Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Synopsis

A New York Times #1 Bestseller
An Amazon #1 Bestseller
A Wall Street Journal #1 Bestseller
A USA Today Bestseller
A Sunday Times Bestseller
A Guardian Best Book of the 21st Century
Winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
Winner of the British Academy Medal
Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award

"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."
-Paul Krugman, New York Times

"The book aims to revolutionize the way people think about the economic history of the past two centuries. It may well manage the feat."
-The Economist

"Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century is an intellectual tour de force, a triumph of economic history over the theoretical, mathematical modeling that has come to dominate the economics profession in recent years."
-Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post

"Piketty has written an extraordinarily important book…In its scale and sweep it brings us back to the founders of political economy."
-Martin Wolf, Financial Times

"A sweeping account of rising inequality…Piketty has written a book that nobody interested in a defining issue of our era can afford to ignore."
-John Cassidy, New Yorker

"Stands a fair chance of becoming the most influential work of economics yet published in our young century. It is the most important study of inequality in over fifty years."
-Timothy Shenk, The Nation

Summary

Chapter 1: Commodities and the Fetishism of Commodities

* Summary: This chapter introduces the concept of "commodity fetishism," the idea that the products of human labor are seen as having intrinsic value rather than reflecting the social relations that produced them.
* Real-world example: When people buy a hamburger, they may not consider the labor of the farmers who raised the cattle, the workers who slaughtered and processed the meat, or the cooks who prepared it. Instead, they see the hamburger as a standalone item with a specific price.

Chapter 2: Capital

* Summary: This chapter defines capital as a self-expanding value that generates more capital. It also explains the contradictions inherent in the capitalist system, including the tendency for the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.
* Real-world example: Think of a company like Amazon. It uses its profits to invest in more warehouses, employees, and technology, which allows it to grow and expand its dominance in e-commerce.

Chapter 3: The Production of Relative Surplus Value

* Summary: This chapter examines how capitalists increase their profits by extracting surplus value from workers. It explains how the introduction of machinery and automation can lead to increased productivity but also to job losses.
* Real-world example: A factory installs new robots that increase production by 20%. However, this results in the layoff of 10% of the workforce, leading to a higher profit margin for the company.

Chapter 4: The Production of Absolute Surplus Value

* Summary: This chapter discusses methods capitalists use to increase the amount of time workers spend working for them. It explains how working hours and intensity can be increased, often at the expense of workers' health and well-being.
* Real-world example: An employer decides to increase the length of the workday from 8 to 10 hours without providing overtime pay, resulting in workers producing more value for the same amount of compensation.

Chapter 5: The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation

* Summary: This chapter describes the cyclical nature of capitalist accumulation, with periods of growth followed by crises. It explains how the tendency for falling profit rates can lead to economic instability and stagnation.
* Real-world example: The 2008 financial crisis was partly caused by the falling profit rates of financial institutions, which led to excessive risk-taking and the collapse of the housing market.