awhile back, one of my former colleagues presented a paper on microcredit. (He actually did it twice, once when he started and once to get tenure. Our standards were lower then.) One thing I noticed (both times!) was that microcredit replaces the usual collateral requirement with social pressure: if you don't pay your debts, your community gets on your case. This seems apt to tear communities apart, (in?)advertently helping the atomization of social life that neoliberalism prefers.
On 6/1/07, Daniel Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Could I have the paper please Patrick? I've been suspicious of Yunus for a long time, ever since that great Heather Boushey article in Left Business Observer. I notice that these days most "Microcredit" loans are for amounts around $500-1000, which really isn't a micro credit at all. best dd PS: sorry Michael, I am presumably being an idiot again but I really couldn't see Patrick's email address. Mine is [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- *From:* PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of *Patrick Bond *Sent:* 02 June 2007 00:36 *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Announcing Muhammad Yunus' Candidacy to Head the World Bank Robert Naiman wrote: Announcing Muhammad Yunus' Candidacy to Head the World Bank Hotlist by Robert Naiman Fri Jun 01, 2007 at 09:43:04 AM PDT http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/1/123630/4493 (with poll) No thanks, comrade Robert... International Journal of Health Services <http://baywood.metapress.com/app/home/journal.asp?referrer=searchresults&id=300313&backto=searcharticlesresults,11,53;> Issue: Volume 37, Number 2 / 2007 <http://baywood.metapress.com/app/home/issue.asp?referrer=searchresults&id=Q27L32T00T58&backto=searcharticlesresults,11,53;> Pages: 229 - 249 *URL:* Linking Options<http://baywood.metapress.com/app/home/linking.asp?referrer=linking&target=contribution&id=9160Q66727253412&backto=contribution,1,1;searcharticlesresults,11,53;> *Microcredit Evangelism, Health, and Social Policy* *Abstract:* The awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, provides an opportunity to consider the use and abuse of microfinancing, especially because credit continues to be touted as a poverty-reduction strategy associated with health education and health care financing strategies. Not only is the Grameen diagnosis of poverty dubious, but many structural problems also plague the model, ranging from financial accounting to market failures. In Southern Africa, to illustrate, microcredit schemes for peasants and small farmers have been attempted for more than 70 years, on the basis that modern capitalism and peasant/informal system gaps can be bridged by an expanded financial system. The results have been disappointing. A critical reading of political economy posits an organic linkage between the "developed" and "underdeveloped" economies that is typically not mitigated by capitalist financial markets, but instead is often exacerbated. When applied to health and social policy, microcredit evangelism becomes especially dangerous. (full is available offlist from [EMAIL PROTECTED])
-- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
