A biography for Thomas Pikettyhasn’t been written yet.
“I think inequality is fine, as long as it is in the common interest. The problem is when it gets so extreme, when it becomes excessive.”
“We know too little about global wealth dynamics, so we need international transmission of bank information.”
“When inequality gets too extreme, then it becomes useless for growth, and it can even become bad because it tends to lead to high perpetuation of inequality over time and low mobility.”
“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.”
“Having a decent share of the national wealth for the middle class is not bad for growth. It is actually useful both for equity and efficiency reasons.”
“'Das Kapital,' I think, is very difficult to read, and for me, it was not very influential.”
“When you are an entrepreneur, you have founded your own firm, it is so easy to find that you exist - you are the main shareholder of your company; it is very easy to look at the stock market position of your company to know how rich you are.”
“I don't pretend that I can predict the future value of the growth rate or rate of return.”
“My premise is not to tax to destroy the wealth of the wealthy; it's to increase the wealth of the bottom and the middle class.”
“What I'm pushing for is an economic discipline that will be closer to other social sciences; in particular, we should be more pragmatic about the methods that we are using instead of pretending that we have our own scientific apparatus with very sophisticated mathematic models that distinguish us from sociologists and historians.”
“I believe in the power of ideas, I believe in the power of books, but you have to give them time.”
“What I argue for is a progressive tax, a global tax, based on the taxation of private property.”
“Private property and the market system are good not only to promote innovation and to promote growth; private property and the market system are good for our personal freedom.”
“We want capitalism and market forces to be the slave of democracy rather than the opposite.”
“Once constituted, capital reproduces itself faster than output increases. The past devours the future.”
“I was born too late to have any temptation with communism, or at least Soviet-type communism. Travelling in Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, you clearly don't want to defend a system that would have empty shops and a totalitarian regime and internal passports.”
“The United States could transform its property tax system into a progressive tax on net worth without asking permission to the rest of the world.”