Capital in the twenty-first century

Thomas Piketty, Harvard University Press, 640 pages, hardcover, £29.95

It’s rare that a heavy hardback book costing the best part of £30 causes such a stir. But copies of Thomas Piketty’s new book have been flying off the shelves.

It feels like everyone is talking about it and wants to find out more about what the economist has to say.

Piketty analyses a unique collection of data from 20 countries, ranging as far back as the 18th century, to uncover key economic and social patterns.

 The book takes on the assumptions of classical economics with an impressively wide knowledge and good use of statistics.

Piketty argues that a major inhibitor to capitalist growth is capitalism itself, because, as it produces severe inequality, it creates a brake on innovation, growth and progress.

He demolishes the almost mystical belief among mainstream economists that free markets are natural and form the basis of any meaningful economic study and that they provide the basis of a fair and equal society. 

His analysis seems to have put the neo-liberal consensus on the back foot and opened up the debate about what, and for whom, the economy is for.

A must-read book this summer.

Reviews contributed by the Bookmarks socialist bookshop. Order online at www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk