Edward Conard: payoffs for risk-taking are essential
In a FAREED ZAKARIA GPS exclusive that aired Sunday, May 6, Fareed Zakaria interviewed Edward Conard, former managing director of Bain Capital and author of the forthcoming book, Unintended Consequences (2012), which offers solutions for fixing America’s economy. Conard puts forth a defense for the rise of “the 1%” as essential to encouraging economic risk-taking as an engine of growth for the country.
Here is the exchange:
FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, “FAREED ZAKARIA GPS”: …So, Ed, let’s start by, just explain to me, why is the rise of the 1% good for the economy?
EDWARD CONARD, FMR MANAGING DIRECTOR, BAIN CAPITAL: Sure. It’s not really the central focus of the book, the book is about how to get the economy to grow faster, that growth in the long run is powered by innovation and risk taking, and part of what the book argues is that the payoffs for risk taking are essential to getting more risk taking in this economy and that’s good for the middle class and the working poor
ZAKARIA: So you want people to invest, take risks with their capital so that you spur innovation?
CONARD: Yes, although I think the economy has changed significantly from where it was in the 1950s, when capital investment to build an automotive industry and a highway system were essential to growth to one today where 13 guys and a computer can create Instagram and a billion dollars of value in two years. It’s now much more powered by risk taking than it is by the funding of investment.
FAREED ZAKARIA GPS airs Sundays on CNN/U.S. at 10:00am and 1:00pm and on CNN International at 8:00am and 3:00pm. All times Eastern.
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