Suchergebnisse

In this article, the author highlights two parts of Thomas Piketty's book that deserve closer scrutiny but have largely escaped attention. Although his selection of the parts of Capital in the Twenty-First Century to scrutinize here is unavoidably idiosyncratic, he hopes that his analysis of those parts will nevertheless contribute productively to today's conversation about Piketty's impact on their understanding of economic inequality. While discussing late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Britain, Piketty writes that 'it is also quite clear that, all things considered, this high level of public debt served the interest of the lenders and their descendants quite well, at least when compared with what would happen if the British monarchy had financed its expenditures by making them pay taxes. According to Piketty, high executive compensation in the US today has little to do with managers' productivity and almost everything to do with the cozy relationship between managers and corporate boards. Managers and board members are clubby friends scratching each other's well-massaged backs and setting each other's exorbitant salaries. Adapted from the source document.