Oren Cass, a close encounter with one of the Trumponomics Cerberus

Do you like games? I propose a challenge: try to ideologically place the author of these quotes: “An American worker needs to work 60 weeks a year to cover his family's needs. In 1985, it took 40 weeks… Over the past five decades, working-class wages grew 1% in real terms. Over the same period, corporate profits increased 185%.”

I'll give you a few clues: He's not a union leader, much less the leader of a left-wing party. He's Oren Cass, one of the most influential neoconservative thinkers in the United States. A must-read for understanding the movement that brought the White House and the Republicans control of Capitol Hill. A guide to navigating the labyrinth of Trumponomics.

Oren Cass is one of the driving forces behind the revival of conservative thought in the United States. The American Chamber of Commerce was wise to invite him as a keynote speaker at its 2025 Economic Forum. This event is becoming unmissable. Last year, the guest was Mariana Mazzucatto, one of the leading thinkers of the contemporary Left.

Is Cass better in person than in his book? Perhaps. This intellectual is convincing when he explains why the crisis of American capitalism must be seen through the lens of workers' living conditions. We've lost our way, he says: Their life expectancy has declined, while substance abuse and obesity rates have risen. He looks for an explanation outside the box: "Their problems are not the inevitable result of technological and global forces... they are the direct consequence of a decades-long economic consensus that prioritized increased consumption (even if it was of imported goods on a gigantic scale)."

According to Cass, the solution to the crisis isn't for the government to spend more on subsidies for poor families, as the left claims... but it's also not a problem that will be solved with higher growth rates, as some on the right insist.

He likes the tariffs Donald Trump has imposed, but criticizes the fact that their implementation wasn't as thorough as needed, considering the breadth and depth of the tariff measures announced on Freedom Day. They've been difficult to implement and have caused unnecessary wear and tear, he acknowledges.

He's obsessed with China, it's clear from listening to him. This is also confirmed by a comment made by Pedro Casas Alatriste, director of AmCham, in the public conversation he held with Cass: "The second thing you asked me yesterday (Tuesday) was how much of a presence China has in Mexico."

What is the future of the USMCA? America First is not America Alone, says Oren Cass. We are not seeking to isolate ourselves, but to build a bloc committed to common rules, he explains. The key to the renegotiation is not the rules of origin, but rather ensuring that China is excluded from the benefits of North American Free Trade and reducing the imbalance between the United States and Mexico (112.587 billion dollars between January and July 2025, 17% more than in 2024).

He praises the Mexican government's collaboration with the United States during the Trump administration, but doesn't dwell on the complexity of a relationship where the rules of the game depend on the whims of the most powerful player. His message was clear to anyone who knows how to read it: the renegotiation of the USMCA will be complicated. The United States is undergoing internal reconstructive surgery that will provoke aftershocks in international relations... for a long time to come.