ARIZONA REPUBLIC PHOENIX

De Soto's insight about unleashing the productive capacity of the world's poor may very well be the most important idea of our time.

Robert Robb

 

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS AUCKLAND

De Soto, who must certainly go forward as a candidate for a Nobel Prize for this work,… presents a theory that could change the lives of the majority of the world's population for the better… It's a book with a so-welcome stamp of learned authority.

Nicholas Krause

 

THE CANBERRA TIMES CANBERRA

Quite a feat. … He has solved [the mystery of] the reasons for Third World poverty.

THE ECONOMIST LONDON

The most intelligent book yet written about the current challenge of establishing capitalism in the developing world.

 

THE FOREIGN POLICY CENTRE LONDON

De Soto's theory is breathtakingly simple, but it has the revolutionary consequences and the grand sweep of Adam Smith or Marx… His arguments have revolutionised and brought a new outlook to the economic world, particularly in Latin America, in much the same way as Fukuyama's did in the political world.

Sarah Brealey

 

THE FREEDOM NETWORK CHICAGO

"The Mystery of Capital" is essential reading for anyone who desires a full understanding of economic life today.

Thomas L. Knapp

 

GLOBAL FINANCIAL MARKETS CHICAGO

Is de Soto a revolutionary and innovator? Yes. He has successfully challenged the existing culture/development paradigm, identified important barriers to economic success in the Third World, and raised the bar for innovative and effective research methodologies to substantiate development theories.

Pamela Reardon

 

THE GLOBE AND MAIL TORONTO

De Soto demolishes the entire edifice of postwar development economics, and replaces it with the answers bright young people everywhere have been demanding.

Desmond Smith

 

INDEPENDENT LONDON

A revolutionary book… thrillingly subversive.

Donald Macintyre

 

KIRKUS REVIEWS NEW YORK

A provocative and revolutionary analysis of the nature of capital… Stunningly conceived, compellingly argued, and impressively written: de Soto offers a rare combination of vision and pragmatism in what will very like stand as one of the most important economic texts of our era.

 

LITERARY REVIEWLONDON

This [is a] brilliant and illuminating book. Its empirical foundations are truly exceptional… The author makes his case so cogently and marshals his evidence so impressively that it is tempting to conclude he has cracked his 'mystery'.

Niall Ferguson

 

LE MONDE PARIS

A new light on the Third World.

 

THE MONTREAL GAZETTE MONTREAL

If Mystery succeeds in changing Third World and former-Soviet-bloc thinking on the centrality of property rights to economic freedom and development, it might yet become an economic landmark on a par with Adam Smith's famous work.

Lorne Gunter

 

MONEYLINE NEW YORK

[De Soto is] one of the most influential and compelling voices on the economics of developing countries… [I am] fascinated by De Soto's idea that private property is really the basis for propelling emerging countries into prosperity.

Lou Dobbs

 

NATIONAL POSTTORONTO

The Mystery of Capital could be the modern Wealth of Nations…

Lorne Gunter

 

THE NATIONAL REVIEW NEW YORK

This book changes our understanding of where capital comes from. The consequences could be world-shattering.

William F. Buckley, Jr.Founder-Editor

 

NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG ZURICH

The Mystery of Capital is a revolutionary book. It shows that most of the poor are not really poor, but simply incapacitated.

Hans-Gert Braun

 

NEW STATESMAN LONDON

The Mystery of Capital has put him in the pantheon of great progressive intellectuals of our age.

Mark Leonard

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES NEW YORK

His idea is a powerful one. He convincingly argues that lack of legal title has crippled economic development.

Tina Rosenberg

 

LE NOUVELLISTE PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

After Adam Smith and Karl Marx, this is perhaps the most innovative essay on the true nature of capital and its role in the creation of wealth.

Jacky Lumarque

 

THE STANDARD LONDON

Anybody who can make a case that both Smith and Marx were right should either be ignored categorically or listened to very, very carefully.

Alexander Blakely

 

THE SUNDAY TIMES LONDON

The 59-year-old Peruvian economist is being celebrated because, if he is right, he has an answer to one of the most troubling questions facing the world today. More than a decade after the end of the cold war and the collapse of communism, why is it that most of the world is not benefiting from what should have been the triumph of capitalism?

David Smith

 

THE TELEGRAPH LONDON

Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has written an astonishing book called The Mystery of Capital, which makes a bold, new argument about property… The new view of property has lessons for us all.

Matt Ridley

 

THE TIMES LONDON

Remarkable… no less than the blueprint for the new industrial revolution.

Janet Bush

 

THE TIMES OF INDIA NEW DELHI

[The ILD] has won the battle for property rights. All over the Third World, from Thailand to China to Africa and South America, there is widespread awareness that property rights unlock the 'mystery of capital'.

Sauvik Chakraverti

 

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL NEW YORK

Hernando de Soto has a profound message not only for the Marxists but also for capitalists. Mr. de Soto's revolution cuts several different ways.

 

THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON

The Mystery of Capital makes a powerful case… It is an important book.

Michelle Wucker

 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD NEW YORK

De Soto is surely right that simple changes in law have had a dramatic effect on economic behavior.

Michael Novak