Unintended Consequences

April 23, 2012
Conard, a former partner at Bain Capital, the venture capital firm founded by Mitt Romney, and a Romney megadonor in the 2012 presidential campaign, expounds on U.S. economic policy and the future, defending private investment against government regulation and redistribution. The result will not please the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Conard lets banks off the hook for the subprime and mortgage-based bank debt debacles. Blaming government financial and housing policies, he claims “bankers, investors, and credit rating agencies and regulators all suffered from the same mistaken optimism.” Conard reminds readers of America’s past economic success and exceptional affluence, citing the cost of food, which has declined from 25% to 10% of household budgets since 1930. But he looks forward to a nation “exiting manufacturing” and continuing to innovate, sidestepping the problem of unskilled U.S. workers in a “world awash in unskilled labor.” Aging baby boomers and “changing U.S. demographics will make it harder and harder” to save and invest, he admits. A laissez-faire optimist, Conard sees venture capitalists and investors as the true American heroes, and lionizes these risk takers, insisting that entrepreneurial spirit and innovation will guide America’s economic future. His defense of private enterprise deserves the attention of policymakers in Washington. Agent: Cathy D. Hemming, Cathy D. Hemming Literary Agency.

June 1, 2012
A retired Wall Street investment banker delivers a contrarian explanation of the recent financial crisis. Former Bain Capital partner Conard argues that investment bankers and lending banks across the nation played no meaningful role in the financial crisis. Instead, the author blames politicians, executive branch regulators, misguided academic economists and, especially, middle-class and lower-class borrowers signing mortgage contracts in the hope of owning homes clear of backbreaking debt. Although Conard mostly stays away from specific references to political parties, he employs "liberal" in its ideological political context as a dirty word. The author blames the Obama administration for doing too little too late, while seeming to absolve the Bush administration, still in office when the financial crisis began. As a result, the "causes" portions of Conard's argumentative book are not contrarian in any meaningful way; the author merely parrots what numerous Republican leaders and relatively apolitical wealthy businessmen have claimed for years: Trust the wealthy to use their gains wisely, with the trickle-down effect kicking in to reduce unemployment and otherwise ameliorate the recession. Conard is especially rough on those who favor income redistribution. He charges that such thinking is not only naive in an economic sense, but also wrong morally because the super-rich deserve to spend their wealth as they see fit. If less-wealthy citizens received additional money through income redistribution, Conard writes, they would do little if anything to promote innovation, and thus the economy would continue to stagnate or fall even deeper into recession. A densely written, repetitive text that fails to live up to its grandiose claims.

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June 1, 2012
Conard, former mergers and acquisitions specialist, challenges readers' views of the economy and of economic policy. A contrarian, he explains What Went Well (with our economy prior to the financial crisis); What Went Wrong (the financial crisis); and What Comes Next, because of what he considers an endless stream of criticism of what many claim is an obviously flawed economic model. Those with good intentions, while advocating improvements that seem easy, overlook unintended consequences. The author aims to provide a sophisticated understanding of today's economic issues with references to cutting-edge research. He concludes with recommendations to strengthen the recovery, including lowering corporate tax rates to encourage domestic employment; cutting regulations that don't increase employment; considering both Dodd-Frank and the new health-care law as increasing uncertainty and slowing employment instead of accelerating it; and reducing unrealistic promises of Social Security and Medicare. All will not agree with Conard, but he offers a thought-provoking perspective on today's economic issues with ideas for the future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)