Modest loans to world’s poor smarter than shoring up profligate banks

Average Americans, struggling to survive in a disintegrating economy, might be forgiven for assuming that people and institutions who lend, manipulate and otherwise handle other people’s money are greedy, unprincipled wretches.

But there’s a movement afoot that’s far from business as usual. In fact, it’s pretty much the antithesis of mainstream banking practices. It’s microlending — making very small loans easily accessible to the poor. (full article)