When inequality gets to an extreme, it is completely useless for growth.

Contrary to a tenacious myth, France is not owned by California pension funds or the Bank of China, any more than the United States belongs to Japanese and German investors. The fear of getting into such a predicament is so strong today that fantasy often outstrips reality. The reality is that inequality with respect to capital is a far greater domestic issue than it is an international one.

Over a long period of time, the main force in favor of greater equality has been the diffusion of knowledge and skills.

Economists have put themselves in a position where what they are doing is supposed to be impossible to understand for outsiders, so they dont even talk - sometimes not even with their girlfriend or boyfriend or friends - about what they are doing.

I don't think there is any serious evidence that we need to be paying people more than 100 times the average wage in order to get high-performing managers.

Our modern democratic ideal is based on the hope that inequalities will be based on merit more than inheritance or luck.

No hypocrisy is too great when economic and financial elites are obliged to defend their interest.