in which ‘trade were balanced, domestic industry robust, and productivity rising’ is a world that not only does not exist, but very likely cannot exist” (emphasis in original).
On Regulatory Reform
Outdated environmental regulation poses an irrational barrier to reshoring efforts.
Is It Time for an American Industrial Policy?
American Compass’s Oren Cass participates in a written debate with Duke University’s Michael Munger over the need for American industrial policy.
Failing a Test on Trade
Professor Dan Drezner has been crudely criticizing Senator Josh Hawley’s New York Times op-ed on U.S. withdrawal from the WTO—treating it “the way one would treat an undergrad paper in global political economy,” awarding a C-minus, and offering the feedback that, “You can do better work than this, Josh. Put in the effort, do more research and make sharper arguments next time.” He exposes the fundamental weakness of his critique though, with the claim that “Hawley prefers exiting the WTO and rejecting the estimated $2.1 trillion in benefits from trade,” in the process demonstrating exactly what simplistic economic analyses of trade policy get wrong.
What They Are Saying About the American Compass Launch
American Compass launched in early May to widespread media coverage and generous praise from politicians, scholars, and commentators.
“Pay Parents” Isn’t a Pro-Family Position
Debates over family policy are centering on the idea that households should be “paid” for raising children.
Recovering the American Tradition of Economic Policy
American Compass’s Wells King and Oren Cass and American Affairs’ Julius Krein summarize their arguments from Rebooting the American System in this short adaptation.
Special Episode of The Editors: Rich Lowry and Oren Cass
Rich Lowry interviews Oren Cass about the launch of American Compass.
A Note of Introduction
Welcome to American Compass. Our mission is to restore an economic consensus that emphasizes the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation’s liberty and prosperity.
Removing the Blinders From Economic Policy
Remove the blinders of economic fundamentalism, and it is impossible not to see the social, legal, historical, and institutional scaffolding that buttresses a growing economy, and the role that public policy must play in its construction and maintenance.
The Wall Street Journal Goes Negative
One of the nation’s leading opinion platforms cuts a two-minute attack ad against American Compass for prompting debate.
Hayek’s Broken Promise
It is a tragedy that Friedrich Hayek’s excesses, invested with the authority of his (deserved) reputation, became the unexamined default for right-of-center economic thinking in America.
The Return of Conservative Economics
Today we are announcing the formation of American Compass, an organization dedicated to helping American conservatism recover from its chronic case of market fundamentalism.
Comparative Disadvantage
If comparative advantage is created rather than discovered, refusing to play the game has consequences.
