The Mystery of Capital : Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else

A 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. "Five years ago, Hernando de Soto and his research team closed their books and opened their eyes. They went into the streets of developing and former communist nations to learn what real people are achieving inside and outside the underground economy. Their findings are dramatic. The data they have collected demonstrate that the world's poor have accumulated all the assets needed for successful capitalism." "Why then are these countries so underdeveloped? Why can't they turn these assets into liquid capital - the kind of capital that generates new wealth? De Soto reminds us that the present global crisis is the same kind of crisis that the advanced nations suffered during the Industrial Revolution, when they themselves were Third World countries teeming with black markets, pervasive mafias, widespread poverty and flagrant disregard of the law. The Western nations, he argues, created the key conversion process 150 years ago, and their Economies began to soar into wealth without their ever realizing what they had done. De Soto explains how this unwitting process, hidden deep in thousands of pieces of property law throughout the West, came to be, how it works, and how today it can be deliberately set up in developing and former communist nations."--Jacket A 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. "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 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 informal, extralegal ownership to a formal, unified legal property system. 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. A distinguished Third World economist takes a close-up look at why capitalism succeeds in some countries and fails in others, arguing that the key to its success is related to the legal structure of property and property rights. Reprint. 35,000 firstA distinguished Third World economist takes a close-up look at why capitalism succeeds in some countries and fails in others, arguing that the key to its success is related to the legal structure of property and property rights. Reprint. 50,000 first printing. printing. The Five Mysteries Of Capital -- The Mystery Of Missing Information -- The Mystery Of Capital -- The Mystery Of Political Awareness -- The Missing Lessons Of U.s. History -- The Mystery Of Legal Failure -- By Way Of Conclusion. Hernando De Soto. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [229]-239) And Index. A revolutionary book ... if the criterion is a capacity not only to change permanently the way we look at the world, but also to change the world itself, then there are good grounds for thinking that this book is surely a contender ... thrillingly subversive