The rule of thumb I use in situations like this is an aphorism I heard a while back (by some mathematician) which basically said that the best description of an

The rule of thumb I use in situations like this is an aphorism I heard a while back (by some mathematician) which basically said that the best description of any system is its results. I find it extremely helpful in these sorts of situations to judge the system, not the particular actors within it, or the mixture of rationality, conspiracy, stupidity, or dumb luck which is employed to create it. It seems he is making a far bigger leap in discounting Picketty's thesis, with the information we have at hand, than Picketty was in creating it. So it doesn't matter whether Giles is unwitting or not (except perhaps from his own point of view) he is acting as a mouthpiece.