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Thomas Piketty’s Case for ‘Participatory Socialism’

Ezra Klein New York Times
Piketty’s new book, “A Brief History of Equality,” is perhaps his most optimistic work. Piketty proposes a truly radical policy agenda — a universal minimum inheritance, worker control over the boards of corporations and “confiscatory” levels of wealth and income taxation — that he calls “participatory socialism.”

Tidbits - Jan. 13, 2022 - Reader Comments: COVID Vaccines; Hospitals in Trouble; Solidarity and Internationalism in Today's World; Sidney Poitier; Thomas Piketty Turns to Socialism; Rosa Luxemburg; Martin Luther King; Anne and Carl Braden;

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Reader Comments: COVID Vaccines; Hospitals in Trouble; Solidarity and Internationalism in Today's World; Sidney Poitier; Thomas Piketty Turns to Socialism; Rosa Luxemburg; Martin Luther King and Today; Anne and Carl Braden; Labor History; more....

books

Thomas Piketty: The Making of a Socialist

Robert Kuttner New York Times
What makes this noteworthy is that it comes from an economist who gained his reputation as a researcher with vaguely left-of-center sensibilities but was far from a radical. The times are such that even honest moderates are driven to radical remedies

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Why Are Economists Giving Piketty the Cold Shoulder?

Marshall Steinbaum Boston Review
Piketty's radical and largely on-target critique of contemporary capitalism, the reviewer says, was mostly greeted with hostility by the economics establishment, when not simply ignored, stonewalling Capital in the Twenty-First Century, so it would not have the impact on economics research agendas that it merits, particularly in explaining inequality — in effect a dead zone in mainstream economic analysis. The reviewer thinks much can be gleaned from Piketty's work.

Democracy, Trade, Globalization and Trump

Thomas Piketty; Naomi Klein The Guardian (UK)
Rising inequality is largely to blame for this electoral upset. Continuing with business as usual is not an option. People have lost their sense of security, status and even identity. This result is the scream of an America desperate for radical change. People have a right to be angry, and a powerful, intersectional left agenda can direct that anger where it belongs. Thomas Piketty and Naomi Klein offer up interesting analysis.

World's Most Famous Economist Says Bernie Sanders Could "Change the Face of the Country"

Zeeshan Aleem Policy.Mic
The Vermont senator's success so far demonstrates the end of the politico-ideological cycle opened by the victory of Ronald Reagan at the 1980 elections. Piketty's doesn't see Sanders as following in the footsteps of Europe's social democratic models, but rather leading the United States toward a possible return to the nation's pioneering 20th century experiments with extremely progressive taxation and social spending.
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