The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere ElseA renowned economist argues for the importance of property rights in "the most intelligent book yet written about the current challenge of establishing capitalism in the developing world" (Economist) "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 12
... countries a huge industrial-commercial revolution—one that, incredibly, has been virtually ignored. The Missing Lessons of U.S. History What is going on in the Third World ... nations to make the transition to capitalism that we have ...
... countries a huge industrial-commercial revolution—one that, incredibly, has been virtually ignored. The Missing Lessons of U.S. History What is going on in the Third World ... nations to make the transition to capitalism that we have ...
Page 17
... Third World's present. A Surprise Revolution Before 1950, most Third World countries were agricultural societies organized in ways that would have made an eighteenth-cen- tury European feel right at home. Most people worked on the land ...
... Third World's present. A Surprise Revolution Before 1950, most Third World countries were agricultural societies organized in ways that would have made an eighteenth-cen- tury European feel right at home. Most people worked on the land ...
Page 28
... developing countries. In other parts of the Third World, vendors from the shantytowns supply most of the food available in the market, whether from carts on the street or from stalls in buildings they construct. In 1993, the Mexican ...
... developing countries. In other parts of the Third World, vendors from the shantytowns supply most of the food available in the market, whether from carts on the street or from stalls in buildings they construct. In 1993, the Mexican ...
Page 29
... Third World countries such as Haiti and the Philippines. Nevertheless, since the fall of communism, the former Soviet states have been slipping into the same patterns of informal ownership. In 1995, Business Week reported that four ...
... Third World countries such as Haiti and the Philippines. Nevertheless, since the fall of communism, the former Soviet states have been slipping into the same patterns of informal ownership. In 1995, Business Week reported that four ...
Page 32
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Contents
1 | |
15 | |
C H A P T E R T H R E E The Mystery of Capital | 39 |
C H A P T E R F O U R The Mystery of Political Awareness | 69 |
C HAP T E R F I V E The Missing Lessons of US History | 105 |
C H A P T E R S I X The Mystery of Legal Failure | 153 |
C HAP T E R S EV E N By Way of Conclusion | 207 |
Notes | 229 |
Acknowledgments | 241 |
Appendix | 249 |
Index | 259 |
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Common terms and phrases
advanced nations American apartheid areas assets bell jar buildings capitalist 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 property extralegal sector extralegal social contracts formal law formal property system former communist countries former communist nations fungible global Haiti Hernando de Soto Ibid illegal industrial institutions investment land lawyers legal property system legal system live maps Marx ment Michel Foucault migrants million miners Mystery of Capital nomic official law organizations owners ownership people’s percent Peru political politicians poor population Port-au-Prince potential preemption problem production property arrangements property law property rights protect real estate records reform Revolution rules Rural settlement settlers social contracts society squatters squatting surplus value Third World tion tomahawk rights Total transactions undercapitalized United urban West World and former