Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Feb 10/09

Not much stitching going on because I have been busy trying to read and digest 3 books on Muhammad Yunus and his microcredit organization Grameen. I do not understand much about economics and how capital works, but it is a very interesting and long overdue idea to focus on the bottom half of the poor to stimulate economic activity. According to Yunus, Bangladesh should be able to meet its UN Millennium Development Goal of decreasing poverty by 50% by 2015 with its current rate of development. By extending capital through credit in the form of small loans, Grameen has been able to free so many people from the crushing cycle of exorbitant interest rates when they were able to borrow money and to allow them to develop their own economic activity instead of it being a top down activity like so many aid programs.

Well, back to the books. They are on loan from other universities and due back later on this week!

No comments: