The Mystery of Capital
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Mystery of Capital
| Full title | The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else |
|---|---|
| Author | Hernando de Soto |
| Published | 2000 |
| Pages | 288 |
| Recommended | 3 times |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Hernando de Soto’s argument that the poor world is not short of assets but short of title — dead capital in unregistered houses and businesses cannot be borrowed against — and that the West’s real invention was the property record, not the market. |
Where I heard about it
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Photographed in June 2019 (Books photo album)
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Replies to @SpencrGreenberg — named in the replies to his question “What non-fiction book taught you the most about how the world (or how humanity or society) really works?”, June 2025. Full list: A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet).
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Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, under Institutions, Property Rights, and the Law, shared March 2026.
Connections
- Hernando de Soto — the author.
- Legibility — the property register as the state making assets visible, here read as the enabling move rather than the destructive one.
- Institutions — the formal property system as the institution that does the work.
- Capital Allocation — an asset you cannot pledge is not capital.
- A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.