The Mystery Of Capital Why Capitalism Succeeds In The West And Fails Everywhere Else"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 the question that, more than any other, is central to one of the most crucial problems 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 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 informal, extralegal ownership to a formal, unified legal property system, but in the West we've forgotten that creating this system is also what allowed people everywhere to leverage property into wealth. This persuasive book will revolutionize our understanding of capital and point the way to a major transformation of the world economy. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 98
Page 63
... economic things they could not have done before . A well - integrated legal property system in essence does two things : First , it tremendously reduces the costs of knowing the economic qualities of assets by representing them in a way ...
... economic things they could not have done before . A well - integrated legal property system in essence does two things : First , it tremendously reduces the costs of knowing the economic qualities of assets by representing them in a way ...
Page 219
... economic facts about ourselves and our resources boiled down to essentials that our minds can easily grasp . A good property system does that — it puts assets into a form that lets us distinguish their similarities , differences , and ...
... economic facts about ourselves and our resources boiled down to essentials that our minds can easily grasp . A good property system does that — it puts assets into a form that lets us distinguish their similarities , differences , and ...
Page 263
... economy . See Extralegal sector Economic growth Asian , force - fed , 2 input / output strategies , 219 and integrated property system , 53 , 150 lawyer effect , 198 Economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping , 69 open economies , 210 , 227 See ...
... economy . See Extralegal sector Economic growth Asian , force - fed , 2 input / output strategies , 219 and integrated property system , 53 , 150 lawyer effect , 198 Economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping , 69 open economies , 210 , 227 See ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith advanced nations American apartheid areas bell jar build CALIFORNIA/SANTA CRUZ capitalist century cities claim associations Claim Clubs colonial Congress create capital CRUZ The University dead capital developing and former economic elites enforce entrepreneurs erty extrale extralegal arrangements 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 institutions investment land lawyers legal property system legal system maps Marx ment Michel Foucault migrants million miners nomic Office organizations owners ownership percent Peru political politicians poor population Port-au-Prince potential preemption production property arrangements property law property rights protect real estate records reform Registry representations Revolution rules Rural settlement settlers social contracts squatters squatting statutes surplus value Third World tion tomahawk rights transactions United University Library UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA/SANTA urban West World and former