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 33
... live in housing that is dead capital . In Peru , 53 percent of city dwellers and 81 percent of people in the coun- tryside live in extralegal dwellings . The figures are even more dramatic in Haiti and Egypt . In Haiti , also according ...
... live in housing that is dead capital . In Peru , 53 percent of city dwellers and 81 percent of people in the coun- tryside live in extralegal dwellings . The figures are even more dramatic in Haiti and Egypt . In Haiti , also according ...
Page 88
... lives and transactions . As a result , nothing could be more socially relevant to the way the poor live and work ... live and work . The extralegal settlements the migrants inhabit may look like slums , but they are quite different ...
... lives and transactions . As a result , nothing could be more socially relevant to the way the poor live and work ... live and work . The extralegal settlements the migrants inhabit may look like slums , but they are quite different ...
Page 149
... live today in a world of paradoxes not unlike the one described by historian G. Edward White : " When the miner left his shack and went to work , he employed the latest in industrial technology . When the farmer stepped outside his sod ...
... live today in a world of paradoxes not unlike the one described by historian G. Edward White : " When the miner left his shack and went to work , he employed the latest in industrial technology . When the farmer stepped outside his sod ...
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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