What I'm pushing for is an economic discipline that will be closer to other social sciences; in particular, we should be more pragmatic about the methods that we are using instead of pretending that we have our own scientific apparatus with very sophisticated mathematic models that distinguish us from sociologists and historians.
Market forces and capitalism by themselves aren't sufficient to ensure the common good and to limit the concentration of wealth at levels that are compatible with democratic ideals.
The main force pushing toward reduction in inequality has always been the diffusion of knowledge and the diffusion of education.
I was born too late to have any temptation with communism, or at least Soviet-type communism. Travelling in Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, you clearly don't want to defend a system that would have empty shops and a totalitarian regime and internal passports.
There is a fundamentalist belief by capitalists that capital will save the world, and it just isn't so.
I don't pretend that I can predict the future value of the growth rate or rate of return.
One way to have broader access to wealth is to reduce the tax on the large group and increase the tax on the very top so concentration of wealth doesn't get to extreme levels.
Capitalism and market forces are very powerful in producing wealth and innovation. But we need to ensure that these forces act in the common interest.
We want capitalism and market forces to be the slave of democracy rather than the opposite.
The United States could transform its property tax system into a progressive tax on net worth without asking permission to the rest of the world.
When inequality gets too extreme, then it becomes useless for growth, and it can even become bad because it tends to lead to high perpetuation of inequality over time and low mobility.
Private property and the market system are good not only to promote innovation and to promote growth; private property and the market system are good for our personal freedom.
What I argue for is a progressive tax, a global tax, based on the taxation of private property.
I am afraid that if you don't find peaceful domestic solutions to our inequality and social problems, then it's always tempting to find other people responsible for our problems.
We know too little about global wealth dynamics, so we need international transmission of bank information.
