Capital in the Twenty First Century

What are the underlying principles that propel the creation and allocation of capital? At the core of political economics are concerns over the long-term trajectory of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the likelihood of economic development. However, the absence of sufficient evidence and well-defined guiding ideas has made it difficult to discover appropriate solutions. Thomas Piketty examines a unique set of data from twenty nations, dating back to the eighteenth century, in Capital in the Twenty-First Century in order to identify significant economic and social trends. His research will change the conversation and establish the direction for future theories about inequality and wealth.

Piketty demonstrates how advancements in economic development and the spread of information have spared us from the catastrophic levels of inequality that Karl Marx foresaw. Nevertheless, in the hopeful decades after World War II, we overestimated how much we had changed the fundamental mechanisms of money and inequality. Today's primary cause of inequality, the propensity of capital returns to outpace economic development, poses a danger to produce excessive disparity that incites unrest and erodes democratic ideals. Yet, monetary patterns are not divinely decreed. According to Piketty, political action has historically reduced harmful inequality and may do so once again.