...the discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at the expense of historical research and collaboration with the other social sciences. — 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 about the methods we use. When we need to do history, we should do history. When we need… — 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 Image
“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 Image
Indeed, the distribution of wealth is too important an issue to be left to economists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers. — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Without precisely defined sources, methods, and concepts, it is possible to see absolutely everything and its opposite. — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
“the population of the world grew at an average annual rate of barely 0.8 percent between 1700 and 2012.” — Thomas Piketty Copy Share Image
