Property rights for all!

The Legal Empowerment of the Poor (Hat tip: CIPE Development Blog)

The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto, just released this report on Tuesday. The report looks at creating property rights at the bottom of the economic ladder. From the executive summary:

…[I]t is not the absence of assets or lack of work that holds [the poor] back, but the fact that the assets and work are insecure, unprotected, and far less productive than they might be…In too many countries, the laws, institutions, and policies governing economic, social, and political affairs deny a large part of society the chance to participate on equal terms. 

Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia (Hat tip: Johnson’s Russia List)

On a very different note, author Marshall Goldman discusses his recent book on energy politics in Russia at an event today at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The book promises an interesting read on the corrosion of property rights at the top of the economic ladder. From the description:

The book provides an informative overview of oil in Russia, traces Vladimir Putin's determined effort to reign in the upstart oil oligarchs who had risen to power in the post-Soviet era, and describes Putin's efforts to renationalize and refashion Russia's industries into state companies and his vaunted "national champions" corporations like Gazprom, largely owned by the state, who do the bidding of the state.