Lunchtime Must-Read: Heidi Moore et al.: Why is Thomas Piketty’s 700-Page Book a Bestseller?

**Heidi Moore et al. Why is Thomas Piketty’s 700-page book a bestseller?: “There’s been a bizarre phenomenon this year… it’s a bestseller…. Why this book? The themes that Piketty brings up have been enshrined in discussion about progressive economists for decades…. Now, over to the experts…

Stephanie Kelton: What explains the Piketty phenomenon?… The title,… doesn’t exactly carry the titillating allure of a bestseller like, say, Fifty Shades of Grey…. The Occupy movement laid the groundwork for a great debate. What was happening to America? Were we witnessing the rise of a plutocracy or the emergence of a meritocracy? Chris Hayes and Joe Stiglitz made the case on the left, while Tyler Cowen and David Brooks provided a counter-narrative for the right… but it was Piketty whose meticulous examination of the evidence, seemed to provide the impartial proof audiences were craving. The left was right….

Tyler Cowen: Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century has been a hit for several reasons, most notably the quality of the work. But I’d like to focus on a neglected reason why the book has found so much support, namely it appears to strengthen the case for redistribution…. As these issues get processed by the public there is a common attitude–whether justified or not–that many of the lower earners are partially or fully responsible for their own plight. The egalitarians don’t tend to win these policy debates…. If you are an activist who favors lots of redistribution, the Piketty story is a lot easier to tell yourself and to tell your audiences–and that is yet another reason for its popularity….

Emanuel Derman: Economists are the new nuclear physicists, turned to by governments for advice as though they are heirs to the power of the scientists who created Hiroshima…. Though I should, I can’t bring myself to read Thomas Piketty. I wish I could…. I am just spiritually weary of the ubiquitous cockiness of economists, though Piketty sounds as though he’s less guilty of this than most of the pundits in the daily papers…. My gripe with economists is not that their models don’t work well–they don’t, look at the role of central banks in the financial crisis–but that they seem so reluctant to acknowledge the riskiness of their advice. And yet, beware their fearsome unelected power…