Mystery Of Capital

Hernando de Soto is the founder and President of the Institute of Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Lima, Peru, regarded by The Economist as the second most important think-tank in the world. He has also been an economist for GATT (now WTO), CEO of one of Europe's largest engineering firms, and as a governor of Peru's Central Reserve Bank. As President Alberto Fujimori's Personal Representative and Principal Advisor, he initiated Peru's economic reforms and played a leading role in modernizing its economic and political system. In 1993 de Soto drew up and negotiated the strategic plan that reversed Fujimori's coup d'etat and returned the country to electoral democracy. He and ILD are currently working in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America on the practical implementation of the measures for bringing the poor into the economic mainstream introduced in The Mystery of Capital. He was recently listed by Time magazine as one of the five leading Latin American innovators of the twentieth century. His previous book, The Other Path, was published in more than ten languages and was a number one bestseller throughout Latin America.

"'A hugely persuasive and important book, the more so because of the moving simplicity of its central idea'" Daily Telegraph "'A crucial contribution. A new proposal for change that is valid for the whole world'" -- Javier Perez de Cuellar, Ex Sect.General of the UN "'A very great book...powerful and completely convincing'" -- Ronald Coase, Nobel Laureate in Economics "'One of the few new and genuinely promising approaches to overcoming poverty to come in a long time'" -- Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History "'A revolutionary book...if the criterion is a capacity not only to change permanently the way we look at the world, but also to change the world itself, then there are good grounds for thinking that this book is surely a contender...thrillingly subvesive'" -- Donald McIntyre Independent