Edward Conard

Top Ten New York Times Bestselling Author

  • “Unintended Consequences should be read by anyone who takes for granted the superiority of progressive taxation and has not thought carefully about the trade-offs involved.” - The New Republic
Upside of Inequality Unintended Consequences Oxford

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  • A New Year’s Resolution Worth Making
    Real Clear Politics By Edward Conard | December 31, 2014 With oil prices plunging below $60 a barrel, the U.S. economy growing at an annualized 5 percent last quarter, and the Dow soaring above 18,000, it's easy to overlook academic research published in 2014 that will likely have a lasting impact on economic debate. In particular, a half-dozen highly credible studies debunked widely-held economic myths. Each of these studies illustrate the need to confront wishful thinking with a great deal of skepticism. The year began with Harvard's Raj Chetty and… Read More

  • Ed Conard on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
    On the show, Jon Stewart and Ed discuss Unintended Consequences and why risk-taking isn't the enemy of a properly functioning economy. Read More

  • Ed Conard debates Vice President Biden’s former chief economist, Jared Bernstein, on income inequality
      At the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in Los Angeles on Monday, a top-level discussion of income inequality, economic mobility, and poverty revealed differing interpretations of the data, their causes, and their implications for public policy. AEI visiting scholar Edward Conard faced off against Vice President Biden’s former chief economist Jared Bernstein.  The Bernstein/Conard debate over inequality went something like this: Bernstein suggested that inequality was bad for the bottom of the wage scale, as evidenced by stagnant or falling wages at the lower end of the income distribution, relative to many… Read More

  • 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.   Opening Statement If income inequality truly impaired mobility, there would be telltale signs: Growing inequality would have reduced mobility. It hasn’t. Even Emanuel Saez, of the liberal Piketty and Saez duo, admits, the chance of a low-income child reaching any higher level of income has increased. Economies with more… Read More

  • Ed Conard debates Nobel Prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz
    Ed and Joe Stiglitz face off on economics and income inequality. Read More

  • The Purpose of Spectacular Wealth, According to a Spectacularly Wealthy Guy
    In the New York Times Magazine Adam Davidson comments on Ed Conard's new book. Read More

  • Please Don’t Soak the Rich
    Wall Street Journal review of Ed book, Unintended Consequences. Read More

  • Ed Conard on Fareed Zakaria
    Ed discusses his new book and the value of risk taking for the economy. Read More

  • Ed Conard debates Alan Krueger on Obama’s economic record and if he’s to blame for slow growth on Bloomberg TV
    Given the last five years of economic activity, is Obama the worst president since WWII? Read More

  • No Role for Fed in Income Distribution
    NEW YORK TIMES by Ed Conard | October 27, 2014 The Federal Reserve has neither the mandate to redistribute wealth nor the tools to do it effectively. Should it try, it will likely fail. Were it to succeed, it would likely lower middle- and working-class incomes. Either way, it would violate one of America’s founding principles — no taxation without representation — as well as its mandate to promote stable prices. A blatant political act like this would justify Congressional intervention and jeopardize the Fed’s critically needed independence. A Federal… Read More

  • Ed Conard explains how America's top earners impact the economy on ABC's "World News Tonight with David Muir" Ed Conard on ABC News
    Ed argues that innovation and incentives improve the U.S. economy. Read More

  • Rescuing Subprime Borrowers Won’t Fix the Economy
    Fortune Magazine By Edward Conard | June 11, 2014 In their new book, House of Debt, Atif Mian and Amir Sufi make a persuasive argument that a decline in consumption caused by a drop in home prices slowed the economic recovery more than a weakened banking system. Even if banks were strong, they argue, the demand for loans would still be weak. Mian and Amir Sufi blame a sharp increase in savings by highly levered homeowners for the fall off in consumption and borrowing; as a result, the authors urge taxpayers to… Read More