Piketty’s decaff Marxism would be just as oppressive and intrusive as the old variety

Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty

Harvard University Press, pp.685, £29.95, ISBN: 9780674430006

If a title works once, the chances are it will work again. Half the punch of Marx’s masterwork is in its name. Better in German of course, with the kick of the K and the ominous echo of Kaput. But even in English when blocked out in red caps on a fat spine, CAPITAL sends a thrill along any bookshelf.

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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £28.95. Tel: 08430 600033. Ferdinand Mount is a former political correspondent of this magazine. His many books include The New Few: Power and Inequality in Britain Now

TaggedBook review - economics, capitalism, Galbraith, Keynes, Marxism, tax rate

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Piketty’s decaff Marxism would be just as oppressive and intrusive as the old variety

A review of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Piketty. The French economist’s proposals are as shaky as the analysis to which they are precariously connected

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