The federal revenue situation of the late 19th century United States presents a somewhat case study in constitutional political economy, owing to a fairly restrictive constitutional restraint on the means of raising revenue for the federal government. The U.S. Constitution provided Congress with the “Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises” as its primary means of taxation, […]
Earlier today Thomas Piketty released a 10 page supplemental appendix to his book Capital and the 21st Century, responding to the raging controversy around his data. The appendix was styled as a response to the Financial Times investigation, although it is relevant to issues that have also been raised elsewhere including on this blog. My initial take is that
This is what happens to Piketty’s Figure 10.5 if you remove the problematic 1970s data point: Note that I am not endorsing the accuracy of the result, which is still plagued by other questionable data techniques. It also seems reasonable to include an appropriate accounting for the 1970s, assuming one exists (I’m simply saying that