There is nothing you can do about a things in the past.
What is a thngs?
Is credit eternal truth?

This system works in poverty stricken places because the need of survival is great. Also in this system, the loans are awarded to groups of women – (especially in Asia where saving face plays an importance in society) one would imagine why payback of the loan taken would be honored. The pressures from their peers would be amazing.
This is because no one else in the group would be able to take a loan, and the defaulter would given a hard time within the group.

Astounding, a ninty five percent repayment rate in rural poverty stricken India. It would be interesting to learn of the repayment rate a year from now in the Queens, New York microcredit program. Please keep us posted as to the progress of this.

Not very sure if this would work out in the US. The philosophy of life in a society is different in the west as compared to the East; particularly in India. Irrespective of the money behind oneself; there is a social obligation that each person has. It could take a few pages to explain what I said but Relitsa having seen the place would be able to understand what I say.

It would be interesting to know what the repayment rate was in the USA when times were still good. i.e before the current financial crisis. What would the western borrowers learn from these 'poor' people from India?

people in true need get a chance through microcredits. many of the credit scenarios today are by those whose main need may be greed.....

you are comparing a village women of third world with new york women

You see it takes heart and not status to be achieving humanism. It is time for the scholars to put down their cloaks of titles away, get down their chairs (if they are intelligent as their titles say) and start going forward to the needy with such simple methods as of M. Yunus. Learning from the poor (how to be rich) hospitality, patience, truthfullness, how not to be greedy, how to be satisfied...., which the scholars have failed to learn from all those books! In terms of money, we have seen enough examples where even the most greedy could not take even his body what more his penny! In Switzerland the scholars have created a very knackful system starting from the high school to be able to keep their people in position! This is our world now!

The key to any loan, regardless of size, is that the recipient ends up with something being accomplished or created as a result. A sense of personal "equity" and pride gets instilled within the individual in the outcome that the loan facilitated. Gratitude, rather than entitlement, is the only prerequisite for success.

This idea of helping poverty-stricken areas such as Bangalore is an ingenious idea that comes with alot of risk but the higher the risk the higher the return. This strategy by mohammmed yunus would be alot more difficult to implement in the US, but I wish him well.

The answer lies in the basic difference between corporate financing and the Grahmeen style of banking. Grahmeen gives small loans to groups of people – who are as a total group responsible to repay their loans should anyone in their run into default, whereas, in corporate banking, it is the sole responsibility of the person who takes the loan.
In addition, the interest charged by Grahmeen is lower than that charged by corporate banks. This is wherein the term – GREED applies.

Ralitsa,

Thank you for sharing the story of your personal experience with Grameen Bank and its innovative new program in Queens. It is initiatives like these that need to be held up as examples in our turbulent times to show the people in the world that there is hope and that the only way out of this mess is through innovation, entrepreneurship, and social responsibility.

Microcredits work as they are for those truely in need. The credit crisis we face now is a result of the need for greed among too many of us....