Edward Conard

Conard published Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You've Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong in May 2012.[14] The book was featured on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine and went on to become a New York Times top ten non-fiction bestseller.[15]

While The New York Times predicted the book might become "the most hated book of the year,"[3] leading economists such as Greg Mankiw, Andrei Shleifer, Steven Levitt, Nouriel Roubini, Tyler Cowen, and Glenn Hubbard publicly endorsed the book.[16] In contrast to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal called the book "a full throttle defense of economic dynamism…refreshing at a time when so many take the failure of capitalism for granted."[17] The New York Times described Unintended Consequences as "…arguing that growing income inequality shows the economy is working." Timothy Noah, the author of The Great Divergence: America's Growing Inequality noted: "the biggest surprise, on opening Unintended Consequences, lies in discovering that this book isn't about income inequality at all."[18] The book analyzes why the U.S. has outperformed other high-wage economies, explains the causes of the financial crisis, and makes recommendations for accelerating growth in its aftermath.[14] Conard summarizes his book in a 23-minute video for The UP Experience.[19]

Since its publication, Conard has made over 250 television appearances in which he has debated leading economists including Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz, Alan Krueger, Austan Goolsbee, and Jared Bernstein; journalists including Fareed Zakaria, Chris Hayes, and Andrew Ross Sorkin; and politicians such as Barney Frank, Howard Dean, and Eliot Spitzer.[20] Conard also debated Jon Stewart for 33 minutes, one of Stewart's longest interviews.[21] The video of the debate has received nearly 100,000 views. He has also written op-eds for The Wall Street Journal,[22] The Washington Post,[23] Foreign Affairs,[24] Harvard Business Review,[25] Fortune,[26] and Politico,[27] among others.

Conard published The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class in September 2016.[28] The book debuted at #8 on The New York Times top ten non-fiction list and reached #1 on The New York Times business book list.[29][30]

The Upside of Inequality was met with positive reviews, including former president of Harvard University and economist Larry Summers, a very tough critic on the other side of the aisle, blurbed "I profoundly disagree but respect the clarity with which he makes his case..." and called it "a very valuable contribution" that will "sharpen your thinking on critical economic issues."[31] Noted economist Tyler Cowen who wrote on Bloomberg News: "Conard's central idea is that risk-bearing equity capital is the truly scarce asset in most economic situations, and economic analysis should adapt accordingly. He is very creative in seeing some of the implications of this view. I... found it very stimulating to ponder. It puts many of the pieces together in a new and different way."[32] Harvard economist Greg Mankiw recommended Upside and interviewed Conard on C-SPAN. David Author, George Borjas, Larry Lindsey, and other prominent economists also praised it.[33] National Review said the book is a "rousing defense of conservative beliefs about how markets and incentives drive prosperity."[34]