The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere ElseA renowned economist's classic book on capitalism in the developing world, showing how property rights are the key to overcoming poverty "The hour of capitalism's greatest triumph," writes Hernando de Soto, "is, in the eyes of four-fifths of humanity, its hour of crisis." In The Mystery of Capital, the world-famous Peruvian economist takes up one of the most pressing questions the world faces today: Why do some countries succeed at capitalism while others fail? In strong opposition to the popular view that success is determined by cultural differences, de Soto finds that it actually has everything to do with the legal structure of property and property rights. Every developed nation in the world at one time went through the transformation from predominantly extralegal property arrangements, such as squatting on large estates, to a formal, unified legal property system. In the West we've forgotten that creating this system is what allowed people everywhere to leverage property into wealth. This persuasive book revolutionized our understanding of capital and points the way to a major transformation of the world economy. |
From inside the book
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Page 87
... authorities the community has selected . The disadvantage to extralegal arrangements is that they are not integrated into the formal prop- erty system and as a result are not fungible and adaptable to most transactions ; they are not ...
... authorities the community has selected . The disadvantage to extralegal arrangements is that they are not integrated into the formal prop- erty system and as a result are not fungible and adaptable to most transactions ; they are not ...
Page 96
... Authorities and legal businessmen were not as impressed with the competition as Adam Smith . In England , during the decades following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 , some tradition- alists began to complain about the growing ...
... Authorities and legal businessmen were not as impressed with the competition as Adam Smith . In England , during the decades following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 , some tradition- alists began to complain about the growing ...
Page 97
... Authorities found it in their hearts to set free only one extralegal . According to Robert Ekelund and Robert Tollison , the reason why the authorities prosecuted extralegals so harshly was not only because they wanted to protect ...
... Authorities found it in their hearts to set free only one extralegal . According to Robert Ekelund and Robert Tollison , the reason why the authorities prosecuted extralegals so harshly was not only because they wanted to protect ...
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Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith advanced nations American apartheid areas bell jar bidonvilles buildings capitalist century cities claim associations Claim Clubs colonial Congress create capital dead capital developing and former developing countries economic elites enforce entrepreneurs erty extrale extralegal arrangements extralegal assets extralegal property extralegal sector extralegal social contracts formal law formal property system former communist countries former communist nations fungible global Haiti Hernando de Soto housing Ibid illegal institutions investment land lawyers legal property system legal system live maps Marx ment migrants million miners Mystery of Capital nomic Office organizations owners ownership percent Peru political politicians poor population Port-au-Prince potential preemption procedures production property arrangements property law property rights protect real estate records reform Registry representations Revolution rules Rural settlement settlers social contracts society squatters squatting statutes surplus value Third World tion tomahawk rights transactions United urban West World and former