A Critical Review of Thomas Piketty’s Capitalism in the 21st Century

Andrew Smithers

Published: September 2018

Piketty claims that capital rises faster than income which assumes that capital and income are independent variables. The evidence shows they are not and that the ratio of income to capital is probably stable over time. Piketty’s mistake appears to come from confusing depreciation with the cost of maintenance. Piketty uses misleading data to support his claims by confusing wealth with capital and income with output.