Are we at a Piketty tipping point for the left? Unfortunately, history suggests not | David Priestland

John Maynard Keynes wrote that the ideas of economists and political philosophers are "more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else."

Many enthusiastic readers of the French economist Thomas Piketty agree. Chris Huhne, writing for the Guardian last week, argued that the massive popularity of Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century shows that the intellectual tide is turning: his use of heroic number-crunching offering "proof" that under free-market capitalism inequality is the norm, not the exception, may finally convince governments and public alike that markets must be tamed.