Product Description: A new edition of the New York Times Bestseller by the Nobel Peace Prize-winner.
This autobiography of Nobel Peace Prizewinner Muhammad Yunus spent ten weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and was also a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Now repackaged in the spirit of his new book, Creating a World Without Poverty, this classic work on the birth of microfinance will contain excerpts from the new book.
Amazon.com Review: It began with a simple $27 loan. After witnessing the cycle of poverty that kept many poor women enslaved to high-interest loan sharks in Bangladesh, Dr. Muhammad Yunus lent money to 42 women so they could purchase bamboo to make and sell stools. In a short time, the women were able to repay the loans while continuing to support themselves and their families. With that initial eye-opening success, the seeds of the Grameen Bank, and the concept of microcredit, were planted.
After earning a Ph.D. in economics at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Yunus returned to Bangladesh to settle into a life as a professor. But a famine in 1974 ravaged the country, leading Dr. Yunus to alter his thinking and his life profoundly: "What good were all my complex theories when people were dying of starvation on the sidewalks and porches across from my lecture hall?.... Nothing in the economic theories I taught reflected the life around me." Armed with little more than a lofty dream to end the suffering around him, he started an experimental microcredit enterprise in 1977; by 1983 the Grameen Bank was officially formed.
The idea behind the Grameen Bank is ingeniously simple: extend credit to poor people and they will help themselves. This concept strikes at the root of poverty by specifically targeting the poorest of the poor, providing small loans (usually less than $300) to those unable to obtain credit from traditional banks. At Grameen, loans are administered to groups of five people, with only two receiving their money up front. As soon as these two make a few regular payments, loans are gradually extended to the rest of the group. In this way, the program builds a sense of community as well as individual self-reliance. Most of the Grameen Bank's loans are to women, and since its inception, there has been an astonishing loan repayment rate of over 98 percent.
Banker to the Poor is an inspiring memoir of the birth of microcredit, written in a conversational tone that makes it both moving and enjoyable to read. The Grameen Bank is now a $2.5 billion banking enterprise in Bangladesh, while the microcredit model has spread to over 50 countries worldwide, from the U.S. to Papua New Guinea, Norway to Nepal. Ever optimistic, Yunus travels the globe spreading the belief that poverty can be eliminated: "...the poor, once economically empowered, are the most determined fighters in the battle to solve the population problem; end illiteracy; and live healthier, better lives. When policy makers finally realize that the poor are their partners, rather than bystanders or enemies, we will progress much faster that we do today." Dr. Yunus's efforts prove that hope is a global currency. --Shawn Carkonen
Customer Reviews
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Rating: - Mitch Hiatt's Review of Yunus' Banker to the Poor
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R9DQ0HQRQAFU Mitch Hiatt's review was made as part of a critical review assignment for the Fall 2008 Economics of Entrepreneurship seminar at the University ... Read More
Rating: - A book about poverty and Triumph
This books shows us that the lack of access to credit for the poorest of the poor is possibly as bad as lack of food. Without some access to credit they have absolutely no chance to ever get out of the revolving ... Read More
Rating: - Great Way to give a Hand Up
On a recent flight, I read an outstanding book called Banker to the Poor Microlending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus. Muhammad taught economics at the University of Bangladesh and saw the poverty ... Read More
Rating: - banker to the poor
A well written book about how Yunus successfully lent money to impoverished people in Bangladesh and, in so doing, empowered them to create better lives for themselves. The pages echo Yunus's faith in the human spirit, ... Read More
Rating: - Banker to the Poor
Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
This is a life changing book! This book will change the way that you think about poverty and how to end it. In this book, Professor Yunus tells ... Read More
- Mitch Hiatt's Review of Yunus' Banker to the Poor
- A book about poverty and Triumph
- banker to the poor