
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $39.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
L. J. Ganser
What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from 20 countries, ranging as far back as the 18th century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.
Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality - the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth - today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Piketty says, and may do so again.
A work of extraordinary ambition, originality, and rigor, Capital in the Twenty-First Century reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2014 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2014 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...


















Knowledge of the inequitable distribution of wealth will be fashioning our political scene for decades to come. I am in high praise of this work but warn you not to pick it up for a read (listen) unless you truly want to do some profound economic analysis. This is deep deep learning on a not too easy to understand the concept.
Two more points, Piketty’s theses depend on economic mathematics. He professes to deplore mathematical application to prove economic theorems, but nevertheless, Piketty doesn’t necessarily shy from mathematical or in particular statistical analysis in the book.
For a non-economist, the definitional section, chapter two in the audio version, is not easy to grasp with one listen. His applied mathematics to his data was not easy to follow but once mastered it aids in revealing truths – but to get there the intensity of Piketty’s analysis will make you scream with frustration, even if you are a statistician. It took multiple listens but the elemental understanding was essential. It was well worth the effort. Piketty, - thank the gods of tolerability - it finally turns out, is a fundamentalist not a technician in his proofs and conclusions. If you force yourself to read his communicative reasoning you will find he is effectively explained; and enjoyable!
Piketty also explicates that earlier studies did not have the statistical analytics and data we have today to test theories like his on Capital, and so his present work is superior to historical studies. A reading of this cogitation makes me conclude he is right! This is a literate and new and unique masterful work.
Piketty does this only to provide the reader with an economic basis by which to apostolate his findings – which will be his conclusions on wealth inequality – and how to cure its wrongs; but before he gets there he makes sure the reader is well versed in his understanding of modern economics.
Piketty begins by canvassing past analysts of capitalism, from John Stuart Mills (capitalisms, free markets, and proper taxation), Ricardo to Thomas Robert Mathus (population and its effect on economics) and then on to Marx/ Engel (communism and Das Kapital) and Simon Kuznets (components for the growth of nations), etc. He then explains his methodology of analysis.
Piketty’s capture of growth rates (Chapter 3 in the Audible edition) shattered my understanding of what may be achievable. He made great sense in anticipating no more than 1.5 percent (if not .5 percent) for the industrialized universe and then only if alternative courses of power can be developed other than carbon. Should he be correct, there are some economic adjustments ahead for the world. The chapter opened with a discussion of population and its effect on economic growth or perhaps to be more accurate how the vectors of population growth intermixes with productivity – from the known world from the 1700s to the present day. A fun read. He then provides the statistics for his later analysis. Not fun to read.
Piketty next provides a commanding explanation of inflation from a historical perspective. It was not always as omnipresent as we understand it to be these days. He then goes on to provide us with a framework of how income and capital relationships existed in Britain and France from the 1700s to today and then next likewise for the balance of Europe.
Supplied with the primary understanding of economic factors needed to analyze capital accumulation he then takes on the reasons for the natural accumulation of wealth, its evil, and how to cure it before it creates an oligarchy. I read this book in conjunction with Jayne Mayer’s Dark money. Piketty explains the unnatural growth of money in singular hands and Ms. Mayer demonstrates Piketty’s warning on how the super-rich can distort our well-being.
Understanding of Capital Accumulation and its Evil
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Read the book instead of listening
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Truly Magnificent Work
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Important work that should be taught in schools
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Historical masterpiece
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A Seminal Work
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
very interesting
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Unique Perspective
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well structured information blocks.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Comprehensive and eye opening presentation of data and conclusions
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.