Piketty lambastes the US economics profession

This weekend I borrowed Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century from the library. Lest I be thought to have read it, I hasten to point out that I read only the introduction, the conclusion, and the chapter on inherited wealth. In addition, I looked at some of the graphs.

He makes a few basic points:

1. Given that the long-term growth rate of the world economy is 1%-1.5%, and the normal return on capital is 4%, it is a mathematical certainty that wealth will grow relative to incomes over time until wealth is destroyed by war, revolution or government policy.

2. Inherited wealth predominates over earned wealth.

3. The spread of knowledge and transparency is a countervailing force that tends to equalize wealth, but it is generally not strong enough to offset fully Point 1.

The introduction is good because it summarizes the book in about 30 pages. Piketty is also an entertaining writer. Someday when I have a lot of free time, such as one would have if serving a long prison term, for example, I may read the entire book.

Piketty was a wunderkind who was hired to teach at MIT just after finishing his PhD in France. He didn't like the US economics establishment, however, because he found that US economists deluded them into thinking they were scientists and were fascinated with their childish mathematical models which had little to do with reality. He therefore returned to France where economists have the advantage of being held in low regard and are therefore obliged to cooperate with the other social sciences and to provide useful insights.

I have attached a page from the introduction that states this. It made me laugh.

The problem we now have in the US is that the deluded economists with their childish models divorced from reality are controlling our fate.