Anyone who has been paying attention over the past three decades knows that the developing big story, which is now up front and center and unavoidable as a topic of discussion, is the growing inequality in the national distribution of wealth and income. And anyone who follows such progressive social and economic policy blogs as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, Economic Policy Institute, the Center for Economic Policy Research, or even the Political Economy Research Institute has encountered the work of French economist Thomas Piketty and his colleague Emmanuel Saez on this very issue. His new book Capital in the 21st Century is a hefty tome including chapters on economic theory, economic history of the US and Europe, in depth analysis of long run trends in the US economy over the past 200 years and recommendations for economic reform. It is a difficult but rewarding read and is absolutely essential for understanding the debates surrounding the current direction of the US economy and makes an equally essential contribution to those debates. It is up to progressives to ensure that the issues, ideas and analysis offered by Piketty enters the current political discourse and that the reforms suggested by him find a place, in some form, in the progressive agenda.
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