Account for depreciation of natural capital Economic indicators that do not include depletion and degradation of natural resources and ecosystems are misleading, warns

For the past year academics and policy makers have been discussing Thomas Piketty’s economics bestseller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It documents the considerable rise over the past 40 years in national wealth relative to national income in the eight richest economies – the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada and Australia. For each of these countries, the wealth-income ratio has increased from 200-300% in 1970 to 400-600% in 2010.