The year 2014 marks the 50th
anniversary of the Beatles’ arrival in the United States. The Allies
liberated Paris 70 years ago. And, of course, it’s been 135 years since “Progress and Poverty,” by the American journalist Henry George, was published in 1879.
What’s that? Never heard of George or his treatise on the
causes of inequality? It sold 3 million copies. Perhaps you missed
“Progress and Poverty’s” anniversary while perusing this year’s equally
improbable bestseller, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century
” by French economist Thomas Piketty.