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
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Page 91
... land , in a country in which land ownership is an extremely murky business . Only 7 % of the land on the Indonesian archipelago has a clear owner . Inevitably , there is a large trade in both genuine and forged certifi- cates . People ...
... land , in a country in which land ownership is an extremely murky business . Only 7 % of the land on the Indonesian archipelago has a clear owner . Inevitably , there is a large trade in both genuine and forged certifi- cates . People ...
Page 125
... land patents sent in from the district offices , the new federal agency also had to oversee the record keeping of purchases made on credit . Lawmakers hoped that the Land Office would operate as an information center serving citizens ...
... land patents sent in from the district offices , the new federal agency also had to oversee the record keeping of purchases made on credit . Lawmakers hoped that the Land Office would operate as an information center serving citizens ...
Page 126
... land scrip emerged that fueled both squatting and speculation . For every hundred soldiers who received land scrip , eighty - four sold their rights in the black market — a situation not unlike the one that occurs today in many ...
... land scrip emerged that fueled both squatting and speculation . For every hundred soldiers who received land scrip , eighty - four sold their rights in the black market — a situation not unlike the one that occurs today in many ...
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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