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

I certainly agree that capital is not a one-dimensional object, and that the return on capital takes very different forms for different assets or different people.

The principal mechanism for convergence at the international as well as the domestic level is the diffusion of knowledge.

The democratic ideal has always been related to a moderate level of inequality. I think one big reason why electoral democracy flourished in 19th century America better than 19th century Europe is because you had more equal distribution of wealth in America.

Indeed, the distribution of wealth is too important an issue to be left to economists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers.

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.

I loved American universities. In many ways, they are better organized - certainly than French universities.