Idaho Home Loans

Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

Description

A new edition of the New York Times Bestseller by the Nobel Peace Prize-winner.

This autobiography of Nobel Peace Prizewinner Muhammad Yunus spent ten weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and was also a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Now repackaged in the spirit of his new book, Creating a World Without Poverty, this classic work on the birth of microfinance will contain excerpts from the new book.

It began with a simple $27 loan. After witnessing the cycle of poverty that kept many poor women enslaved to high-interest loan sharks in Bangladesh, Dr. Muhammad Yunus lent money to 42 women so they could purchase bamboo to make and sell stools. In a short time, the women were able to repay the loans while continuing to support themselves and their families. With that initial eye-opening success, the seeds of the Grameen Bank, and the concept of microcredit, were planted.

After earning a Ph.D. in economics at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Yunus returned to Bangladesh to settle into a life as a professor. But a famine in 1974 ravaged the country, leading Dr. Yunus to alter his thinking and his life profoundly: "What good were all my complex theories when people were dying of starvation on the sidewalks and porches across from my lecture hall?.... Nothing in the economic theories I taught reflected the life around me." Armed with little more than a lofty dream to end the suffering around him, he started an experimental microcredit enterprise in 1977; by 1983 the Grameen Bank was officially formed.

The idea behind the Grameen Bank is ingeniously simple: extend credit to poor people and they will help themselves. This concept strikes at the root of poverty by specifically targeting the poorest of the poor, providing small loans (usually less than $300) to those unable to obtain credit from traditional banks. At Grameen, loans are administered to groups of five people, with only two receiving their money up front. As soon as these two make a few regular payments, loans are gradually extended to the rest of the group. In this way, the program builds a sense of community as well as individual self-reliance. Most of the Grameen Bank's loans are to women, and since its inception, there has been an astonishing loan repayment rate of over 98 percent.

Banker to the Poor is an inspiring memoir of the birth of microcredit, written in a conversational tone that makes it both moving and enjoyable to read. The Grameen Bank is now a $2.5 billion banking enterprise in Bangladesh, while the microcredit model has spread to over 50 countries worldwide, from the U.S. to Papua New Guinea, Norway to Nepal. Ever optimistic, Yunus travels the globe spreading the belief that poverty can be eliminated: "...the poor, once economically empowered, are the most determined fighters in the battle to solve the population problem; end illiteracy; and live healthier, better lives. When policy makers finally realize that the poor are their partners, rather than bystanders or enemies, we will progress much faster that we do today." Dr. Yunus's efforts prove that hope is a global currency. --Shawn Carkonen

Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-06-09
Summary: "Banking on the Poor"

It is quite sad that Yunis discovered that extreme poverty in Bangladesh can be helped for as few as twenty seven dollars American and his work within Bangladesh should serve as a beacon of hope to others seeking to fight back against the poverty monster. I enjoyed this read very much but couldn't give it the full five stars because I didn't feel like there where enough personal success stories that illustrated the viability of micro lending to the poor. Instead Yunis explains we lent x amount of money to y person and there able to do z now. Personal testimonials would've made for a powerful statement of the Grameen Bank programs rather than just explaining from Yunis.

A second thought is if these programs have met for so much success how come they haven't been exported in mass throughout the world ? Much of the book focuses on poorer rural areas like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, even several counties in the state of Arkansas in the United States. Are these programs ineffective in urban areas because of socio-economic factors? I currently live in a city of a 150,000 thousand people that may benefit from programs that Yunis is talking about, but yet there is scant evidence of implementation within inner cities. With economies crashing throughout the world, the impoverished cannot just be assumed to live in rural areas anymore. If we are to take Yunis ideas for battling world poverty seriously, these ideas have to be increasingly applied in inner cities.

---

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-04-16
Summary: "GREAT READ!"

My book club chose this book, and I anticipated it would be dry, academic and not particularly interesting. To my surprise and delight, it was a wonderful, exciting story of a dream fulfilled and people of no means given a chance for real success. I loved it.

---

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-03-16
Summary: "Intelligent Charity"

Mohammad Yunus wasn't satisfied with the type of charity so common in today's world: throw money at the problem, feel good about ourselves, and move along quickly so we don't have to see the fact that our actions may have only made the problem worse.

Yunus's microcredit approach is about empowerment, not dependency. Small loans to the extremely poor enabled recipients to purchase weaving looms, material to make baskets, or carts to sell food. His greatest revelation was that the extremely poor were not incapable societal parasites. Rather, with a small amount of capital to get on their feet, these individuals created innovative businesses that ultimately supported themselves, their families, and education for their children.

The most interesting discovery is that the payback rate for the loans was higher than 98%--much better than the credit-worthy borrowers that normally attract the attention of the banks.

Yunus's ideas were inspiring. With his economics background, he emphasized that measurable results were more important than good intentions.

---

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-12-25
Summary: "Trusting the poorest of the poor"

The author defies all the commonsense reasoning of the affluent western world. He totally trusted the poorest of the poor to keep their word and pay their bills on time and to the amazement of the entire world they did.

---

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-10-27
Summary: "Great read, very inspiring!"

The story of the Grameen Bank is absolutely one of the best I have ever heard. Here is an actual solution to end poverty everywhere in the world that has worked already. I could not have been more excited after reading this book that we finally have the means to end poverty once and for all! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to actually get out there and do something!