Word: micros
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...because he was born and educated in privilege in England; by virtue of his family background, he is simply not a man of the people. Although Thaksin is a wealthy telecoms tycoon and his cohorts have been linked with various abuses of power including vote-buying, his party's micro-financing and health-care initiatives resonated with the poor, who felt like these politicians were finally addressing their concerns...
...goes the trickle-down theory. It turns out, though, that the spreading of global financial pain is far from simple. The microfinance industry, for instance, may be resistant to some of the volatility now plaguing financial markets. That's because those who borrow in small amounts from micro lenders often work on projects unaffected by large-scale global banking travails. Recent studies have confirmed the robust reliability of borrowers at the bottom end of the global income scale. The world's poorest are affected, though, by commodity price volatility and fluctuating food and fuel costs. Mary Ellen Iskenderian...
...like the choice between paying back their loans or putting dinner on the table for their families. Microfinance doesn't target the poorest of the poor, as they need other types of intervention. It targets the economically active poor at the bottom of the pyramid. There are signs that micro-entrepreneurs will see higher interest rates, since the global credit crunch will likely require MFIs to raise interest rates as funding becomes more scarce. I am particularly concerned about the ramifications for women since, for many poor women around the world who are otherwise excluded from formal financial systems, access...
...TIME: What prompted the development of a financial instrument like micro-insurance, and what's the broader impact of new financial instruments aimed at the world's unbanked...
...industry to continue to innovate and evolve. One of the most significant changes has been the move from group to individual lending - an area that Women's World Banking, an international network of microfinance institutions and banks, has helped pioneer. Individual lending is a way to allow micro businesses to start to grow, providing larger, cash-flow based loans than the group might be comfortable counter-guaranteeing. Group lending, where large groups of borrowers are jointly responsible for making sure loans are repaid, is an excellent introduction to finance for micro-entrepreneurs, but the businesses tend to remain quite small...