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Piketty cites 1914->1945 over and over in his book as the one period when r < g, and discusses the implications for his theory over dozens of pages. Yet Gates somehow seems to think WWI and the Great Depression are a gotcha! he has come up with.

Gates: "Far more people—including many rentiers who invested their family wealth in the auto industry—saw their investments go bust in the period from 1910 to 1940, when the American auto industry shrank from 224 manufacturers down to 21. So instead of a transfer of wealth toward rentiers and other passive investors, you often get the opposite."




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