At the Higher Education Desk we talk a lot about increasing access for low-income students, largely because delivering affordable, high-quality college education to more people is a pressing economic issue in the twenty-first century. 

Thomas Piketty is currently the Associate Chair at the Paris School of Economics. In his new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, he analyzes data from 20 countries from as far back as the eighteenth century.

In this video taped by the WGBH Forum Network, Piketty talks about how nations need to better build equilibrium mechanisms and create institutions that may regulate the economy to solve the problems of wealth inequality.

Piketty argues it will take more than chance and coincidence to fix rising inequality and limited access for lower and middle class citizens. 

"My book is really trying to make the point that perfect competition and perfect markets are probably better than imperfect markets but they are not going to solve our problems," Piketty says.