LATEST
Frank Hill Reviews The Upside of Inequality for The North State Journal
Review: The Upside of Inequality by Frank Hill for The North State Journal Many people hear the term “income inequality” and think: “We gotta do something to fix that!” Which almost always means pass more legislation and give more power to government officials. Ed Conard, former managing partner of Bain Capital, thinks differently. He sees rising income inequality as a good sign for an economy, not as a negative. As he writes in his eminently readable book, “The Upside of Inequality”: “Rising income inequality is the by-product of an economy… Read More
I Debate the Merits of Capitalism v. Socialism with socialist Jacobin Magazine’s Bhaskar Sunkara on Fox Business’s “Making Money”
I debate the merits of capitalism versus socialism with socialist Jacobin Magazine founder Bhaskar Sunkara on “Fox Business’s Making Money with Charles Payne.” Read More
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. Discussion Q&A Read More
Ed Conard Discusses His NYT bestselling book The Upside of Inequality at Susquehanna University
Ed discusses his top-ten New York Times bestselling book The Upside of Inequality with Matt Rousu, Dean of Susquehanna University’s Sigmund Weis School of Business and students. Discussion Q&A Read More
Dem Socialist Proposals Would Gradually Drag U.S. Growth and Wages to Stagnant European Levels
Socialist policy proposals from 2020 Democratic presidential candidates would irrevocably alter the American economy, gradually dragging it to Europe’s stagnant growth rate and lowering middle-class wages, on Fox Business’s Varney & Co. Read More
Tariff Threats May Be Needed to Negotiate Fair Trade with China on Fox Business’s “Making Money with Charles Payne”
I join Fox Business’s “Making Money with Charles Payne” to discuss how President Trump’s threatened tariffs may be needed to negotiate fair trade with China. Nothing else has worked well. We also discuss the cost of universal basic income’s incentives to work. Read More
Exposing Socialism’s Cost to the Middle Class on Fox Nation’s “Deep Dive”
I expose the cost of socialism to the middle class, its long term effect on economic growth, and whether libertarianism can win elections with the Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady. PART 2 Read More
Debating the Impact of GOP Tax Cuts and How They’re Paying for Themselves on Bold TV
Ed Conard joins Bold TV to debate the long term impact of GOP tax cuts on the economy, how they’re paying for themselves, and why they’ll make future generations better off. Read More
Ed Conard Debates Democratic Presidential Candidates’ Growth-Killing Economic Proposals on “Varney & Co.”
Stuart Varney and I debate the growth-killing economic proposals of Democratic presidential candidates Cory Booker and Andrew Yang, as well as Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to restrict oil drilling on public lands, on Fox Business’s Varney & Co. Read More
Successful CEOs Have a Single-Minded Determination to Serve Customers. That’s Not Psychopathy
I debate Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’ claim that billionaires and CEOs have psychopathic tendencies on Fox Business’s “Making Money” with Susan Li. Successful CEOs have a single-minded determination to serve customers more effectively than competitors. Read More
A Strong U.S. Economy is Capitalism’s Best Defense on Fox Business’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast”
Ed Conard vigorously defends capitalism with David Asman on Fox Business’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.” A 3.8% unemployment rate, rising wages, and a 40% stock market increase since President Trump’s election demonstrate the unparalleled success of American capitalism. Read More
My new National Review op-ed explains why CBO expects the tax cut to pay for itself
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 more than pays for itself. The CBO… Read More
Read My USA Today Op-Ed: “Tax Cut Law Helps Future Generations”
Tax Cut Law Helps Future Generations A one-time increase in gross domestic product that generations can enjoy for years to come is not a 'sugar high' Borrowing to buy an asset that produces more income than the interest expense makes your children richer. The debt doesn’t make them poorer. Without this basic understanding of finance, deficit hawks can’t distinguish deficit-financed consumption from borrowing that increases the economy’s capacity to pay the interest on the borrowed money, including any resulting increase in the interest rate. The latter makes future generations richer,… Read More
Upside of Inequality Available in Ukrainian!
The Ukrainian translation of my top-ten New York Times bestselling book The Upside of Inequality is now available! Read More
Discussing How The Upside of Inequality Is Faster U.S Economic Growth and Higher Wages on “Varney & Co.”
Stuart Varney and I discuss my top-ten bestselling book The Upside of Inequality on Fox Business’s Varney & Co. What is the upside of inequality? It’s faster U.S. economic growth and American middle-class incomes that are 15 to 30% higher than in Northern Europe and Japan. Read More
HIGHLIGHTS
Read Former White House CEA Chairman Kevin Hassett’s Interview of Ed Conard in National Review
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. Five Questions for Ed Conard National Review Online August 21, 2020 1) Many liberals claim capitalism no longer works for the middle and working class. Is it true? No. According to the Congressional Budget Office, prior to the pandemic, middle-class incomes had grown 60 percent more than inflation since 1980. The income of the poorest… Read More
My Oxford University Press Chapter, “The Economics of Inequality in High-Wage Economies,” Is Available Free Online
Oxford University Press has provided free online access to my chapter, “The Economics of Inequality in High-Wage Economies,” for a limited time in their new book “United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality.” In the chapter, I argue, “Inequality is mostly the result of an increasing premium on returns from risk and high-skilled labor ushered in by technological disruption and the feedback loop of elite talent working to increase their own productivity—a logical outcome when properly trained talent constrains growth. The answer … lies in increasing the ratio of high-… Read More
Ed Conard Discusses His Oxford University Chapter at Harvard’s Program on Constitutional Government
Ed 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 below. Opening Speech AUDIO Q&A PART 1 AUDIO Q&A PART 2 AUDIO 14 Questions for Ed Conard Tom Palmer (Snr. Fellow, Cato Institute): Do we have the ability to recruit high-skilled labor from around the world? Can we identify and restrict immigration only to them? What happens to… Read More
My chapter, “The Economics of Inequality,” joins Saez, Burkhauser, and other distinguished economists in Oxford University Press’ new “United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality”
In my chapter, “Economics of Inequality in High-Wage Economies," I argue, “Inequality is mostly the result of an increasing premium on returns from risk and high-skilled labor ushered in by technological disruption and the feedback loop of elite talent working to increase their own productivity—a logical outcome when properly trained talent constrains growth. The answer … lies in increasing the ratio of high- to low-skilled workers chiefly by training and recruiting more high-scoring domestic and immigrant workers. Rather than greater income redistribution slowing growth by dampening high-skilled productivity and incentives… Read More
CBS Sunday Morning Features “The Upside of Inequality”
“CBS Sunday Morning” feature on inequality, which includes Hitler, Marie Antoinette, beatings, starving paupers in coffins, Thomas Piketty, and poverty statistics that don’t account for the trillion dollars America spends helping the poor, gives me 20 seconds to defend capitalism. Here are all the things I said that they chose not to use. Read More
Lies, Damned Lies, and Steve Rattner’s Statistics
Lies, Damned Lies, And Steve Rattner’s Statistics If liberal economists could win the economic debate with honest arguments, they would make them. As President Reagan once joked, “Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.” In his New York Times op-ed, Steve Rattner adds his name to the list of people willing to compromise their reputation to mislead the American people. No serious economist would measure a president’s performance blindly from the day they stepped into… Read More
Ed Conard Featured in CQ Researcher Report “Inequality in America: Can the Growing Wealth Gap Be Closed?”
CQ Researcher released its latest report “Inequality in America: Can the Growing Wealth Gap Be Closed?” featuring an interview with Ed Conard. Excerpts from the report: On incentivizing risk-taking to grow the economy: Edward Conard, a visiting scholar at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI), calls the wealth gap an inevitable byproduct of an economy that prospers by rewarding innovators and risk-takers. Before the coronavirus struck, the United States had enjoyed a strong economy with low unemployment rates and rising wages. After an 11-year bull market, the Dow Jones Industrial… Read More
Joe Scarborough and Ed Conard Debate Pres. Trump’s Immigration Plan on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”
Joe Scarborough and I debate President Trump’s new immigration plan and its emphasis on high-skilled immigration to produce economic growth on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Read More- My new National Review op-ed explains why CBO expects the tax cut to pay for itself
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 more than pays for itself. The CBO… Read More - Read My USA Today Op-Ed: “Tax Cut Law Helps Future Generations”
Tax Cut Law Helps Future Generations A one-time increase in gross domestic product that generations can enjoy for years to come is not a 'sugar high' Borrowing to buy an asset that produces more income than the interest expense makes your children richer. The debt doesn’t make them poorer. Without this basic understanding of finance, deficit hawks can’t distinguish deficit-financed consumption from borrowing that increases the economy’s capacity to pay the interest on the borrowed money, including any resulting increase in the interest rate. The latter makes future generations richer,… Read More 
My Op-ed Today’s WSJ: Is the Tax Cut Paying For Itself? By a Mile.
Tax Reform Is Covering Its Costs Faster growth is on track to outpace debt in the next decade. Is the 2017 tax reform paying for itself? It’s a complicated question, but the critics have made up their minds. Outlets like the Tax Policy Center claim the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has diminished federal revenue rather than increase it as some supporters predicted. Other skeptics lament surging government deficits and debt. Some point to last year’s brief economic spurt as evidence of the law’s failure to drive long-term growth. Even… Read More
Read My New National Review Op-Ed: “Let’s Not Kid Ourselves About 70% Tax Rates”
Let’s Not Kid Ourselves About 70% Tax Rates Their only justification is to confiscate others’ money. My op-ed in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal argued that academic justifications for 70 percent marginal tax rates, such as Peter Diamond and Emmanuel Saez’s, are nothing more than a veneer intended to deceive a wider audience that doesn’t know better. Saez’s expansion of his justification for confiscatory taxes in the New York Times does little to prove otherwise. Diamond and Saez’s original argument for a 70 percent tax rate – that it would enhance both tax revenue and social welfare – ignores the… 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 confiscatory upper-range tax rates. But a quick look at their analysis reveals grave caveats that only an advocate of higher taxes could… Read More 
Read My New National Review Op-Ed: Free-Market Republicans Risk Irrelevance by Ignoring the Concerns of Blue-Collar Voters
Free-market Republicans must recognize they can’t build a winning coalition without the president’s supporters. In our two-party democracy, agendas without winning coalitions are largely irrelevant. Edward Conard National Review Online June 16, 2018 Prior to the president’s victory, protectors of free enterprise, foreign-policy hawks, and social conservatives controlled the GOP by giving each other what they wanted most: lower taxes and restrained spending; larger defense budgets; and judges who limited the federal government. President Trump’s supporters upended this coalition, seized control of the GOP, and won the presidency with victories… Read More
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. Watch here on "Conversations with Bill Kristol." Read More