Serbia readies micro-loan program

I remember a discussion on micro-lending on The News Hour a few years back. One of the participants was a smug, self-satisfied banker who couldn't see the need for a bank to specialize in loans to help the poor start businesses. He was especially confounded by the tendency toward giving most loans to women. The women present (connected in some way to the Yunus project) told him that women spend their profits on their children (while restricting the number of additional children they have), while men spend the money on themselves, so giving the money to women was a better social investment. Watching him splutter in disbelief showed how far bankers can be from real life.

I remember a discussion on micro-lending on The News Hour a few years back. One of the participants was a smug, self-satisfied banker who couldn't see the need for a bank to specialize in loans to help the poor start businesses. He was especially confounded by the tendency toward giving most loans to women. The women present (connected in some way to the Yunus project) told him that women spend their profits on their children (while restricting the number of additional children they have), while men spend the money on themselves, so giving the money to women was a better social investment. Watching him splutter in disbelief showed how far bankers can be from real life.