In this episode, Vero De Rugy sits down with Paul Mueller and Dave Hebert, senior research fellows at AIER, to discuss trade and national security.

The conversation dives deep into the complex—and often manipulated—tension between market efficiency and national defense. While free traders acknowledge legitimate security exceptions, the trio explores how "national security" is frequently used as a pretext for protectionist policies that come with a steep, often hidden, economic price tag.

Key highlights of the discussion include:

• Vigilante Justice on the World Stage: Paul and Dave discuss their "Batman" analogy for current trade policy—exploring the consequences of bypassing international norms like the WTO to "dole out justice" through unilateral tariffs.

• The China Dilemma: A look at whether "decoupling" from the Chinese economy is a realistic goal or a demographic and logistical impossibility.

• The Net Assessment of the Current Administration: Vero proposes a provocative theory: Could the "background" wins in energy deregulation, AI framework, and crypto policy outweigh the "foreground" chaos of trade wars and market uncertainty?

• The Cost of Credibility: Why market uncertainty and capricious policy shifts might be more damaging to long-term growth than the actual tariffs themselves.

Whether you are interested in the granular details of the WTO enforcement mechanisms or the broader philosophical questions of individualism versus the new collectivism, this episode offers a candid look at the trade-offs required for American prosperity in a globalized world.

As Social Security approaches its 90th anniversary, the program faces a looming identity crisis and a massive fiscal deadline. In this episode, host Veronique De Rugy sits down with Romina Boccia, Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy at the Cato Institute and co-author of Reimagining Social Security: Global Lessons for Retirement Policy Changes.

Together, they dismantle the most persistent myths surrounding the U.S. retirement system, from the "lockbox" illusion to the reality of the 2032 trust fund depletion. Romina explains why a program designed in the era of the Great Depression is struggling to keep pace with modern capital markets and 21st-century life expectancy.

Key topics discussed in this episode include:

• The Pay-As-You-Go Reality: Why 1 in 4 Americans believe they have a personal account, and the truth about intergovernmental IOUs.

• The 2032 Deadline: How recent legislative changes have accelerated the timeline for automatic benefit cuts.

• Lessons from Abroad: How countries like Sweden and Canada successfully modernized their systems by leaning into private accounts and flexible savings.

• Universal Savings Accounts (USAs): A proposal to fix the "double taxation" on savings and empower lower-income workers without the sting of early withdrawal penalties.

This conversation offers a candid look at how we can move beyond "tweaks" to build a more secure financial future.

In this episode, Veronique de Rugy and Luke Foster peel back the layers of the "French political soul," and explore the intellectual roots of the Franco-American relationship.

Foster, a professor and co-founder of Academia Tocqueville, argues that Tocqueville's emphasis on civil society as a check on central power remains the ultimate diagnostic tool for modern governance.

De Rugy and Foster also discuss the high stakes of 21st-century geopolitics, centered on Foster's recent critique of the NATO alliance, "We Need Friends, Not Flatterers." They dissect the Gaullist concept of strategic autonomy, questioning whether the American security umbrella has inadvertently stunted European state capacity and led to a "crowding out" of defense spending by the welfare state.

From France's nuclear grid to the surprising efficiency of its fiscal bureaucracy, De Rugy and Foster challenge the assumption that the American model is always more efficient, ultimately calling for a partnership built on honest realism rather than convenient dependence.