Edward Conard has published two top-ten New York Times bestsellers, The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class and Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told about the Economy is Wrong. Most recently he contributed a chapter, “The Economics of Inequality in High-Wage Economies” to Oxford University Press’ United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality. The books have received a variety of positive reviews from noteworthy economists including the former president of Harvard University and economist Larry Summers, a very tough critic on the other side of the aisle, who blurbed: “I disagree but respect the argument,” calling it “a very valuable contribution” that will “sharpen your thinking on critical economic issues.”
He is a Nonresident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a retired Bain Capital Partner.
Conard has made over 200 media appearances and has debated top economists and journalists including Nobel Prize-winning economists Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz, and Ken Arrow, former CEA chairs Austen Goolsbee, Greg Mankiw, and Kevin Hasset, and a variety of journalists, including Fareed Zakaria, Andrew Ross Sorkin, and Jon Stewart.
He has also won two IQ2 debates by defeating the motions “Income Inequality Impairs the American Dream of Upward Mobility” and “Central Banks Can Print Prosperity,” by audience vote.
Conard is currently publishing a daily summary of noteworthy economic news.
Ed Conard Discusses His Oxford University Chapter at Harvard’s Program on Constitutional GovernmentEd Conard recently joined Harvard’s Harvey Mansfield to discuss his Oxford University Press chapter, “The Economics of Inequality in High-Wage Economies,” at Harvard University’s Program on Constitutional Government. The video, audio, and text of his speech and the Q&A session are available… Read More
In National Review, Kevin Hassett, the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, asks Ed Conard to defend conservative free market capitalism and how it promotes entrepreneurial risk-taking that has grown middle-class incomes faster than Europe… Read More
Is the tax cut expected to pay for itself? Yes — if we use the Congressional Budget Office’s forecast and any economically logical standard, the tax cut makes both current and future generations better off. The CBO now expects the nominal gross domestic product to increase nearly $750 billion more per year by 2020 than in its forecast prior to the tax cut. It originally attributed about one third of that growth to the tax-cut legislation — even by that estimate, the cut … Read More
Read My New Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: “The Crippling Cost of 70% Tax Rates”The Crippling Cost of 70% Tax Rates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal would smother investment and innovation, leaving America poorer. Newly elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent her first few weeks on Capitol Hill calling for a 70% top marginal income-tax rate, and suddenly the debate over optimal rates has reopened. To support her charge, some liberals are citing a 2011 study by economists Peter Diamond and Emmanuel Saez, which advocates for…Read More
My New Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: America’s Got Talent, but Not Nearly EnoughIn today’s Wall Street Journal, I argue that high-skilled immigration is the only way America can meet the growing cost of retiring baby boomers without growth-killing tax increases that jeopardize America’s future in an increasingly dangerous world. Read the op-ed here…Read More
A Proposal For Accelerating Middle Class IncomesWhen manufacturing jobs are outsourced, economists believe that opportunistic entrepreneurs will race to employ displaced workers and competition will raise their productivity and wages. But high-tech entrepreneurs have moved to large cities and outsourced their blue-collar jobs to China, while the engineers who remain behind now design products that employ offshore workers. This brain drain slows low-skilled productivity and wage growth and depresses the wages of displaced communities for decades. Unfortunately, America can’t forego trade or innovation that lowers costs and still remain competitive in the long run. …Read More
What Obama Didn’t Learn From the 1990sWith the prospects for a postrecession economic rebound fading, it has grown increasingly obvious that the United States must eventually raise taxes or cut spending. President Obama claims we can raise taxes on those earning over $250,000, to avoid spending cuts with little, if any, effect on growth because growth was faster in the 1990s and in the 1950s and ’60s when marginal income-tax rates were higher. The evidence doesn’t support Mr. Obama’s conclusion. …Read More
The Long and the Short of Extending Bond Maturities Todd G. Buchholz says the U.S. government should lock in low interest rates by issuing long-term debt (“Washington Should Lock In Low Rates,” op-ed, June 20), but it is a bad idea. No surprise that the Fed has wisely done the opposite. Our economy currently suffers from a surplus of price-insensitive, risk-averse short-term savings. With the now-recognized risk of damage from withdrawals, the private sector has dialed back its use of these savings, which now sit idle. Growth has slowed and unemployment has risen as a result. …Read More
DiCaprio and the Hypocrisy of Moral LicensingThis week, Time Magazine released its list of the top 100 Most Influential People and placed Leonardo DiCaprio on the cover of its magazine for the personal example he sets on climate change. How Ironic! DiCaprio is a one-man carbon-polluting machine. According to the leaked Sony documents for example, DiCaprio took six private roundtrip flights from Los Angeles to New York over a 6-week period, and a private jet to the 2014 World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. Pictures of him vacationing on big yachts show that his polluting ways extend far beyond his charitable work. What hypocrisy! …Read More
Debating a Book’s-Worth of Economic Issues on “Conversations with Bill Kristol”
I cover a book’s-worth of economic issues in my 90 minute discussion with Bill Kristol on “Conversations with Bill Kristol.”
Debating Inequality, Innovation, and High-Skilled Immigration on “Conversations with Bill Kristol”
Bill Kristol and I debate income inequality, innovation, and why only high-skilled immigration can grow the American economy fast enough to pay for retiring baby boomers without damaging the economy with high taxes and slower growth.
Ed Conard defeats the IQ2 Motion: “Income Inequality Impairs the American Dream of Upward Mobility”
Despite a highly partisan crowd of voters, Ed defeated the IQ2 Motion: “Income Inequality Impairs the American Dream of Upward Mobility.”
Thirty percent of the voters moved to Ed’s side of the motion—one of the largest swings in the history of IQ2.
Thirty percent of the voters moved to Ed’s side of the motion—one of the largest swings in the history of IQ2.
Ed Conard Defeats IQ2 Motion “Central Banks Can Print Prosperity” in a Landslide Victory
Squaring off against former IMF chief economist and MIT professor, Simon Johnson, Ed Conard persuaded 60% of the undecided audience members (to Johnson’s 15%) that the $3 trillion printed by the Federal Reserve has had little if any stimulatory effect on the post-crisis recovery. Last year, Ed also defeated the motion “Income Inequality Impairs the American Dream of Upward Mobility” in another landslide.
Ed Conard debates Nobel Prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz
Bloomberg TV – In the Loop with Betty Liu video
June jobs report: Is the economy really recovering? Ed debates with Alan Krueger and Betty Liu on Bloomberg TV
I Debate Austan Goolsbee on CNN: Does Trump Deserve Credit For Rising Stock Market?
Ed Conard debates Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, on whether President Trump has contributed to the rising stock market with Michael Smerconish on CNN’s “Smerconish.”
Greg Mankiw & Ed Conard Discuss the Upside of Inequality on C-SPAN’s Book TV
Harvard economist Greg Mankiw interviews Ed Conard about his new book, The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class for C-SPAN Book TV’s “After Words.”
Harvard Symposium on My Views: “What Advocates of Free Enterprise Can Learn from Populism.”
Watch my Harvard symposium presentation “What Advocates of Free Enterprise Can Learn from Populism.” The symposium was hosted by Professor Harvey Mansfield and Harvard’s Program on Constitutional Government. Harvard Economics Professor Greg Mankiw participated in the discussion.