The Value of Property Rights

In this forum on the global economic crisis Hernando de Soto (a Peruvian economist) makes the point that one of the principal causes of this crisis is a lack of clarity in terms of property rights. From what I understand of de Soto's argument the problem with the trading in dodgy loans is that no one actually knows who "owns" the debt or how many times its been packaged and resold, so there is no correspondence between property and the pieces of paper that have been traded. de Soto and the other panelists (Naomi Klein and Joseph Stiglitz) then discuss examples of property rights issues including those from the third world where a lack of clarity in terms of who owns what has led to some of the poorest people being thrown off there land in all sorts of different circumstances (including immediately after the tsunami of 2004). We might then see how the framing of the global warming issue that George Lakoff gives toward the end of the video posted below can be seen as granting everyone property rights over the air. Those who put carbon into it must then pay us, as the owners of the air, for the right to do so. Download the audio here.