Piketty’s new book, Capitalism and Ideology, is intended as a rejoinder to these critics. Marxists have also accused Piketty of ignoring the theoretical resources of their venerable tradition. Meanwhile, many on the left have accused Piketty of focusing too much on the economic determinants of inequality instead of the role of power, which has ensured that those at the top have remained where they are. While Piketty’s empirical acumen has been broadly praised, some critics claim that he has misinterpreted his rich data set or argue that, even if correct, his conclusions are unimportant, since inequality is not a serious problem. The result has been an increasing concentration of wealth at the top, much of it passed down through an inheritance system that has come to rival that of the Gilded Age. The book’s primary claim-underpinned by an impressive array of data-is that inequality is increasing in much of the world and that this has deepened social and economic instability because, since the neoliberal attacks that undermined the egalitarian reforms of the Great Society period, the rate of return on capital has exceeded the overall rate of economic growth. His weighty 2014 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century was a surprise bestseller, which sparked much commentary and criticism. Thomas Piketty is a French economist and former wunderkind, who obtained his PhD from the London School of Economics at twenty-two. He is also that rarest of things: a bestselling academic author.
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