Making Sense of the Pickety Debate

http://news.yahoo.com/making-sense-of-the-great-piketty-debate-085415753.html

Let's first just crudely recap Piketty's main points (though really you should read the book, or at least skim it carefully). The essential thesis of Piketty's treatise is that the most affluent among us, both in the United States and globally, have been hoarding a sharply increasing share of wealth in their societies. He posits that we may have entered a prolonged period, similar to the age of the robber barons in the 19th century, when the value of capital will continue to outstrip economic and income growth generally, so that rich people will compound their riches while everyone else falls further behind.