Thomas Piketty on Capitalism, Corbyn and why Zuckerberg is getting it wrong - BBC Newsnight

Renowned economist Thomas Piketty sits down for a tête a tête on the world economy with Evan Davis

[TititoDeBologay]

Level zero of journalism in that line of questioning. Highly unprofessional, what with the chuckling and scoffing, he does not even try to check his bias.

[xBournex]

Piketty is a legend, shows a real level of understanding when he can be assaulted by Davis' leading questions and come out with a reasonable argument based on facts that makes Davis look the fool

[MarkJVSomers]

The 'journalist' seems to think there is no such thing as inequality, and if so it doesn't matter at all. And his sarcastic smile while asking questions, is very irritating. I do not have Piketty's patience, that's for sure.

[JamesTrevitt]

Evan Davis, mouthpiece for the establishment elites. Makes me laugh that he questions Thomas Piketty's impartiality when he's supposed to be a journalist himself! He's not half as political as you Evan. You might as well be wearing a George Osborne T-shirt.

[drgerke]

Half an hour of Evan Davies not getting it.

[ChicagoTurtle]

Concentration of wealth doesn’t just exist on the quantitative level. “The history of the distribution of wealth has always been deeply political, and it cannot be reduced to purely economic mechanisms.” - Piketty.

[earlsy]

Evan Davis is an absolute disgrace of a journalist. And he's supposed to specialize in economics?!
*facepalm*

[bethanyhunt]

"There's been quite a lot of trickle-down". What an ignorant ideologue Davies is!! Having iPhones in the world is NOT a trickle-down of wealth! 100% of the new wealth created in the U.S. since 1980 has gone to the top 10%. All of it.
Most of the wealth comes from ownership of production - NOT innovation or hard work!
So many, like Davies, like to quote Silicon Valley as bastions of the innovation of private ownership. When in fact, the vast majority of tech innovations - the internet, the web, touch screens, GPS etc - were created by the government!

[AD-jtbd]

I'm getting second -hand embarrassment from the astounding level of ignorance this 'journalist' is displaying.

[nigelharsch]

At 12:45, interviewer claims that 2/3 of homes in UK are owned, not rented. What percentage of those are actually owned by a bank, effectively making the bank a landlord? Also, if housing prices skyrocket, a middle class home owner will be more likely to sell their home to someone in a higher income bracket. They will make a handsome one time profit for sure, but capital will continue to be concentrated in the highest quartile.

[TreborTheWise]

Interviewer: Isn't terrorism the main problem today?

No, that is what the ruling elites want us to think so hat we're distracted from what's important. Smh

[eoindiff]

"The little counsel of economic advisors of Jeremy Corbyn.." - the questioning is some disrespectful to one of the foremost economic writers of our time.

[jond]

“Because of pressure from journalists like you “.
Mr. Thomas, you have one vote here...👍.

[eleonorelemonnier]

Piketty and his super frenchy accent ! Love my French economist and I am not the only one.

[muadh]

I think the interviewer's disagreement with most of what Piketty said made the interview much more interesting. Piketty was pushed to make strong arguments about inequality. I'm not giving any credits to the interviewer because I think that was unintentional. He was just biased.

[GothicKin]

He's interviewing Piketty and he's questioning him through the point of view of the classic centrist, nothing can help get Piketty's point across better than this. I don't know if he's sincere or he's challenging his guest ( as a journalist should do ) but in the end we get to see Piketty tear apart classic bad takes.

[grubernitsch]

Very unfortunate that state owned BBC keeps paying for this crap line of questioning. One might think you have privately owned TV to do the dumb-down work.

[anooprkje]

not great journalistic questions... laughing at Mr piketty ... really ? how come BBC hired this guy !!!

[TalynStormcrow]

The journalist thinks that money doesn't make money? GCSE maths makes it self evident.

[ChristianLafrance]

Was a journalist whose expertise is economics not available for this interview? Comments on social mobility and trickle-down fly in the face of economic evidence.