It is difficult to believe that Thomas Piketty's book Capital in the Twenty-First Century would have had the impact that it has had ten or even five years ago, even though identical arguments and evidence could have been marshaled then. But it is now acceptable to talk about inequality in America as the central issue facing the country.
As a global problem that will remain a threat everywhere as long as it is still present anywhere, the novel coronavirus demands a collective and collaborative response. With a new COVID-19 Technology Access Pool to share data and intellectual property, all countries and companies now have a chance to become a part of the solution.
The Chinese government’s decision to impose a draconian new security law on the city has sparked a fresh wave of local protests and triggered hostile reactions around the world. The measure will have dramatic consequences for Hong Kong and its people – but potentially for China’s communist regime, too.
PRINCETON – I get the same question these days wherever I go and from whomever I meet: What do you think of Thomas Piketty? It’s really two questions in one: What do you think of Piketty the book, and what do you think of Piketty the phenomenon?
The first question is much easier to answer. By sheer luck, I was among the earliest readers of the English-language version of Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Piketty’s publisher, Harvard University Press, had sent me the pre-publication galleys, hoping that I would contribute a blurb for the back cover. I did so happily, as I found the scope, depth, and ambition of the book impressive.
I was of course familiar with Piketty’s empirical work on income distribution, carried out jointly with Emmanuel Saez, Anthony Atkinson, and others. This research had already produced startling new findings on the rise of the incomes of the super-rich. It had shown that inequality in many advanced economies has reached levels not seen since the early part of the twentieth century. It was a tour de force on its own.
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