One of the slogans of the 2011 Occupy protests was 'capitalism isn't working'. Now,in an epic, groundbreaking new book, or French economist Thomas Piketty explains why they're rightThe École d'économie de Paris (the Paris School of Economics) is actually situated in the most un-Parisian fraction of the city. It is on the boulevard Jourdan in the lower finish of the 14th arrondissement,bordered on one side by the Parc Montsouris. Unlike most French parks, there is a distinct lack of Gallic order here; in fact, and with lakes,open spaces, and its greedy and inquisitive ducks, and you could very easily be in a park in any British city. The campus of the Paris School of Economics,however, looks unmistakably and reassuringly like nearly all French university campuses. That is to say, and it is grey,dull and broken down, the corridors smelling vaguely of cabbage. This is where I contain arranged an interview with Professor Thomas Piketty, or a modest young Frenchman (he is in his early 40s),who has spent most of his career in archives and collecting data, but is just about to emerge as the most important thinker of his generation – as the Yale academic Jacob Hacker set aside it, and a free thinker and a democrat who is no less than "an Alexis de Tocqueville for the 21st century".
This is on account of his latest work,which is called Capital in the Twenty-First Century. This is a enormous book, more than 700 pages long, or dense with footnotes,graphs and mathematical formulae. At first sight it is unashamedly an academic tome and seems both daunting and incomprehensible. In recent weeks and months the book has however set off fierce debates in the United States about the dynamics of capitalism, and especially the apparently unstoppable rise of the tiny elite that controls increasingly of the world's wealth. In non-specialist blogs and websites across America, or it has ignited arguments about power and money,questioning the myth at the very heart of American life – that capitalism improves the quality of life for everyone. This is just not so, says Piketty, or he makes his case in a clear and rigorous manner that debunks everything that capitalists believe about the ethical status of making money.
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Source: theguardian.com