Banker to the poor

Banker to the poor: micro-lending and the war against poverty/Muhammad Yunus 258 pg.

This is a recent addition to our downloadable audio collection and who can resist a good econ book? Dr. Yunus was an econ professor in Bangladesh who started thinking about how he could help the poor people who lived near the university where he taught. He went out and interviewed a lot of poor people and discovered that for the lack of about $147 COLLECTIVELY, these people were being held back or forced to pay huge interest to local "money lenders" for things that they needed. A hop and a skip later, he created the Grameen Bank that focused on lending small amounts (micro-loans) to the very poor as a way for them to get equipment or raw materials to start a small business as a way of becoming self sufficient. This book tells the story of how the entire enterprise got started and how it has grown. Frankly, the whole thing is pretty amazing when you consider traditional banking and compare it with what Grameen does. This is an amazing and uplifting story. Since the time of the publication of this book, however, Dr. Yunus seems to have crossed someone in Bangladesh and they are giving him some trouble lately.

I've also read about some economists who are doing work that shows micro-lending is NOT the answer to poverty eradication. One of their arguments is that everyone is not an entrepreneur nor do they want to be so micro-loans don't serve these people. No where in this book did I recall hearing that this was the one an only answer to bringing people out of poverty. Even though I have not read these studies at length, it seems pretty impossible that anyone is presenting ONE solution and claiming that it is the answer to worldwide poverty. Ok, I've got to get off this soap box now or I run the risk of this turning into a Nate length entry.

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