Taking on Adam Smith (and Karl Marx)

                                        Photo/ Ed Alcock For The New York Times

The New York Times Article By
Steven Erlanger

A French scholar is reviving the art 
of big-idea political economics, 
with data.

Economist Thomas Piketty remembers
a trip he took with a close friend to Romania in early 1990 after the 
collapse of the Soviet empire.
"This sort vaccinated me for life 
against lazy, anticapitalist rhetoric, because when you see these empty 
shops, you see these people queuing 
for nothing in the street," he said "it became clear to me that we need 
private property and market initiative 
not just for economic efficiency but for 
personal freedoms."