tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36028082.post3613865359870923686..comments2024-03-22T19:52:46.571+00:00Comments on SOCIALISM OR YOUR MONEY BACK: Micro-banking costs an arm or a legPoetry Coalshedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05514953133244910986noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36028082.post-8569308315418053702013-10-30T03:03:37.880+00:002013-10-30T03:03:37.880+00:00In 2010, Dr Qazi Kholikuzzaman Ahmad, a Bangladesh...In 2010, Dr Qazi Kholikuzzaman Ahmad, a Bangladeshi economist and chairman of a government body that monitors microfinance, described microcredit as a "death trap" for the poor, claiming that the ease with which people can receive credit under the system leads to irresponsible borrowing.<br /><br />Milford Bateman, a consultant on economic development and the author of Why Doesn't Microfinance Work?. Bateman calls microcredit "one of the most damaging interventions of recent times".<br /><br />"Microfinance simply does not work, and never has," he says. "One way of pretending that it does work, however, is to flag up a few successes, stories typically on the websites of the main microfinance institutions. The proposition typically put forward that we can see 'some benefit to some people' so that this must prove that 'microfinance works, though it is not a magic bullet' is absolute tosh. It is akin to Sands Casino highlighting its jackpot winners in order to make the related claim that 'gambling reduces poverty, though it is not a magic bullet, but we must keep sending as many of the poor as possible to our casinos to give them their opportunity.'"<br /><br />The debate comes down to a question of the reliability of the numbers being touted by various microcredit schemes, he adds. "The impact of microfinance has always been negative," Bateman says, citing a 2011 Department for International Development-funded study that raised doubts over its impact. "But it is the political support for microfinance that is crucial to its emergence and survival in spite of all the evidence showing then and since that it does not work."<br /><br />http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/what-did-i-do-wrong-why-the-banker-who-helped-millions-of-bangladeshis-out-of-poverty-became-his-countrys-enemy-number-one-8899838.htmlajohnstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09874891810770297962noreply@blogger.com