Rogoff distances himself from not-so-pernickety Piketty

Thomas Piketty is isn’t having a great week. At the end of last week, the FT launched a damning attack on his best-selling tome Capital in the Twenty-First Century, as data fisking hack Chris Giles accused Piketty of having made a number of errors with his figures. Not great news for the new darling of economics. 

 

Much of the reportage, including the FT’s original expose, includes a reference to Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, in particular their 2010 paper, “Growth in a Time of Debt.” The pair were accused of making spreadsheet errors and last year made an official correction to their original paper. Piketty, it seems, is not alone. 

 

But just when you might think the French economist might find some solace in not being the first, safety in numbers if you will, Rogoff has declined to offer any kind words of wisdom or any condolence. 

 

When asked if he had any words of encouragement/advice or any comment at all for Thomas Piketty, Rogoff told CityAM:

 

“Our one error was minor and did not have any significant impact on our results.” Ouch. No solidarity there then, more a, “bog off” from Rogoff. 

 

We doubt our supposed meeting in Paris tomorrow will happen after all…