Economists tend to think they are much, much smarter than historians, than everybody. And this is a bit too much because at… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
Economists have put themselves in a position where what they are doing is supposed to be impossible to understand for outsiders, so… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
“They (economists) must set aside their contempt for other disciplines and their absurd claim to greater scientific legitimacy, despite the fact that… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
Economists should be modest and be aware that they are part of the broader social science community. We need to be pragmatic… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
“Among the members of these upper income groups are US academic economists, many of whom believe that the economy of the United… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
“For far too long, economists have neglected the distribution of wealth, partly because of Kuznets’s optimistic conclusions and partly because of the… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
“Economists are all too often preoccupied with petty mathematical problems of interest only to themselves. This obsession with mathematics is an easy… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
For far too long economists have sought to define themselves in terms of their supposedly scientific methods. In fact, those methods rely… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
There is one great advantage to being an academic economist in France: here, economists are not highly respected in the academic and… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
It's not Utopian to believe that we can create a global registry of financial assets so we know who owns what in different countries. — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
“US inequality in 2010 is quantitatively as extreme as in old Europe in the first decade of the twentieth century, but the structure of… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
Indeed, the distribution of wealth is too important an issue to be left to economists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers. — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
The United States could transform its property tax system into a progressive tax on net worth without asking permission to the rest of the… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
“When it comes to decreasing inequalities of wealth for good or reducing unusually high levels of public debt, a progressive tax on capital is… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
“In other words, low growth cannot adequately counterbalance the Marxist principle of infinite accumulation: the resulting equilibrium is not as apocalyptic as the one… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
“I belong to a generation that came of age listening to news of the collapse of the Communist dicatorships and never felt the slightest… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
When you are an entrepreneur, you have founded your own firm, it is so easy to find that you exist - you are the… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
There is one great advantage to being an academic economist in France: here, economists are not highly respected in the academic and intellectual world… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
Without precisely defined sources, methods, and concepts, it is possible to see absolutely everything and its opposite. — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
“the population of the world grew at an average annual rate of barely 0.8 percent between 1700 and 2012.” — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
“The sharp reduction in income inequality that we observe in almost all the rich countries between 1914 and 1945 was due above all to… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
“Progress in medicine together with improved living conditions has therefore, it is argued, totally transformed the very essence of capital.” — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
“the decrease in the top marginal income tax rate led to an explosion of very high incomes, which then increased the political influence of… — Thomas Piketty Copy Share
