Even though that great pastoral era is a thing of the past, the loss now of Toorale, considered the region's most productive livestock and crop property, is another symbolic turning point.

ECONOMIST: A land of drought

Finance gushed into property and consumption rather than productive investment.

ECONOMIST: Egypt's economic misfortunes, miseries and mistakes

The vast tax subsidies for housing encourage over-investment in property rather than other, more productive, assets.

ECONOMIST: Tax reform

The declining profitability of Hong Kong property is pushing local property developers to find new businesses - productive ways to use financial strength.

CNN: Change Is in the Air

As De Soto has said, one of the biggest political challenges facing developing countries is to bring the assets of the extralegal sector into a more inclusive legal property system in which they can become more productive and generate capital for their owners.

FORBES: Making Business Work for the Poor

He reckons that privatisation, which is a transfer of property rights, is not only meaningless but positively counter-productive in a system that has not yet defined these rights adequately.

ECONOMIST: The longer march

Property ownership creates a desire to look forward, to live, to be productive and act accordingly.

FORBES: China potential