Thomas Piketty

"The Price of Democracy" analyzes how money is becoming increasingly intertwined with politics, threatening the promise of equality at the heart of democracy. Through an unparalleled study of private and public political financing in over ten countries over the span of fifty years, Julia Cagé reveals how private interests are capturing the democratic game. She dissects national models and recounts attempts to regulate the relationship between finance and politics. This book sheds light on the collective lack of involvement that has allowed these issues to persist.

"The Code of Capital" by Katharina Pistor is a fascinating exploration of how the law shapes the distribution of wealth. This thought-provoking book reveals how private attorneys create capital behind closed doors and how the right legal coding can turn any object or idea into assets that produce private wealth. Pistor argues that this little-known fact is one of the biggest reasons for the widening wealth gap between the holders of capital and everybody else. By exploring the ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are coded, this book paints a troubling portrait of the pervasive global nature of the code, the people who shape it, and the governments that enforce it.