America's economy should be 'thrilled' billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett exist, think-tank director says

• Billionaires are actually great for the economy, a director at the American Enterprise Institute argues. 
• That's because billionaire innovators produce trillions of dollars of value for the US.
• Other commentators say the ultra wealthy can only exist because of policy failures that have enabled vast inequality.

In an age of deepening inequality, billionaires get a lot of attention, much of it negative, but the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are actually a blessing for the US economy, according to a director at the American Enterprise Institute. 

The center-right think tank's Michael Strain argues that billionaires produce many times their net worth in value for the economy through their innovations.