This is perhaps a bit controversial, but I just can't take seriously any critique of Piketty that doesn't look at least 150 years back like he did. He (and his

This is perhaps a bit controversial, but I just can't take seriously any critique of Piketty that doesn't look at least 150 years back like he did. He (and his coworkers) did a lot of legwork on about 200-300 years of history, it's just amazing. You cannot dismiss his theory just on the basis of 50 years. As you write: "redistribution in the form of zoning and development restrictions has been the key driver" - how do you know that without looking further back in time? It's like criticizing Galileo by saying "speed of fall of most objects is influenced by air resistance". It's a true statement, in a limited context (the Earth), but it doesn't disprove first Newton's law.