"Capital in the Twenty-First Century," the new book by the French economist Thomas Piketty, is a bona fide phenomenon. Other books on economics have been best sellers, but Mr. Piketty's contribution is serious, discourse-changing scholarship in a way most best sellers aren't. And conservatives are terrified. Thus James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute warns in National Review that Mr. Piketty's work must be refuted, because otherwise it "will spread among the clerisy and reshape the political economic landscape on which all future policy battles will be waged."

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Now, the fact that apologists for America's oligarchs are evidently at a loss for coherent arguments doesn't mean that they are on the run politically. Money still talks -- indeed, thanks in part to the Roberts court, it talks louder than ever. Still, ideas matter too, shaping both how we talk about society and, eventually, what we do. And the Piketty panic shows that the right has run out of ideas.

The Piketty Panic, APRIL 24, 2014

As far as I'm concerned, when Krugman and Jon Stewart take leave of the public discourse, we're effed.  Who else can I trust on matters economicsal?

Did Krugman fall for Piketty like I fell for Taylor Swift the first time I heard Shake It Off?  Besotted like a middle schooler?

Point n'est besoin d'espérer pour entreprendre, ni de réussir pour persévérer. - Charles le Téméraire