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Capital In The Twenty-First Century (2014)

by Thomas Piketty(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

067443000X (ISBN13: 9780674430006)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Belknap Press

review 1: This is an amazing and disturbing book. I have to confess that the first two chapters were very hard for me to understand because I don't have the background in macroeconomics he was building on. However, his central thesis that wealth has accumulated more in the upper 10% at cost to the lower 90% and will probably get worse as the century progresses is strongly supported. His suggestions for correction deserve serious consideration. I got the book from the Library but am probably going to buy a copy so I can read it more carefully and refer to it later. This is not an easy read, but a very important one.
review 2: Whew. I made it through this textbook! I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the history of wealth inequality in Europe, the USA, and a l... moreittle about some other places. The author also walks through some of the consequences and offers solutions that are politically untenable but valuable to understand nonetheless. I can see why some peeps don't get through it (a) not USA centric and (b) takes concentration to understand. My favorite points are about productivity (e.g. p. 90 it generally takes a barber just as long to cut men's hair as it did in the late 1800s) p. 115 "capital is never quiet:" p. 198 about the real estate offset effect p. 285 the need to distinguish the 9% from the 1% because the top 10% of wealthy are differently wealthy by great orders of magnitude, and he even separates out the top .1% later. p. 321 technology and productivity growth don't explain wealth inequality divergence. p. 416 he discounts the concept of meritocracy, especially among the extremely well compensated (vs. those with capital income). by p. 452 he tackles inflation and how central banks allowing it can help or hinder inequality. I rattle all this off to conclude that the author makes many interesting points with the data he's collected so IF peeps have time to read a textbook, this is a really good one. less

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