Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic

Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic
Author: Hugh Sinclair
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2012-07-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1609945182

Microfinance insider Hugh Sinclair weaves a shocking tale of an industry focused on maximizing profits and plagued by predatory lending practices, scandals, cover-ups and corruption.

Small Money Big Impact

Small Money Big Impact
Author: Peter A. Fanconi
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2017-05-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119338204

Make your money make a difference—and enjoy attractive returns Small Money, Big Impact explores and explains the globally growing importance of impact investing. Today, the investor's perspective has become as important as the actual social impact. Based on their experience with over 25 million micro borrowers, the authors delve into the mechanics, considerations, data and strategies that make microloans and impact investing an attractive asset class. From the World Bank to the individual investor, impact investing is attracting more and more attention. Impact investing is a global megatrend and is reshaping the way people invest as pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, family offices and private investors jump on board. This book explains for the first time how it works, why it works and what you should know if you're ready to help change the world. Impact investing has proven over the last 20 years as the first-line offense against crushing poverty. Over two billion people still lack access to basic financial services, which are essential for improving their livelihood. Investors have experienced not only social and environmental impact, but have received attractive, stable and uncorrelated returns for over 15 years. This guide provides the latest insights and methodologies that help you reap the rewards of investing in humanity. Explore the global impact investing phenomenon Learn how microloans work, and how they make a difference Discover why investors are increasingly leaning into impact investing Consider the factors that inform impact investing decisions Part social movement and part financial strategy, impact investing offers the unique opportunity for investors to power tremendous change with a small amount of money— expanding their portfolios as they expand their own global impact. Microfinance allows investors at any level to step in where banks refuse to tread, offering opportunity to those who need it most. Small Money, Big Impact provides the expert guidance you need to optimize the impact on your portfolio and the world.

Confessions of a Bible Thumper

Confessions of a Bible Thumper
Author: Michael Camp
Publisher: Engage Faith
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2012-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781936672271

What happens when a devout religious conservative questions his own evangelical traditions using the Socratic principle, and follows where the evidence leads? ... This brutally honest personal pilgrimage challenges and encourages readers to rethink all things sacred and embrace a faith full of grace and reason.

Microfinance Institutions

Microfinance Institutions
Author: R. Mersland
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2015-12-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 113739966X

Research on MFI performance is still in its infancy. MFIs are hybrid organizations with dual objectives. Performance studies in microfinance are therefore less straightforward compared to performance studies in traditional banking research. This book contains new MFI performance research by top scholars from across the globe.

A World of Three Zeros

A World of Three Zeros
Author: Muhammad Yunus
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2017-09-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1610397584

A winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and bestselling author of Banker to the Poor offers his vision of an emerging new economic system that can save humankind and the planet Muhammad Yunus, who created microcredit, invented social business, and earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in alleviating poverty, is one of today's most trenchant social critics. Now he declares it's time to admit that the capitalist engine is broken -- that in its current form it inevitably leads to rampant inequality, massive unemployment, and environmental destruction. We need a new economic system that unleashes altruism as a creative force just as powerful as self-interest. Is this a pipe dream? Not at all. In the last decade, thousands of people and organizations have already embraced Yunus's vision of a new form of capitalism, launching innovative social businesses designed to serve human needs rather than accumulate wealth. They are bringing solar energy to millions of homes in Bangladesh; turning thousands of unemployed young people into entrepreneurs through equity investments; financing female-owned businesses in cities across the United States; bringing mobility, shelter, and other services to the rural poor in France; and creating a global support network to help young entrepreneurs launch their start-ups. In A World of Three Zeros, Yunus describes the new civilization emerging from the economic experiments his work has helped to inspire. He explains how global companies like McCain, Renault, Essilor, and Danone got involved with this new economic model through their own social action groups, describes the ingenious new financial tools now funding social businesses, and sketches the legal and regulatory changes needed to jumpstart the next wave of socially driven innovations. And he invites young people, business and political leaders, and ordinary citizens to join the movement and help create the better world we all dream of.

Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic

Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic
Author: Hugh Sinclair
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2012-07-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1609945204

This memoir by a microfinance insider “is essential reading for anyone interested in development economics, a disturbing and yet ultimately hopeful exposé” (John Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman). This is the account of a microfinance true believer whose decade in the industry turned him into a heretic. Working with several microfinance institutions around the world, Hugh Sinclair realized that the $70 billion industry wasn’t doing much to help the people it claimed to serve. In fact, exorbitant interest rates led borrowers into never-ending debt spirals, and aggressive collection practices resulted in cases of forced prostitution, child labor, suicide, and nationwide revolts against the microfinance community. Sinclair weaves a shocking tale of a system increasingly focused on maximizing profits—particularly once large banks got involved. He details his discovery of several scandals, one of the most disturbing involving a large African microfinance institution of questionable legality that charged interest rates in excess of one hundred percent per year and whose investors and supporters included some of the most celebrated leaders of the microfinance sector. Sinclair’s objections were first met with silence, then threats, attempted bribery, and a court case, and eventually led him to become a principal whistleblower in a sector that had lost its soul. Microfinance can work—Sinclair describes moving experiences with several ethical and effective organizations and explains what made them different. But without the fundamental reforms that Sinclair recommends here, microfinance will remain an “investment opportunity” that will leave the poor with hollow promises and empty pockets.

Chile: The Carretera Austral

Chile: The Carretera Austral
Author: Hugh Sinclair
Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2015-12-18
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1784770035

Chile: Carretera Austral Travel Guide - Travel advice and expert holiday tips featuring Ruta 7 and Coyhaique highlights, natural history and wildlife. This guide also covers suggested itineraries and tour operators, driving and hiking, Caleta Tortel, Villa O'Higgins, Puerto Montt, national parks like Queulat, Hornopirén and Laguna San Rafael.

The Political Economy of Microfinance

The Political Economy of Microfinance
Author: Philip Mader
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2016-01-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137364211

According to the author, rather than alleviating poverty, microfinance financialises poverty. By indebting poor people in the Global South, it drives financial expansion and opens new lands of opportunity for the crisis-ridden global capital markets. This book raises fundamental concerns about this widely-celebrated tool for social development.

The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty

The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty
Author: David Brady
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 937
Release: 2016
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199914052

The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty builds a common scholarly ground in the study of poverty by bringing together an international, inter-disciplinary group of scholars to provide their perspectives on the issue. Contributors engage in discussions about the leading theories and conceptual debates regarding poverty, the most salient topics in poverty research, and the far-reaching consequences of poverty on the individual and societal level.