Serious doubts emerge about data used in Thomas Piketty's Capital
In what could amount to a bombshell report, Chris Giles of The Financial Times claims that the data underlying Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century is bunk. If true, that would mean that Piketty's entire theory of income inequality — which has made the French economist a virtual rock star on the left and pushed his book to the top of the bestseller lists — is incorrect. From Giles:
Giles compares the flaws to rudimentary spreadsheet errors in the work of Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, which led to the collapse of a theory, often cited by budget hawks, that high levels of debt automatically result in slow economic growth.
For those versed in economics, Giles has a more detailed rundown here. The FT has also run a response from Piketty himself. Stay tuned...
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Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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