Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but too long and repetitious
Review: The so called "Mystery" in the book's title is indeed interesting, and the solution the author presents is plausible. This in itself make the book (or at least the first 20 pages) a worth reading.
However, the whole idea could be summerzied to about one tenth of the book's actual length, or maybe even to a lengthy article.
If you are are some government official that has interest in the matter of third world development, then read the complete book. If, like me, you just have a general interest in the subject, you'll get the idea pretty soon, then be extremely bored as you read the rest searching for some new insights that didn't appear in chapter 1.In short, a good idea that's worth reading about, stretched and repeated over and over to create a book. Keep that in mind when you buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Internet Domain Names are the ultimate Intellectual Property
Review: yet we can not get a government in the United States which will make sure the titles are 'FIRM'! .... Mr. De Soto, as he appeared recently on SCULLY the WORLD SHOW (PBS) was excellent as he recast the chapter which dealt correctly with the DEARTH of CAPITALISM in DEVELOPMENT due to PROPERTY TITLE & DEED. This 30 times the STOCK EXCHANGE worth's of LAND and HOUSES is just a portent that as the PROPERTY VALUE is redetermined by courts in PRIVATE ACTIONS for PRIVATE HOLDING in order to CLEAR the TITLE whilst 'proving up' or HOME-STEADING is qualification by possession, the public side requires an understanding that UTILITIES are held 'in TRUST' as a COMMONS would be, but for PUBLIC SAFETY restrictions must be placed on the USAGE. Today, we have phone companies which are more like backyard swimming pools, rather than public entities.
The vaguaries today which Mr. de Soto tried so admirably to describe would include much less scholarship than in the California of 150 years ago, whereby a honest lawyer could bring value to endevours and property.Today the various electronica by which we communicate are also the smokescreen and invasive tool.
The thief can enter at all hours and by almost every mean. Without privacy, banking can not exist. Without banking bills 'go South' and one finds that Credit is a foist by loansharks who are probably reselling your own telephone converstations to you as water has in the last quarter century been sold and re-sold to the consumer in California. Because a double-edged sword comprises our electronic communications the scenario the Author laid out for Peru's telephone privitazation is precisely the opposite of what must be done now in America. We have 'geniuses' at ENRON, PAC BELL, SBC, GLOBAL CROSSING, SOUTHERN PACIFIC, HETCH HETCHY/PG&E (in triplicate! WASHINGTON DC...SACRAMENTO...and SAN FRANCISCO! FEDERAL STATE MUNICAPAL crooks!)who are taking the RUG from out under the very ones who
DO AS THEY ARE TYOLD...PAY THEIR BILSS, etc. What good is paying the PHONE BILL on time when their is NO CAP!!!!? Really! ....-so in conclusion I concur with ALL but one of the conceptualisations of this otherwise beautiful book, and hopefully this remark may help bring about the dream of the good life for all the Earth's denizens, and that is this-
The point the Author overlooked was that 500 years ago..."The Mystery of Capitalism" was that is was the essential engine of life in a feudal society, (which incidentally when done right...)
that was a an alternative to a slave-owning democracy, but that the 'COMMUNISM' which people sought as respite from filthy industrial cites in 1900 is still the LIBERTY we call CAPIATALISM
but only as the FREE ENTERPRISE character...the one who has DISCIPLINE (such as Freedom gives one economically!)to REQUIRE Public Utilites governing be discharged in a PUBLIC MANNER & PRIVATE COMMERCE remain so! The people whom Mr De Soto would TRUST with the EGG BASKET are not to be trusted today anymore than they were in 1776! I see little differnce between McHale's Navy & Sgt. Bilko! If the Queen of England and the Dictator of Korea and The President of the United States all drink from the same trough-we can like FARMER's ALMANAC make a forecast...
The FEUDAL system of ECONOMY wasn't really working in 1492...so how is to to work today? With the Internet? The major problems associated with Free Trade & Slavery do not occur in a true Free Enterprise situation when you have reasonable restrictions. To add one other note here: ICANN & such boards are the last possible refuge for scoundrels after they leave PAC BELL! If INDIA would allow here people the freedom to interact with the WEST ...from THERE...and San Francisco could help China via the INTERNET while they STAYED THERE...a case could be made for ARABIA helping the Muslim countries, and Iran helping Afghanistan
Tajikistan and soforth. Senegal could work with Sierra Leone, the French Guyanans lend a hand to Brazil, (all NETWORKING!)
and the Japan could be working with the New Guineans. Etc.
Marqueseans receiving 'aid' via INTERNET from TAHITI? Why not?
AUSTRALIA had "FLYING DOCTORS" Chin had "BAREFOOT DICTATORS" why not "WIRELESS HIPPY GURUS?" Mr. Desoto, "Vaya con DIOS!"
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, but doesn't completely solve the "mystery"
Review: In "The Mystery of Capital," Hernando de Soto presents a fascinating, powerful, and relatively simple (but far-reaching) thesis that, to the extent it is correct, and to the extent that it is listened to by political and economic elites, could have enormous potential for affecting positive change throughout the world. The thesis, in sum, is that the key to creating wealth is turning "dead" capital into "live" capital by guaranteeing property rights, and even more broadly than that, the "right to property rights." To the extent that this is done, according to de Soto, good things begin to flow, as they have in much of the Western world (the prime example being the United States). To the extent that this is NOT done, as is the case in most of the "Third World" (usually referred to, inaccurately, as the "developing" world - inaccurate because the vast majority of this world is manifestly failing to develop!), good things will NOT flow, and the country will remain mired in poverty no matter how rich it might be in raw materials, a stable political system, beautiful beaches, or a benign climate. The issue is that, without secure property rights and a legal system which facilitates capital mobility and "fungibility," poor people (otherwise known as budding entrepreneurs, or as de Soto argues "the solution," not "the problem") will not be able to access their accumulated assets in a way that would "capitalize" those assets, which then could be used to generate further wealth. Thus, millions of people will remain mired in poverty, despite sitting on POTENTIALLY huge assets (trillions of dollars worth according to de Soto's estimates) and regardless of how hard they might work (and I definitely don't believe that people in the "Third World" are inherently "lazier" than in the "developed" world!). Overall, I find it difficult to disagree outright with most of what de Soto has to say, but as I read his book I did feel somewhat uneasy at times. Perhaps this is because I tend to be naturally suspicious of monocausal, oversimplified explanations for highly complex problems. More importantly, while I believe that de Soto has most likely identified a NECESSARY condition for rapid capitalist development, I continue to have doubts as to whether or not this condition alone is a SUFFICIENT one for development at all. I also worry that this book will be misread or misused by some, who will say "see, all we need the government for is to guarantee property rights, then get the hell out of the way, and everything will be great." While I don't believe this is what de Soto is arguing, his omission of such critically important issues as the place and role of women (a cultural issue?), the role of serious diseases like AIDS, the problem of severe environmental degradation, the prevalence of illiteracy and the lack of education in general in much of the world, overpopulation, etc., implies that de Soto doesn't see these as serious obstacles (or complicating factors) to economic development. One could argue just as strongly as de Soto does in his book, it seems to me, that there is a strong, direct, positive correlation between women's education levels, lower birth rates, and economic development, and that the key to "Third World" economic development, therefore, is making sure that women are well-educated, healthy, and political empowered. Anyway, the point is that while de Soto is definitely on to something very important in "The Mystery of Capital," he has not told the whole story or completely solved the "mystery" - not even close! One other quibble with the book is that, unfortunately, it's just not very well written - repetitive, didactic, tedious at times, and just plain too long (de Soto's argument probably could be made just as strongly, or more so, in 30 or 40 pages, as opposed to 230 pages). Still, on balance this is an important book, and I definitely recommend it, at the very least for provoking serious thought (and maybe even action) on a problem that, to many people, continues to be just an inscrutable "mystery."
Rating:
Summary: A Landmark in Modern Economic Thought
Review: Hernando de Soto's "The Mystery of Capital" contains some of the freshest economic and legal thinking I've encountered. Almost every page yields extraordinary insights, and if the arguments are repeated at times, I did not much mind. Among the key contributions of "The Mystery of Capital" is a convincing explanation that the arguments for and against globalization that led to street battles in Seattle, Quebec, and Genoa miss the point. All things being equal, freer (or better-managed) trade is good. But overenthusiastic boosters of liberalized trade fail to understand that only a minority in developing countries, those with regularized, legal businesses and access to capital, are able to reap its benefits. The extralegal majority know "they still linger at the periphery of the capitalist game." (P. 207.) Resentment among them arises from their lack of access to capital, but it expresses itself, unfortunately but understandably, in opposition to freer trade. (I should add that globalization opponents miss the point altogether, and their denunciations of liberalized trade tend to confirm that there are many economic ideas that the left cannot even fathom, much less debate usefully.) For its comments on trade liberalization alone, "The Mystery of Capital" is a tour de force. On finishing the book, I was wondering (and hoping) that de Soto's thinking might have an impact on development economics. I did not have to wait long to find out. That very evening (January 1, 2002), Bolivian President Jorge Fernando Quiroga Ramírez was interviewed on the American television program The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Quiroga, a 41-year-old graduate of Texas A&M University, said that he was instituting a program of land titling so that Bolivians (presumably including the poor) will be able to use their property as security for loans and generally as financial vehicles, thereby allowing them to generate capital. "You know, market economics sometimes hasn't reached everybody. Because if you have a piece of land that you have no title to, how can you be for market economics when you can't get more goods, when you can't use it as collateral and things like land titling, access to housing which is the basic building block of market economy, you can't quite relate to it," Quiroga told his interviewer. He said that as a result of the reforms that have been instituted, Bolivians can now get a 20-year loan on their property at less than 10 percent interest. That is a remarkable achievement, unheard of in that country, and a testament to the influence of de Soto's work. With leaders like Quiroga and Vicente Fox in Mexico, I am optimistic about the future of at least some developing countries. It was hard to find anything to refute in "The Mystery of Capital." For example, and in tandem with the arguments advanced in the book, it is evident that national cultural attributes, though a factor in advancing or retarding economic development, cannot account for the great differences in prosperity among nations. Brazilians, for example, tend to be hard-working people, contrary to any stereotype of sleepy Latin America. I remember going to the airport at Belém, the equatorial port at the mouth of the Amazon, about 5:00 a.m. one day in 1984. At that early hour, well before dawn, the city buses were filled with people going to work. Another point with which I agree: de Soto draws an important distinction between ramshackle and seemly chaotic extralegal housing in developing countries and the developed world's pockets of urban decay. He argues that the former tend to improve, unlike the latter. That appears to be true. Housing in Brazilian favelas (extralegal squatter developments) is said to be rising in value. In one favela, Paraisópolis, "A two-room wooden shack at the end of a cramped alley can cost around $1,400 while a two-bedroom house facing a main road can sell for as much as $16,000. That is more than most state-run public housing and on par with apartments in outlying lower income neighborhoods." (Jennifer L. Rich, "Brazilian Slums Prove Location Reigns Supreme In Real Estate," The New York Times, Dec. 2, 2001.) I predict that today's hillside favela will be tomorrow's picturesque Alfama (Lisbon's old Arab quarter). "The Mystery of Capital" ranges far beyond development economics: it also offers an explanation of why developed countries are wealthy. It ought to be required reading in college and graduate-level economics programs. I do not mean to suggest that it contains answers to all national economic problems, for countries can suffer from them even when their citizens have financially useful access to their own capital. For example, I am not sure how relevant "The Mystery of Capital" is to Argentina's difficulties. Still, this must be one of the most important works in both economics and law in many years.
Rating:
Summary: An Important point, but understand CAPITAL first
Review: I agree that access to a legal property system is VERY important, but many people just don't understand Capitalism in the first place. Having property is not the only important point. One must know how to use it to create value. Having the legal rights to property and just sitting on it is DEAD CAPITAL. One must understand how to use this CAPITAL.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting concept.
Review: Although communism has collapsed everywhere in the world, except in a few remaining contries,it could raise its ugly head again, especially in an age of fast growing poverty and unequal income distribution.
De Soto proposes to "capitalize" the poor in an attempt to integrate them into the mainstream of societies. Governments and societies alike should find ways to legalize properties of squatters and shantty town people and to convert them into liquid assets, which can then be bartered or traded.
But this is not the only problem. The goal is to motivate people to "create additional usable value", to get them out of their "poverty-stricken" mind and to teach them to be independent. This is a difficult goal to reach, but rich nations have the means to do it. And unless they are willing to tackle this problem, peace on earth cannot be assured, for poverty invites diseases, malnutrition, disturbances, and revolution.
Rating:
Summary: Totaly outside the box
Review: This could be one of the most important political economy works of our time. Yes it is written in a repetitive way, but the message of the book is so simple that it would look more like a monograph than a popular book if properly edited. There is lots of vague talk out there about "civil society" and the "rule of law" and their relationship to economic growth. De Soto has made such talk practical using practical examples.
Rating:
Summary: Book's New Thinking Needs Bold Action
Review: New thinking on any matter is rare and sometimes it can sound simplistic. That could be the case with De Soto's theory and recommendation to bring the extralegal sector into the 'alfresco' economies of underdeveloped nations, except if I consider the anecdotal evidence relating to myself and many, many others in this country, it doesn't sound simplistic at all. Certainly a bold, intensive step would be required to register and legalize properties. Many steps, in fact. De Soto doesn't downplay this. Even in a place where it is seemingly impossible to say where property lines should be drawn, there is the suggestion in the book to watch the members of the local canine population who know their borders and those of their masters. Whatever works! No good reason to wait for cultural attrition, to accept slow transformation. A bold step. That's what this book is putting forth to finally energize a great number of countries, and unless someone can successfully hypothesize about a dreadful consequence resulting from such a step, the move should go forward.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Advice for Third World Leaders
Review: "The Mystery Of Capital" is a text on development economics and the history of economic thought. It addresses development economics by analyzing roles played by incentives and institutions in shaping the evolution of markets in third world countries. In addition, it addresses the development of economic thought by demonstrating how the notion of capital evolved in the West to encompass incentives for transforming property into productive assets over time. In doing this, de Soto seeks to provide a solution to the dilemma haunting the third world: how to create a system of rules to put the proper economic incentives in place while respecting existing institutions that currently drive economic behavior. In the book, de Soto argues that it is the inability to produce capital, rather than a lack of respect for private property or the rule of law per se, which inhibits rapid economic growth in the third world. He notes there is a difference between protecting property rights and producing capital. Specifically, he states that over time in the West, mechanisms were developed within systems of property rights to produce capital very quickly. He asserts that many westerners are oblivious to these mechanisms, and that they "...view them as parts of the system that protects property, not as interlocking mechanisms for fixing the economic potential of an asset in such a way that it can be converted into capital." He defines property as a mediating device that captures and stores the mechanisms necessary to run a market economy. He states that it "...seeds the system by making people accountable and assets fungible, by tracking transactions, and so providing all the mechanisms required for the monetary and banking system to work and for investment to function." He relates the idea of property to capital by pointing out that - rather than a mere representation of assets on paper - it is a process through which a society extracts value from those assets. Therefore, property is not the assets themselves but an expression of how those assets should be used. From this, de Soto develops his theory of how the West grew rich. He argues that American property systems flourished because they incorporated legal rights to allow people to use their property to create capital. He lists occupancy, preemption, homesteading, miners' laws, and other mechanisms for bringing informal property rights into the legal arena as examples of how Western systems created a new economic order providing the right incentives for massive growth to occur. He believes this evolution occurred under America's legal umbrella rather than Britain's because America's system responded to shifting political attitudes more quickly than Britain's - where the common law had entrenched a static system hostile to extralegal notions of property. These extralegal notions of property are crucial, de Soto notes, because they dominate most economic transactions in the third world. He points out that with their formal economies so heavily regulated, black markets are the only systems available to most third world residents. As a result, most businesses in the third world incur heavy visible costs in the form of paying bribes, making payments outside legal channels, and operating through dispersed networks without a source of credit. However, the largest costs - which are invisible - are the absence of institutions necessary to create incentives for people to raise investment funds, achieve economies of scale, or protect their innovations in the marketplace. Thus, de Soto argues, the problem with most proposals to establish property rights and the rule of law is that they ignore existing black market institutions that already guide economic activity in third world countries. He explains that when new legal institutions are created, those institutions must embrace contracts and arrangements that exist under the black market, or they will be rejected over time. He believes the solution is for reformers to codify black market rules so they can be made uniform within individual countries. Thus, leaders can compare these rules to other newly proposed frameworks and create an individual set that best enables them to create a system that is legitimate and self-enforceable over time. De Soto's book sheds important light on many of the problems inherent in development economics. His insights into the evolution of market institutions to provide incentives for people to both protect their property and use it productively explain many of the frustrations experienced by officials at international aid agencies and third world governments. These leaders would do well to heed his advice.
Rating:
Summary: A must for anybody who wants to understand todays economy
Review: America is about ownership, if more countries realised just that they would do their own research in this subject and legislate on it, we need more knowledge about the use of property to get access to capital, de soto provides an extraordinary insight to understand that.
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