American Compass

OREN CASS: The administration is trying to figure out the endgame with China. Some trade going both ways is fine, but what cannot continue is the entanglement and dependence. We can't have Chinese companies buying and operating businesses here, or American executives beholden to the CCP overseas. @oren_cass

The same housing bill that passed with overwhelming support in the Senate is now being hamstrung in the House. On today's @Bannons_WarRoom, @oren_cass explains why.

1/ With the housing bill that passed the Senate by 89 to 10 now back on the front burner in the House, the usual suspects are back with their visceral opposition to any public policy that dares improve upon what Wall Street would do if left to its own devices... 🧵

What President Trump does in China this week may endanger—or solidify—his legacy. While Americans understand the stakes are high, they are uncertain what an alternative to economic cooperation might be. A much clearer strategy, and much clearer articulation of that strategy, will be necessary if the United States is to decouple successfully.

Surprisingly, then, Americans (even most China Hawks) tended to favor economic cooperation over decoupling with China. As Oren Cass wrote last week, this would be a grave mistake. nytimes.com/2026/05/08/opi…

This week, President Trump heads to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, hauling American business leaders in tow. The meeting follows 25 years of bad deals for the United States in pursuit of globalization, which have hollowed out America’s industrial capacity. 🧵

Full article here: nytimes.com/2026/05/08/opi…

Accepting a trillion-dollar investment from China isn't just a bad deal for the United States. It would be, as @oren_cass writes, an "unforced error of world-historic proportions."

A new policy brief, from American Compass policy advisor Brad Littlejohn, suggests age-gating at the mobile app store level. The brief recognizes that terms of service are indistinguishable from any other binding legal contract, which a minor would not be able to sign without parental consent. americancompass.org/age-gating-for…

While bipartisan support for child online safety exists, many proposals focus on age-gating obscene content, like pornography, online gambling, or alcohol and cannabis e-commerce.

From the moment that a young person receives a smartphone (on average, by age 11) they are beholden to algorithms that lead to excessive screen time, anxiety, and sleep deprivation. Nearly all the platforms responsible for these harms collect and monetize children’s private data.

"The problem with market fundamentalism is not so much its principles," @oren_cass explains, "as its lack of any. Yes, yes, we’ve all heard about 'the knowledge problem,' 'public choice,' and 'the invisible hand.' But while, miraculously, in every case some long-ago sage has already proved exactly what the fundamentalists want to believe, those insights never extend to situations where they might rather believe something else." commonplace.org/p/the-invisibl…

Policy director @Chris_Griz joins the American Compass Podcast: commonplace.org/p/a-real-fix-f…

"This is not a situation in which Chinese automakers would be…principally interested in competing freely and fairly for profit." @Chris_Griz from @AmerCompass said at #SAFESummit2026 on Chinese automakers entering the U.S. market. "Think of what's been happening in critical minerals…When we have a dispute with China, their threat is to constrict the flow of the critical minerals we depend on. … Imagine what it would be like for them to have total control of a vertically integrated supply chain all the way up to a whole critical sector in the United States"

"It took nearly two decades after the introduction of the app store for Apple to roll out age verification; in the two decades prior, Apple had managed to progress from the first color desktop monitor to the iPhone." commonplace.org/p/the-economic…

Madison's Notes is out with a new episode: "The Crisis of American Political Economy." Host Ryan Shinkel (@RyanShinkel) interviewed Chris Griswold (@Chris_Griz), the policy director of American Compass (@AmerCompass). They talked about AI, automation, and the end of free trade; political instability and populism; how economic policy can best serve American workers and families; plus the Artemis II rocket and America250. Please enjoy: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s5e…

Allowing for sustained levels of illegal immigrants in the U.S. labor market provides unscrupulous employers—who are already violating our immigration law—with significant power to violate our labor and employment laws, to the detriment of American workers in their workplaces.

Interesting @greg_ip column citing @AmerCompass research on "The Tariff Tally": "American Is in the Middle of a Stealth Manufacturing Boom" Not sure "Stealth" is the right word, though... it's easy enough to see, unless you're determined not to! wsj.com/economy/americ…