Talk about a bizarre context. Reading Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century while exploring the remote islands of Vanuatu is a bit like an appendage falling asleep. You know it’s there in the same way that you know that the world’s motor runs on wealth and trade, but it seems distant, foreign, and not quite attached. Piketty, an economist at the Paris School of Economics, statistically maps a developed world in which capital wealth is skyrocketing into multiples of income, while ashore on the sandy island of Rowa the local fisherman disdain our offer of Vatu (the local currency) for the mullet they caught last night, but are excited to trade for fresh water, fishing line, and an underwater flashlight. Capital redefined.
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