The Case for Income Inequality

Edward Conard, a retired partner from Bain Capital and a Mitt Romney friend and donor, lives in an Upper East Side town house just off Fifth Avenue.

Conard wants to have an open conversation about wealth. He has spent the last four years writing a book that he hopes will forever change the way we view the superrich’s role in our society.

“Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong,” to be published in hardcover next month by Portfolio, argues that the enormous and growing income inequality in the United States is not a sign that the system is rigged.

On the contrary, Conard writes, it is a sign that our economy is working. And if we had a little more of it, then everyone, particularly the 99 percent, would be better off. This could be the most hated book of the year.