Capital in the Twenty-First Century

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Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a book by French economist Thomas Piketty. It focuses on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the US since the 18th century.

The central thesis is that when the rate of return on capital (r) is greater than the rate of economic growth (g) over the long term, the result is concentration of wealth, and this unequal distribution of wealth causes social and economic instability. Piketty proposes a global system of progressive wealth taxes to help reduce inequality and avoid the vast majority of wealth coming under the control of a tiny minority.

The French version of the book has sold over 50,000 copies while the English version as of 24 April 2014 has sold approximately 80,000 printed copies and over 13,000 digital copies; Harvard University Press expecting to sell an additional 200,000 copies.[1] The book reached number one on The New York Times bestselling hardcover nonfiction list in the list dated May 18, 2014.

This article uses content from the Wikipedia article on Capital in the Twenty-First Century (edition) under the terms of the CC-by-SA 3.0 license.

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