Last Light

As you’ll all know, the Edinburgh Film Festival is the world’s longest continually-running film festival. That’s not something to be given up lightly, naw, so after much head-scratching, the nabobs up at Festival Square have come up with an ED FILM FEST AT HOME, 12 days of previews of selected films presented by EIFF and Curzon Home Cinema! So we watched one. Capital in the 21st Century. Nope, not about Edinburgh but about Thomas Piketty’s huge book of that very name. Saved a lengthy read. Although if you haven’t time for the film - here’s an even shorter version thanks to vox.com:


Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century is the most important economics book of the year, if not the decade. It's also 696 pages long, translated from French, filled with methodological asides and in-depth looks at unique data, packed with allusions to 19th century novels, and generally a bit of a slog.
The good news is that there's no advanced math, and anyone who puts in the time can read the book. But if you just want the bottom line, we have you covered.


Can you give me Piketty's argument in four bullet points?


1. The ratio of wealth to income is rising in all developed countries.
2. Absent extraordinary interventions, we should expect that trend to continue.
3. If it continues, the future will look like the 19th century, where economic elites have predominantly inherited their wealth rather than working for it.
4. The best solution would be a globally coordinated effort to tax wealth.