Morning Must-Read: Peter Lindert: Making the Most of “Capital in the 21st Century”

Peter Lindert: Making the Most of Capital in the 21st Century: “Thomas Piketty… has transported us to a higher understanding…

of historical movements in inequality…. The main path to follow is the income inequality history so well paved by Piketty and his team, supported by the book’s history of twentieth-century shocks and political responses. Less promising is the book’s emphasis on wealth, capital, and the rate of return. Following the income route to better inequality predictions requires merging his team’s history of top income shares with the history of inequality movements within the lower 90 percent. It also invites a merger with other scholarship that has shown positive growth effects of the kind of democracy Piketty calls for…