New Yorker article on microfinance and Yunnus

by on October 24, 2006 at 3:45 pm in Economics | Permalink

Here is the link.  The second half of the article is more interesting than the first; here is one short bit:

Omidyar and his colleagues say that the biggest obstacle to
commercialization of the sector is philanthropic capital. They say that
it distorts the market–not only by filling channels that might
otherwise draw commercial investors but also by keeping unsustainable
programs alive.

josh October 24, 2006 at 6:18 pm

I suspected as much about philanthropy.

X. Trapnel October 25, 2006 at 10:03 am

Did anyone actually find Omidyar’s position appealing, based on the article? I’m sure one could have framed it in a way that would be more favorable to him, but based purely on that article, I found it hard to be sympathetic. The poverty-relief donors mentioned, for example, were hardly looking to dump money into programs that didn’t get results; the Gates money, as I recall, only got committed after a year of study and evaluation. Profit’s fine, but this guy struck me as Randroid in his zeal.

ShakespearesFool October 25, 2006 at 8:47 pm

For Yunus, The Nobel Committee, and all donors to microcredit:

That use is not forbidden usury,
Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
—William Shakespeare

Then, beauteous miser, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give?
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?

For having traffic with thyself alone,
Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive.
Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone,
What acceptable audit canst thou leave?
—William Shakespeare

Merinrs October 31, 2006 at 8:00 am

Preved Medvedi!

muhabbet July 25, 2009 at 8:22 am

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