While we can argue forever about the causes of conflict in the Middle East, it is impossible to ignore the impact of American foreign policy on what’s happening in Europe.The Iraq invasion (which could reasonably be described as “largely America’s responsibility”) unleashed a period of instability and competition in the region that is collapsing states and fueling sectarian conflict.
In the forests of India, something exciting is going on. Villagers are regaining property taken from them when the British colonial authorities nationalized their forests. Just as exciting, in urban Kenya and elsewhere, people are doing away with the need for banks by exchanging and saving their money digitally. All over the world, poor people are discovering the blessings of bottom-up capitalism.
Hernando de Soto, the famous Peruvian economist and author of the book The Mystery of Capital, asserts that no nation can have a strong market economy without adequate participation in an information framework that records ownership of property and other economic information.
World renowned Peruvian singer Pedro Suárez-Vértiz has dedicated a whole chapter in his recent book, 'Yo Pedro: Mi Vida, Mi Música, Primeras historias' to ILD's Hernando De Soto.The chapter is titled, ‘Una conversacion de altura’ and in it he talks about his personal encounters with De Soto on an airplane and singing at his birthday party. Suárez-Vértiz recalls his positive impressions and talks about the global influence of De Soto.
Piketty worries about wars in the future and suggests that they will come about in the form of a rebellion against the inequities of capital. Perhaps he hasn’t noticed that the wars over capital have already begun right under Europe’s nose in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Had he not missed these events, he would have seen that these are not uprisings against capital, as his thesis claims, but for capital.
ILD's President Hernando de Soto was the main speaker at a conference on August 21st, 2015 at the Peruvian Armed Forces Joint College in the Chorillos district of Lima. The theme of the conference was Peru's property, sovereignty and national security. The Attendees included military leaders, students and foreign/local dignitaries from several embassies in Lima. During the speech De Soto brought up the successful defeat of the Shining Path.
On August 18, 2015, ILD's Hernando de Soto met with the Peruvian Minister of Defense Jakke Valakivi, and Ronald Hurtado the Commander General of the Peruvian Armed Forces at their headquarters in Lima. At the meeting, which was attended by the press, the two spoke about the upcoming conference at the Joint College of the Armed Forces, where De Soto is the main speaker at a conference.
One of the challenges facing the Buhari administration is widespread poverty across the land. The situation appears to have been worsened by the failure of successive governments to implement effective poverty alleviation measures.
Every year, on July 28, Peru’s Fiestas Patrias celebrates the country’s independence. In light of the historic day, here are just five facts that you may not have known. What would you add to the list?
Hernando de Soto, one of the minds behind Peru's 20 years of economic ascendancy, was one of the first economists to notice the direct correlation between rather simple legal systems and high economic development and social inclusion.
There is a famous economist named [Hernando] de Soto who did some studies on Libya. I contacted him as early as 2003 out of research interest to talk about to how an informal economy can be changed into a formal economy, how it is that we have a 1.750 million square kilometres in Libya and yet how much of that can be collateralised to guarantee loans for young people, for example. It’s less than .00001 percent because there is no land registry, no clear title, and no way of valuing, no credit bureau that can give credit worthiness reports.
I certainly picked the brains of everyone who would tolerate me and the topics were broad. Everything from encoding personal identity and property rights into the blockchain to making elections transparent. Hernando de Soto was a standout. His book The Mystery of Capital was most talked about. Bill Tai loaned me his copy to read on the beach while I was there.
Like many Western academics on a tight budget when faced with poor and nonsensical statistics outside Western nations, Piketty takes European indicators and extrapolates them on to such countries to draw global conclusions. This ignores the fact that 90 percent of the world population lives in developing countries and former Soviet states, whose inhabitants produce and hold their capital in the informal sector, that is to say, outside of official statistics.
27th July 2015/ Saul Elbein
De Soto argued that Peru’s terrible land rights record has created an opening for the radical left: “Call me a useful idiot,” he told El Comercio, but the government has to give ground if it wants mining investment to continue. “It’s a problem of property, of who the land belongs to.”
The ILD and Former Terrorists agree that Property Rights are Fundamental for a solution to the Mining Conflict
The ILD and former members of the Shining Path continue to make headlines with recent meetings, 25 years after the height of the former radical communist movement that led to all out warfare in Peru. In a symbolic event held on July 17th, 2015 the ILD, led by ILD's Hernando de Soto became the first group of outsiders in the last 40 years to debate members of the former Shining Path at the birthplace of the communist movement, San Cristóbal of Huamanga University.