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

Product Description

Based on extensive data-gathering in developing countries and research on the economic development of America in the 19th century, de Soto shows how economic flourishing requires not just pro-development policy at the top of society but a deep, pervasive set of social structures in which everyone’s property and businesses (especially those of the poor) are protected from theft and abuse. The book is naïvely dismissive of the role of culture – de Soto himself has acknowledged this flaw – but its insight on the role of other social structures is invaluable. The book is about economics but is accessible to the non-economist.