At 01:00 PM 8/13/98 -0400, Susan Fleck wrote: >...The Grameen Bank, founded by an academic in Bangladesh, mentioned in a >previous post, focuses on very small loans (equivalent of 25-100 >dollars) to self-employed individuals (many of whom are women) to >establish/expand their 'informal sector' businesses. They can borrow, >because their 'collateral' is social collateral based on their group >participation. If they default, the group owes the money, so there is >social pressure to repay. Isn't this a lot like the "collective punishment" meted out on peasants by the old Chinese empire or on Palestinians by Israel? in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
