Capital in the Twenty-First Century

By: Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer - translator

Narrated by: L. J. Ganser

Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from 20 countries, ranging as far back as the 18th century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality - the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth - today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Piketty says, and may do so again.

A work of extraordinary ambition, originality, and rigor, Capital in the Twenty-First Century reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2014 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"L.J. Ganser's voice and accents are superb, and emphasis is well placed." ( AudioFile)

Highly recommend

Very interesting content and the book at this point is so famous and highly regarded it’s worth everyone’s time

The Financial Times' Critique Doesn't Detract

It is a deep shame that the Financial Times' critique of Piketty's data is going to put some people off from buying and listening to this book, because a few quibbles about a very small amount of the data (on the UK only) doesn't detract from the validity of this detailed piece of analysis. It won't matter that many other well-respected economists defend Piketty's use of the data, or the robustness of his argument. For the readers of the FT, for those who represent the top 10% of weathholders, or those who aspire to be one of them, this book is a fundamental threat to their plans.

It's a long book, and it takes some concentration to listen to. Looking at the linked PDFs help to bring the stats and numbers to life. But I found it incredibly worthwhile. The central argument - that R>G (capital always trumps growth) is successfully and persuasively argued six ways from Sunday. And that is something not even Piketty's most vehement detractors can argue against.

Nor did I find Piketty's conclusions and suggestions even close to being the 'radical marxist' ones that he's been accused of holding by the press. He's conscious of the fundamental value of entrepreneurship, of a vibrant market.

When all is said and done, this book will polarize its readers along ideological lines. Because ultimately he's asking the question: what do we want our society to look like? He argues very persuasively that many of the ways we have sought to establish fairness and meritocracy in society have been ineffective in the long run.

This book threatens those who continue to perpetuate the myth that there are even playing fields: that financial success is based on merit, that opportunity is available to everyone, that trickle-down economics works, that education is the great leveler. There are good reasons why certain groups find this book threatening. It erodes the very thin veneer that the free market is truly free.

But it is also a very optimistic book. Piketty offers some very 'unradical' solutions for how to mitigate the problem of rapidly accelerating wealth concentration. It's not a 'downer' at all.

The narration is good for such a long and complex book. Well chosen to be easy on the ears but still engage the concentration. I found it well worth the credit and the time I spent on it.

worth the time

I liked this book a great deal. Initially, I wasn't quite sure if I would be interested in reading the entire book -- it's quite long and it includes a lot of information about finance, which is not usually something that draws me in -- but I enjoyed every page. Even when the author gave the reader permission to skip ('If you are familiar with x concept, feel free to move to the next section"), I remained engaged with the material. Piketty is great writer -- marrying finance, Jane Austin novels, culture, and various other tidbits, which culminated in an extremely thorough, yet readable, work.

There are always so many questions I ask myself about the state of money, debt, and equality on a global level but never quite have the answers to. Piketty addresses an astounding number of concerns about our global economy. I would like to have seen him delve into a few discussions in more detail. He was heavy on the facts about finance and less so about the origins of inequality. However the book was so long; perhaps what I am asking for would be another book in and of itself. My one regret was not taking notes.

Excellent work. I recommend to anyone interested in how money is acquired, accumulated, grown, disbursed, kept in the hands of one group/individual or another. Piketty discusses who has the money, what impact their wealth has on the world at large, what should or should not be done so that the money can help the masses but also remain concentrated enough to fund space, education, etc.

As an aside, it was interesting for me to read about the same pattern, in which over and over rich individuals who amass great fortunes and get to decide what advancement will take place on a national and even global level. For example, Andrew Carnegie is portrayed as a careless tyrant who grew his fortune, only to give it to the masses in controlled, thought out ways that changed the face of education, the space program, and so on. Bill Gates is doing the same thing now. Mark Zukerberg just made the news for allocating his 45 billion dollar fortune to various causes.

Absolutely worth your time, money, and effort to read this book.

A Modest Proposal

In 1729 Jonathan Swift made A Modest Proposal that the Irish poor sell their children to the rich as food. Here Piketty suggests the opposite, that we cannibalize the rich (at least their money) to feed the poor by creating a global wealth tax to redistribute wealth from the rich into social programs.

I loved this book, it is mostly about data, and I love data. Not only is there lots and lots of data, but it is very good data, with very good explanations and outstanding transparency on sources and methods. I just love this kind of data. I spent hours before starting the book just absorbing the pdf containing over 100 charts and tables. You read that right – over 100 charts and tables, and there is no point listening to this book if you don’t understand these charts. Thus I recommend either getting a visual version of the book and/or taking a careful look at the charts before you start the book. All the raw data for all the charts is available in excel format on the book’s web site.

I highly recommend this book if you want to understand the debate regarding wealth inequality and what, in anything, should be done about it. The narration is good, but it is still a tough listen due to the many references to charts, numbers, and equations.

Although I love the data and the explanations, I did not find the conclusions very compelling. It is difficult to take the author to task regarding his conclusions because he is clearly quite a clever guy and meticulously covers his posterior by making every conclusion explicitly based on hypotheticals that might be the case.

An undemonstrated premise of this book seems to be non-egalitarian societies are inherently unjust or non-utilitarian. This is far from clear. Unequally rewarding an important helpful skill is non-egalitarian yet is both just and utilitarian. Most of my disagreements with Piketty’s conclusions are based on our differences regarding this premise. There is clearly a balance of inequality essential to capitalism, and understanding how to correctly detect imbalances, either way, should have come before any analysis of how to correct any such imbalance. Yet Piketty’s answer to what the social optimal balance should be is “it is hard to say”. Adjusting a tax when it is hard to say what the proper rate should be seems ill advised.

Piketty notes that the total capital per person (in units of annual production per person) has been increasing steadily from a low in the 1950’s back to its gilded age pre-war highs. Piketty seems to believe, without a wealth tax intervention, capitalism might naturally lead to a spiraling inegalitarian concentration of wealth (depending on various rate scenarios).

Piketty correctly points out the estate tax is not uniform internationally and we currently have poor wealth reporting mechanisms yielding an ineffective tax. Yet if we fix these weaknesses of the estate tax, it is not clear why an additional wealth tax would be necessary. The author seems to me to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater by taxing skill earned wealth invested productively the same as inherited (unearned) wealth using a Wealth Tax, instead of just fixing the estate tax so it works. Inheritance tax has been attacked by the wealthy as The Death Tax but I suggest it should be re-dubbed the Slutty Heiress Elimination Tax.

CAPITAL FORMATION

What follows Thomas Piketty’s erudite introduction to Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a detailed history of capital formation and income inequality that nearly puts one in a coma. In truth, Piketty’s peregrination is essential for credibility but only for the sake of economists that wish to challenge Piketty’s conclusions.

To a non-economist, less traveling between economic histories would have offered more clarity and less boredom. I suspect, even this brief synopsis will make many eyes glaze over. That is unfortunate, because Pikertty’s book is important.

Piketty does not have incontestable answers but he has credibly framed the problem of income inequality.

Too techical

I found it very interesting but maybe too technical, not easy or "fun"; its more like a textbook , making reference to graphics and economic formulas throughout the entire book. At the end the message is very clear and helps to understand how the money has moved towards the higher end of the pyramid, and will happen more and more unless we have major structural reforms.

For who like politics or fight for social justice

A Bible to understand the logics of money and of the fight against inequality. This book opens a whole new angle to see all the politics.

All in intro and conclusion

This is a long book but in my opinion a reader can skip all chapters but the introduction and conclusions. The skipped chapters provide supporting evidences for the proposed main ideas of the book.

Interesting and engaging

Where does Capital in the Twenty-First Century rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Capital was easily within the top 10% of audiobooks I've listen to.

What other book might you compare Capital in the Twenty-First Century to and why?

I'm not sure what I would compare Capital to because it was such a unique economic book. I would maybe compare it to Why Nations Fail because of the history both books go into and future warnings for societies explained.

Have you listened to any of L. J. Ganser’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to L.J. Ganser's other performances before, but I would say he does a great job of making a potentially dry book more interesting.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Fresh analysis of reemerging economic inequality

Refreshing, cloud be shorter without much loss

-force you to rethink your views
-give helicopter view to even most complicated issues
- outstanding historical perspecitive