The writer of the best-selling book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” that’s on everybody’s mind these days stopped by “The Colbert Report” on Monday for a reckoning with the faux-conservative host. Piketty, with a thick French accent and a wide smile, explained that he isn’t trying to replace American capitalism with “socialist redistribution of wealth,” but rather the economist’s “just trying to ensure that everyone benefits from globalization.”

This may come as news to conservatives (and probably the Financial Times) who are hellbent on dismissing Piketty’s research as flawed or (God forbid!) communist.

Watch as he explains the basics of his work, but don’t get distracted by the applause for Stephen Colbert’s new “Tony Stark” goatee.

—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata

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#capitalism#colbert report#economy#europe#france#globalization#socialism#stephen colbert#thomas piketty#video