Post-pandemic economic overhaul will take more than tweaks

The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing and exacerbating inequalities around the world. Read against this backdrop, economist Thomas Piketty’s latest book is timely, but partial.

In Capital and Ideology (first published as Capital et ideologie in 2019), Piketty documents the global rise of inequality and critiques ideas that legitimize it. He builds on his bestselling 2013 book Le Capital au XXIe siècle (Capital in the Twenty-First Century), which spurred a public debate on growing gaps between the haves and have-nots in Europe and the United States. His latest work is important, especially because — before the pandemic — the London-based magazine The Economist had raised doubts about the extent to which inequality has really been rising. But in downplaying the roles of material interests, structures of production and capitalist dynamics, Piketty’s analysis is concerning.