Hernando de Soto profile
The darling of right wing think-tanks and the former target of the Shining Path in his home country of Peru, Hernando De Soto has produced a very original new book. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, is a strong challenge to those working on international development issues.
His thesis is simple. The poor in developing countries often have many assets - shacks, informal businesses. What they lack is formal property rights to their assets. This prevents them from unlocking the true potential of their assets - producing capital (for example, through using them as collateral for borrowing) and connecting them to the formal economy - so that utilities such as gas, water and electricity can be legally piped to them. This economics behind this idea will be familiar to those with knowledge of the theory of the Tragedy of the Commons.
Reason magazine -- Hernando De Soto Interview
