The author of what Paul Krugman called "the most important economics book of the year - and maybe the decade," has turned down a prestigious award from the French government because, he does "not think it is the government's role to decide who is honorable." The irony of Thomas Piketty's revulsion at the Legion d'Honneur award [8] is juxtaposed with his socialist epithets that government should decide everything else... like confiscatory taxes, big government, and, as Mish perfectly describes it [9], the "save the local bookstore mentality." Even more ironic though, Piketty's rejection of the award occurred on the same day that Hollande finbally gave up on his 75% supertax scheme (which has led to record unemployment).
Everything you need to know about Piketty's 696-page manifesto in 3 minutes...
And (via Mish) [9], Harvard Busines Review's brief synopsis [10]:
The argument. Capital (which by Piketty’s definition is pretty much the same thing as wealth) has tended over time to grow faster than the overall economy. Income from capital is invariably much less evenly distributed than labor income. Together these amount to a powerful force for increasing inequality.
The method. Piketty does not offer his own theory of what drives economic growth, or what the optimal ratio of capital to labor income might be. In fact, a recurring theme of his book is that the theory-first approach of modern economics is a dead-end.
The evidence. The richest source of data for the book is France, thanks to the country’s long tradition of excellent record-keeping and an estate tax that was enacted a couple of years after the 1789 Revolution. What the French numbers show is that the ratio of capital to income remained steady at about seven-to-one for centuries, plummeted around the start of World War I, and began recovering after World War II.
Piketty argues that the U.S. should consider a return to a “confiscatory” (his word) 80% top marginal tax rate even though it wouldn’t bring in much money (he basically agrees with Arthur Laffer on that), well, that provokes some thoughts, doesn’t it?
And so the irony of turning down an award for this reason:
“I refuse this nomination because I do not think it is the government’s role to decide who is honourable.”
When the over-reaching policy prescriptions of the French 'economist' are nothing short of government-uber-alles seems hypocritical at best.
As The FT reports, [8] he is not the first to turn it down...
In rejecting the Legion of Honour, Mr Piketty joins a list of personalities that includes Claude Monet, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Hector Berlioz and Brigitte Bardot — all of whom declined the award for varying reasons.
The Legion of Honour was first established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 and is considered the country’s highest award. In 2012, Mr Hollande became Grandmaster of the order, continuing the long tradition of placing the incumbent French leader at the head.
But the irony grows...
In a clear indictment of Mr Hollande’s economic record, Mr Piketty added that the government instead “would do better to concentrate on reviving growth in France and Europe”.
Mr Piketty’s comments come on top of a series of disappointing performances and false dawns on the economic front ever since Mr Hollande and his socialist government took office.
Unemployment has remained persistently high in spite of promises to change the upward trend by the end of last year. Meanwhile, sluggish growth — the economy was stagnant for the first six months of 2014 — has helped drag down Mr Hollande’s popularity to the lowest levels of any French president in modern history.
But the rejection of the award by the French economist is particularly galling coming on the same day that the French president dumped his supertax scheme for the rich. The measure to increase tax rates to 75 per cent on earnings over €1m, which earned Mr Hollande support from the left when he announced the plan to great fanfare in 2012, was on Thursday abandoned after bringing in just a small portion of the expected revenue.
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and in pictures...
[11]
