Many critiques of Piketty’s arguments followed, both from the mainstream and the heterodox. I suppose Marx’s Capital is also part of this club. The book eventually won the dubious honour for the most bought book that nobody read, taking over from Stephen Hawking’s The Brief History of Time. Two million copies were sold of this monumental 800p publication which was full of theoretical arguments, empirical data and anecdotes to explain increased inequality of wealth in modern capitalist economies. The book had a huge impact, not just among economists (particularly in America, less so in France) but also among the general public. Piketty argued that the inequality of income and wealth in the major capitalist economies had reached extremes not seen since the late 18th century and unless something was done, inequality would continue to rise. Repeating the name of Marx’s Capital, the implication of the title was that it was an updating Marx’s 19th century critique of capitalism for the 21st century. Cross posted from Brave New Europe.īack in 2014, French economist Thomas Piketty published a blockbuster book, Capital in the 21st century.
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