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Oren Cass
Oren Cass is the executive director of American Compass and author of The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America (2018). He is a contributing opinion writer for the Financial Times and his work also appears regularly in publications including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
From 2005 to 2015, Oren worked as a management consultant in Bain & Company’s Boston and Delhi offices. During this period, he also earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was elected vice president and treasurer of the Harvard Law Review and oversaw the journal’s budget and operations. While still in law school, Oren also became Domestic Policy Director for Governor Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, editing and producing the campaign’s “jobs book” and developing its domestic policy strategy, proposals, and research. He joined the Manhattan Institute as a senior fellow in 2015 and became a prolific scholar, publishing more than 15 reports for MI and editing its popular “Issues 2016” and “Issues 2020” series, testifying before seven congressional committees and speaking on dozens of college campuses. He founded American Compass at the start of 2020.
Whole Life: A Common Sense Agenda for Strengthening the American Family Share This
THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE—American Compass’s Oren Cass joins a distinguished panel to discuss the need for robust family policy from the political right.
US Presidential Candidates are Ignoring Ordinary Voters’ Needs Share This
FINANCIAL TIMES—American Compass’s Oren Cass describes the process by which leaders of both the Republican and Democratic Parties have become unmoored from the voters they aspire to represent.
Presidential Candidates Are Ignoring Ordinary Voters’ Needs Share This
In this commentary for the Financial Times, Cass considers what the presidential candidates would be talking about if workers and their interests were of primary concern
When Market Economists Fail Share This
CLAREMONT REVIEW OF BOOKS—American Compass’s Oren Cass critiques public choice theory as applied in defense of a libertarian agenda.
Biden and Trump are Failing the American Worker Share This
CNN—American Compass’s Oren Cass argues that neither Biden nor Trump has given the necessary attention to issues like industrial, education, and labor policy that could help American workers.
America Needs a Conservative Labor Movement Share This
WALL STREET JOURNAL—American Compass’s Oren Cass argues that a strong, reformed labor movement has unique potential to advance conservative priorities.
The Vanishing American Dream: The Economic Realities Facing Middle- and Lower-Income Americans Share This
EVENT—American Compass’s Oren Cass participated in a symposium on “The Vanishing American Dream,” as part of the Brookings Institution’s Future of the Middle Class Initiative, discussing the political roots of economic issues facing lower- and middle-income Americans.
A Free Market Manifesto That Changed the World, Reconsidered Share This
THE NEW YORK TIMES—American Compass’s Oren Cass joins a wide range of economists and business leaders to discuss Milton Friedman’s essay, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” on its 50th anniversary.
Republican Party Battles Over its Post-Trumpian Soul Share This
FINANCIAL TIMES—American Compass’s Oren Cass spotlights the ideological contest between libertarian Republicans and post-Trump conservatives for the future identity of the American political right.
The Elite Needs to Give Up Its G.D.P. Fetish Share This
THE NEW YORK TIMES—American Compass’s Oren Cass suggests that the professional class might learn from the pandemic that “material living standards” do not always translate into “quality of life.”
From the Primordial Supply-Side Soup Share This
Re: Trump’s Second-Term Opening (WSJ)
This morning’s commentary from the Wall Street Journal editorial board is of great scientific import, a fragile creature crushed into a perfectly preserved fossil by the forces of reality. Future researchers tracing the evolution of the American right-of-center from market fundamentalism to a viable economic conservatism will regard it as a vital transitional form—like a […]
How Trump Has Changed the Republicans Share This
WALL STREET JOURNAL—The Saturday Essay features American Compass’s efforts to construct a new conservative governing philosophy.