MixedThe Telegraph (UK)Because this is a book of great scope and ambition, one can see why it has attracted attention. For all those people who would like to have a big idea but can’t think of one, Piketty has given hope that there is a fundamental weakness in capitalism. And after so many breathless accounts of the recent financial crisis, a wide-ranging historical analysis of the distribution of the fruits of economic growth is a pleasant surprise ... Nevertheless, the claims made for Piketty’s book are exaggerated ... In essence, the principal weakness of the book is that the carefully assembled data do not live up to Piketty’s rhetoric about the nature of capitalism ... Inequality does matter, and measures to reduce it have a proper place in economic policy. But by promoting efficiency and raising living standards, a market economy has proved its worth. To argue that inequality is the fundamental weakness of modern capitalism, while ignoring capitalism’s achievements, may excite the well-heeled intellectual salons of Paris and New York, but most of us recognise that a market economy has served us well by creating growth and reducing poverty.
