Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
2 Contents
The book argues that there was a trend towards higher inequality which was reversed between 1930 and 1975 due
to unique circumstances: the two world wars, the Great
Depression and a debt-fueled recession destroyed much
wealth, particularly that owned by the elite.[18] These
events prompted governments to undertake steps towards
redistributing income, especially in the post-World War
II period. The fast, worldwide economic growth of that
time began to reduce the importance of inherited wealth
in the global economy.[18]
The book argues that the world today is returning towards "patrimonial capitalism", in which much of the
economy is dominated by inherited wealth: the power of
1
3 RECEPTION
Piketty believes the growth rate will once again fall below the rate
of return, and the twentieth century will be an aberration in terms
of inequality
Reception
Paul Krugman called the book a magnicent, sweeping meditation on inequality[23] and the most important economics book of the yearand maybe
of the decade.[19] He distinguishes the book from
other bestsellers on economics as it constitutes serious, discourse-changing scholarship.[24] Krugman also
wrote:
At a time when the concentration of wealth
and income in the hands of a few has resurfaced as a central political issue, Piketty doesnt
just oer invaluable documentation of what is
happening, with unmatched historical depth.
He also oers what amounts to a unied eld
theory of inequality, one that integrates economic growth, the distribution of income between capital and labor, and the distribution
of wealth and income among individuals into
a single frame. [...] Capital in the Twenty-First
Century is an extremely important book on all
fronts. Piketty has transformed our economic
discourse; well never talk about wealth and inequality the same way we used to.[23]
3.2
Criticism
years, but also added: Pikettys analysis of the past is because that would mean a slower rise in living standards,
more impressive than his predictions for the future are but because it might [...] worsen inequality.[33]
convincing.[18]
Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson sees Piketty to be seemBranko Milanovi, a former senior economist at the ingly replacing American philosopher John Rawls as the
World Bank, called the book one of the watershed books essential thinker of the left. Apart from questioning comin economic thinking.[25][26]
mon measures of wealth distribution, he however criticizes Piketty as, unlike Rawls, being much more conBritish historian Andrew Hussey called the book epic
and groundbreaking and argues that it proves scientif- cerned with the rich than with the poor. Gissurarson adically that the Occupy movement was correct in its as- mits the rapid rise in the income of the super-rich of the
world, but doesn't see anything wrong about it as long as
sertion that capitalism isn't working.[27]
the poor doesn't get poorer.[35]
According to Robert Solow, Piketty has made a new
and powerful contribution to an old topic: as long as the American libertarian George Leef attacked Pikettys
rate of return exceeds the rate of growth, the income and work as an apology for the use of state coercion to take
wealth of the rich will grow faster than the typical income property away from some people who supposedly have
too much, which in the words of Frdric Bastiat he calls
from work.[28]
legal plunder. Diverting more resources from the volFrench historian and political scientist Emmanuel Todd untary, generally ecient private sector and into the
called Capital in the Twenty-First Century a masterpiece coercive, generally inecient government sector, he
and a seminal book on the economic and social evolution says, was a bad trade-o, especially for poorer people.[36]
of the planet.[29]
The book has been described as a political and theoret3.2.2 Methodological critique
ical bulldozer in the French press.[30]
The Economist wrote: A modern surge in inequality
has new economists wondering, as Marx and Ricardo
did, which forces may be stopping the fruits of capitalism from being more widely distributed. Capital in the
Twenty-First Century [...] is an authoritative guide to the
question.[31]
Will Hutton wrote: Like Friedman, Piketty is a man for
the times. For 1970s anxieties about ination substitute
todays concerns about the emergence of the plutocratic
rich and their impact on economy and society. [...] the
current level of rising wealth inequality, set to grow still
further, now imperils the very future of capitalism. He
has proved it.[32]
Clive Crook, while being strongly critical of the book,
acknowledged that its hard to think of another book
on economics published in the past several decades thats
been praised as lavishly.[33]
3.2
3.2.1
Criticism
Critique of the normative content
3 RECEPTION
3.2.3
5
for the United States than he does in his book.[55] In an interview with Agence-France Presse, he accused the Financial Times of dishonest criticism and said that the paper is being ridiculous because all of its contemporaries
recognise that the biggest fortunes have grown faster.[56]
The
accusation
received
wide
press
coverage.[57][58][59][60] Some sources said the Financial Times has overstated its case. For example, The
Economist, a sister publication to the Financial Times,
wrote:
Mr Giless analysis is impressive, and one
certainly hopes that further work by Mr Giles,
Mr Piketty or others will clarify whether mistakes have been made, how they came to be
introduced and what their eects are. Based
on the information Mr Giles has provided so
far, however, the analysis does not seem to support many of the allegations made by the FT,
or the conclusion that the books argument is
wrong.[61]
Scott Winship, a sociologist at the Manhattan Institute
for Policy Research and critic of Piketty, claims the allegations are not signicant for the fundamental question
of whether Pikettys thesis is right or not [...] Its hard
to think Piketty did something unethical when he put it
up there for people like me to delve into his gures and
nd something that looks sketchy [...] Piketty has been
as good or better than anyone at both making all his data
available and documenting what he does generally.[56]
In addition to Winship, the economists Alan Reynolds,
Justin Wolfers, James Hamilton and Gabriel Zucman
claim that FT's assertions go too far.[62][63] Paul Krugman
noted that anyone imagining that the whole notion of rising wealth inequality has been refuted is almost surely going to be disappointed.[63] Emmanuel Saez, a colleague
of Piketty and one of the economists cited by Giles to
discredit him, stated that Pikettys choice and judgement were quite good and that his own research supports
Pikettys thesis.[64] Piketty released a full point-by-point
rebuttal on his website.[65]
Historian Phillip W. Magness of the libertarian Institute
for Humane Studies and Austrian School economist
Robert P. Murphy challenge many of Pikettys empirical
ndings and think that these may actually be the books
greatest weakness.[66] In particular, Magness and Murphy allege false gures for minimum wages and tax rates,
missing data points and data that have been merely constructed. In their judgement, Piketty cherry-picks those
data which sustain a preconceived narrative.
5 Editions
Le Capital au XXIe sicle, ditions du Seuil, Paris,
2013, ISBN 978-2021082289 (French)
Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Harvard University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0674430006
6 See also
Criticism of capitalism
Gilded Age
Progress and Poverty
7 References
[1] "Pikettys Capital: An Economists Inequality Ideas Are
All the Rage" by Megan McArdle, Bloomberg Businessweek, May 29, 2014
[2] Best Sellers May 18, 2014. New York Times. 18 May
2014. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
[3] Marc Tracy (24 April 2014). Pikettys 'Capital': A Hit
That Was, Wasn't, Then Was Again: How the French
tome has rocked the tiny Harvard University Press. The
New Republic. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
[4] French economist and best-selling author Thomas
Piketty on Thursday refused Frances highest honour the
Lgion d'Honneur.. France 24. 1 January 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
[5] Thomas Pikettys 'Capital In The 21st Century' set for
doc adaptation. May 12, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
[6] Laurent Mauduit, Piketty ausculte le capitalisme, ses
contradictions et ses violentes ingalits, Mediapart, 03
Septembre 2013: un bulldozer thorique et politique
[7] Thomas B. Edsall, 'Capitalism vs.Democracy.' New York
Times, 28 January 2014.
[8] All men are created unequal: revisiting an old argument
about the impact of capitalism, The Economist, 4 January
2014.
[9] Paul Krugman. Americas Taxation Tradition, in New
York Times, 27 March 2014 .
[10] John Cassidy, Forces of Divergence:Is surging inequality
endemic to capitalism?, in The New Yorker, 31 March
2014
[11] 'Thomas Pikettys blockbuster book is a great piece of
scholarship, but a poor guide to policy,' Economist 3 May
2014.
REFERENCES
[17] Ryan Cooper (March 25, 2014). Why everyone is talking about Thomas Pikettys Capital in the Twenty-First
Century. The Week.
[20] Bigger than Marx.. The Economist. May 3, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
[50] David Harvey (May 20, 2014). Taking on Capital Without Marx: What Thomas Piketty misses in his critique of
capitalism. In These Times. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
[51] Vrousalis, Nicholas (September 1, 2014), Pikettys Grandchildren, Social Science Research Network, retrieved January 23, 2015
[52] Reinertsen, Maria (July 4, 2014), Br morsmelk regnes med i bruttonasjonalprodukt? (English: Should
milk be included in the gross domestic product?")" (pdf),
Morgenbladet (26): 67, retrieved January 23, 2015
[53] Giles, Chris (May 23, 2014). Thomas Pikettys exhaustive inequality data turn out to be awed. Financial
Times. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
[54] Weissmann, Jordan (May 23, 2014). Financial Times:
Pikettys Data Is Full of Errors. Slate. Retrieved May
25, 2014.
[55] Thomas Piketty (May 23, 2014). Piketty response to FT
data concerns. Financial Times. May 23, 2014
[56] Jennifer Rankin (May 26, 2014). Thomas Piketty accuses
Financial Times of dishonest criticism. The Guardian.
Retrieved May 26, 2014.
[57] Mark Gonglo (May 23, 2014). Thomas Pikettys Inequality Data Contains 'Unexplained' Errors: FT. The
Hungton Post. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
[58] Kevin Drum (May 23, 2014). Chris Giles Challenges
Thomas Pikettys Data Analysis. Mother Jones. Retrieved
May 23, 2014.
[59] Irwin, Neil (May 23, 2014). Did Thomas Piketty Get His
Math Wrong?". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25,
2014.
[60] Doward, Jamie (May 24, 2014). Thomas Pikettys economic data 'came out of thin air'". The Guardian. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
[61] R.A. (May 24, 2014). A Piketty problem?".
Economist. Retrieved May 25, 2014.
The
8 External links
The books ocial website
Text from Introduction to Capital in the Twenty-First
Century
All the raw data from the book
Newsnights explainer about Capital on YouTube on
BBC Newsnight (3:10)
Video of Thomas Piketty describing Capital in the
Twenty-First Century on YouTube
Pikettys talk about Capital in the Twenty-First Century on YouTube at TED in Berlin in June 2014.
A handy summary of the book with six charts by
John Cassidy
3 Business Best-Sellers Show Inequality Is Now The
Hot Topic. NPR, December 19, 2014.
9.1
Text
9.2
Images
File:Piketty_in_Cambridge_3_crop.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Piketty_in_Cambridge_
3_crop.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: <a href='//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piketty_in_Cambridge_3.jpg'
class='image'><img alt='Piketty in Cambridge 3.jpg' src='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Piketty_
in_Cambridge_3.jpg/100px-Piketty_in_Cambridge_3.jpg' width='100' height='56' srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/thumb/0/02/Piketty_in_Cambridge_3.jpg/150px-Piketty_in_Cambridge_3.jpg
1.5x,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Piketty_in_Cambridge_3.jpg/200px-Piketty_in_Cambridge_3.jpg 2x' data-le-width='4320' data-leheight='2432' /></a> Original artist: Sue Gardner
File:TaxRateAndGrowthPiketty10_10.png
Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/
TaxRateAndGrowthPiketty10_10.png License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Bkwillwm
File:Top1percentIncomePiketty.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Top1percentIncomePiketty.png
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Bkwillwm
9.3
Content license