The Micromagic of Microcredit

Abstract

Microcredit has star power. In 2006, the Nobel Committee called it an important liberating force and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus, the godfather of The actress Natalie Portman is a believer too; she advocates support for the Village Banking Campaign on its MySpace page. The end of poverty is just a mouse click away she promises. A button on the site swiftly redirects you to paypal.com, where | you can make a contribution to microcredit initiatives. | After decades of failure, the world's aid organizations | seem to think they have at last found a winning idea. The j United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared that providing microloans to help poor people launch small businesses recognizes that they are the solution, not the problem. It is a way to build on their ideas, energy, and vision. It is a way to grow productive enter| prises, and so allow communities to prosper | Many investors agree. Hundreds of millions of dol|