The Mystery of Capital

Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else

By: Hernando de Soto

Narrated by: Bob Souer

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.

©2000 Hernando de Soto (P)2019 Tantor

This is a must read.

I you want to know why Capitalism works for some and not others this is your book. The author is somewhat redundant but he gives many excellent examples to provide a convincing argument on how property rights are the foundation of western success.

Very informative book

Very informative book that explains the inner workings of capitalism and why it works so well where the property system has been well integrated with society in general, ie. western countries and a few others. It explains it in a way that even those who live in such societies never think about it due to it being almost taken for granted and second nature.

amazing book

must read and will be at the top of books I recommend to many people

Thought provoking

Very good and interesting little dated but very thought provoking. Especially the correlation with 19 century North America

Good global perspective on Capitalism

This book made me think deeper in terms of importance of capital generation, underlying societal/legal roadblocks and how it impacts wealth creation.

It ties in well with the saying - Everything that glitters is not gold or perhaps will remain or generate further gold!