[sagman]

I never understood what motivated Nobel Committee to give him a Nobel for Peace. If it was economics I would understand. Grameen Bank and its insane interest rates are well known for making poor debtors commit suicide. Since there is no credit system in Bangladesh, they relied on social pressure to make debtors pay off the loan, by making the debtors family/ neighbors not credit worthy if debtor fails to pay off the loan. It works great until it doesn't. And this whole thing of high interest rate loan is not new in the region.

I never heard good things about Yunus outside the "intellectual" circles in Bangladesh. And outside Bangladesh he seems to be the savior of the country, with a big presence in the elite circles of the west. I do not know if he actually committed the crimes he is convicted for, but I would not be surprised if he did do that. Every businesses do that back there.

[felixg3]

A good read on the issue presented by sagman is Financializing Poverty Labor and Risk in Indian Microfinance by Sohini Kar. Although focussing on India, the book does a great job at underlining the issues with microfinance. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503605893