Table Of ContentP T M C
RAISE FOR HE YSTERY OF APITAL
“Hernando de Soto…is perhaps the world’s trendiest economist, a genius of
property rights.”
—Slate.com
“De Soto has a powerful message not only for the Marxists but also for
capitalists…. His revolution cuts several different ways.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Fascinating…. After reading this book, it is hard not to feel hopeful about the
potential waiting to be tapped in poor countries.”
—The Economist
“In his smart new book, The Mystery of Capital, de Soto answers the question
why capitalism succeeds in the West and fails in so many other places.”
—Thomas Friedman, The New York Times
“For policymakers, international investors, and those who care about the
challenges of developing countries, this book will offer new perspectives on—
and possible solutions for—problems that have existed for centuries.”
—Former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley
“Some books are good, some are bad, but very few are real gems. One of the few
gems is the recently published book, The Mystery of Capital.”
—Thomas Sowell, author of Basic Economics
“Fastidious in its search for the facts but passionate in spirit and language…. He
turns the tumbledown shacks and rivulets of sewage that are typical of the
world’s shanty towns into, as he memorably puts it, ‘acres of diamonds’.”
—The Times (London)
“A revolutionary book…thrillingly subversive.”
—The Independent (London)
“[De Soto] convincingly demostrates, the road to worldwide prosperity requires
not restraining capitalism but making it universal.”
—Commentary
“A pioneering book. Following on his extraordinary and highly original The
Other Path…this book, too, is another tour de force.”
—Jeanne Kirkpatrick, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
“De Soto’s powerful and immensely readable book is a very great weapon in the
armory of freedom.”
—Policy
“Fresh thinking is rare—this book has the capacity to transform the economies
of those countries who have hitherto not been able to make capitalism work for
their people…. [It] explains how economies fail that have not first created the
vital legal structures nor let the ‘black’ economy come into the mainstream
economy.”
—David Owen, former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, E.U.
Chairman of the Int’l Conference on the Former Yugoslavia
“The Mystery of Capital has put [de Soto] in the pantheon of great progressive
intellectuals of our age.”
—New Statesman
“What de Soto has done is to help solve the mystery of poverty.”
—The Times Literary Supplement
“A crucial contribution. A new proposal for change that is valid for the whole
world.”
—Javier Perez de Cuellar, former Secretary General of the United Nations
“We must read de Soto for his acute insights and for his great eloquence with
which he tells us a few important truths that we ignore at our peril.”
—Jagdish Bhagwati, The New Leader
“A revolutionary book.”
—Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland)
“The Mystery of Capital has the potential to create a new, enormously beneficial
revolution, for it addresses the single greatest source of failure in the Third
World and ex-communist countries—the lack of a rule of law that upholds
private property and provides a framework for enterprise. It should be
compulsory reading for all in charge of the ‘wealth of nations’.”
—Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
“A very great book…. Powerful and completely convincing. It will have a most
salutary effect on the views held on economic development.”
—Ronald Coase, Nobel Laureate in Economics
“De Soto demolishes the entire edifice of postwar development economics, and
replaces it with the answers bright young people everywhere have been
demanding…. [The Mystery of Capital] is a significant contribution to
understanding how the poorest nations can use their own legal system to manage
their way out of poverty.”
—The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
“This book is first class. It makes a very solid case for a way to improve the lot
of people in the developing world.”
—Walter Wriston, Chairman emeritus, Citigroup
“One of the most provocative and potentially important works on development
to appear in some time.”
—Raleigh News & Observer
“[De Soto] performs a valuable service by highlighting a problem that’s often
underestimated: the failure of the legal system to acknowledge and respect the
property of the poor.”
—Business Week
“Impassioned and thoughtful.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“De Soto has demonstrated in practice that titling hitherto untitled assets is an
extremely effective way to promote economic development of society as a
whole. He offers politicians a project which can contribute to the welfare of their
country and at the same time enhance their own political standing, a wonderful
combination.”
—Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate in Economics
“De Soto’s book has captured the attention of the establishment…. An
extraordinary book…. This is more than an observation. It is the articulation of a
tragedy.”
—Liberty
“This book changes our understanding of where capital comes from. The
consequences could be world-shattering.”
—William F. Buckley, Jr.
“As de Soto makes bolder assertions and broader prescriptions….[He] defends
his main points with convincing logic and documentary evidence.”
—International Affairs
“De Soto has single-handedly been fomenting a revolution in the Third World….
The Mystery of Capital constitutes one of the few new and genuinely promising
approaches to overcoming poverty to come along in a very long time.”
—Francis Fukuyama, author of The Great Disruption
“Hernando de Soto has done useful work in alerting the world to the energies of
informal economies that are too often ignored or dismissed as disreputable.”
—The New York Review of Books
“Stunningly conceived, compellingly argued, and impressively written: de Soto
offers a rare combination of vision and pragmatism is what will stand as one of
the most important texts of our era.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
THE MYSTERY OF CAPITAL
ALSO BY HERNANDO DE SOTO
The Other Path
THE MYSTERY OF CAPITAL
Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
HERNANDO DE SOTO
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
To Mariano Cornejo, who showed me how
to stand firmly on the ground, and to
Duncan Macdonald, who taught me how to
navigate by the stars.
