Whether it really threatens to become the next guideline work for widespread international economic fashion or not, some attention to what might be important about it is due. Perhaps the most significant truth de Soto speaks is that capital in not a physical thing. Capital indeed is an informational thing.
Capital is a form of relationship.
This is a point that has been and continues to be lost on far too many not to be appreciated in de Soto. Despite having thus said the right things as doctrine, however, he does then suffer something of the old confusion in comparing economics to physics. But no terribly great matter. The answer to national poverty in poor nations will not be to give such nations increments of money while they cannot capitalize assets within the country. Since the world has acted without the apparent benefit of this understanding for so many years now, de Soto's contribution is substantial.