Paul Krugman on the economics book of the year and other news and views for Wednesday 26 March

26-03-2014 capitalpikketty
  • Wealth Over Work – “It seems safe to say that “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, the magnum opus of the French economist Thomas Piketty, will be the most important economics book of the year — and maybe of the decade. Mr. Piketty, arguably the world’s leading expert on income and wealth inequality, does more than document the growing concentration of income in the hands of a small economic elite. He also makes a powerful case that we’re on the way back to “patrimonial capitalism,” in which the commanding heights of the economy are dominated not just by wealth, but also by inherited wealth, in which birth matters more than effort and talent.”2014-03-26_googlecompare
  • Apples Vs. Oranges: Google Tool Offers Ultimate Nutrition Smackdown
  • Putin and the Laws of Gravity – “The morning after, he was the hero of Russia. Some moronic commentators here even expressed the wish that we had such a “decisive” leader. Well, let’s see what Putin looks like the morning after the morning after, say, in six months. I make no predictions, but I will point out this. Putin is challenging three of the most powerful forces on the planet all at once: human nature, Mother Nature and Moore’s Law. Good luck with that.”
  • Australia’s luck runs out as China slows – By Henny Sender in London’ Financial Times: “Reasons to be bearish on currency and country grow daily; There is only one good reason not to short the Aussie dollar: it is expensive. But the grounds for taking a bearish view on both the currency and the country become more compelling by the day.”
  • Profiles in Courage at the IRS (Really) - ” Randolph W. Thrower was IRS commissioner from 1969 to 1971. The Nixon White House insisted that the IRS audit the president’s enemies. Thrower, a lifelong Republican, refused to do it. According to the Washington Post, he also refused to hire Nixon dirty tricksters John Caulfield and G. Gordon Liddy. In 1971, Thrower asked to meet with Nixon, believing that the president would be appalled at the attempt to use the nonpartisan agency as a political tool. Instead of a meeting, Nixon aide and future Watergate convict John Erlichman called to tell him he was fired. After Mr. Thrower was thrown out, Nixon told top aides the kind of IRS commissioner he wanted.
    I want to be sure he is a ruthless son of a bitch that he will do what he is told, that every income tax return I want to see I see, that he will go after our enemies and not go after our friends. … Now it’s as simple as that. If he isn’t, he doesn’t get the job. We’ve got to have somebody like that for a change in this place.
    Thrower died last Thursday at the age of 100.

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