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.
Thomas PikettyIt'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 PikettyNo hypocrisy is too great when economic and financial elites are obliged to defend their interest.
Thomas PikettyThe U.S. is the country that invented progressive taxation of income and of inherited wealth in the 1910s and 20s.
Thomas PikettyContrary 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.
Thomas Piketty