ABSTRACT
From a series of interviews and case studies of unlicensed local trade and vendors, De Soto concludes that poor people already have a substantial amount of assets, more even than the values of the stock exchange and international financial institutions combined.1 However, non-Western peoples have been unable to use their assets-mostly labor and resources-to the fullest efficiency because of government regulations such as fees, permits, oversight, and licensing, which curtail capital investment incentives by limiting access.2 Insisting that the problem of poverty is caused by too much public control, De Soto’s main contention is that developing nations need an integrated property system that standardizes representations of value and minimizes the public’s role in “fine-tuning” the
economy, thus allowing all people equally and democratically to realize the potential of their capital.
