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Banker to the Poor: The Story of the Grameen Bank
by: Mohammad Yunus, Alan Jolis

List Price: £8.99

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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.31092
EAN: 9781854109248
ISBN: 1854109243
Label: Aurum Press Ltd
Manufacturer: Aurum Press Ltd
Number Of Pages: 338
Publication Date: July 11, 2003
Publisher: Aurum Press Ltd
Studio: Aurum Press Ltd
Sales Rank: 22928

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
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

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Yunus The Man - Yunus The Myth Buster

This is a fascinating book about a fascinating man. Read though if you want to understand about what made this man great not whether micro loans really are the best way to assist the poor in mainly third world countries. We all know that it is usually what's not in an autobiography that is really worth knowing not what has been included. This book contains no mention of the critics of micro loans or any of its disadvantages. It gives the reader the view that micro loans are the answer to eradicating world poverty. It may be an important part of the answer but it clearly doesn't stand alone in the fight today to make sure everyone enjoys at least a reasonable standard of living.
Yunus exposed the banking myth that only loans to the ... Read More:

Rating:

- Inspiring, but reality is not that simple
This is the book that made me want to know more about microfinance, I found it very inspiring and Dr Yunus became my personal hero.
I then learned more about microfinance, talked to senior microfinance experts, and even though microfinance is indeed a powerfull tool to fight poverty, it is not the panacea it sometimes claims to be.

Microfinance can have a negative impact on social fabric, increasing tensions inside communities, it can also be used by governments of developping countries as a way to privatise social welfare, typically after massive lay-offs from the private sector(why spend public money on unemployment benefits, minimum wage, let's bring microfinance instead to help the poor..).
I don't mean to sound cynical ... Read More:

Rating:

- Illuminating saga of Nobel-winning microcredit hero
In 1974, while Muhammad Yunus was teaching economics in Bangladesh, the country was ravaged by famine. Increasingly uncomfortable teaching abstract theories while starving people shuffled by outside his classroom, Yunus realized his economic education was incomplete. To complete it, he went to local villages to "learn from the poor" about what they actually needed rather than what a textbook said they should have. The answer was credit, so Yunus founded a bank to provide it - Grameen Bank. The name means the "bank of the village." Today, Yunus is a Nobel Peace Price winner and Grameen Bank has extended credit to more than 2.6 million people. This down-to-earth, unsentimental autobiography recounts what inspired him, the obstacles he overcame and the ... Read More:

Rating:

- more stars, please - around 20?
What can you say about a man who has changed the world for over 2 million people? Not single-handedly, because his bank had 12,000 employees when he wrote this book, and there are other banks now, that follow the same model - but he was the one who started it all.

If you've ever noticed that your bank only wants to give you money if you don't need it - here's how the other kind of bank would look.

He's an egalitarian Muslim, and he does his best thinking with the T.V. on. I've been waiting a long time for a super-hero with respect for the idiot box.

This is a really hopeful book. It doesn't have all the answers, but it has a bunch of fascinating questions to take down the pub with you. Read it, lend it, review it - stick ... Read More:

Rating:

- More stars, please - around 20?
What can you say about a man who has changed the world for over 2 million people? Not single-handedly, because his bank had 12,000 employees when he wrote this book, and there are other banks now, that follow the same model - but he was the one who started it all.

If you've ever noticed that your bank only wants to give you money if you don't need it - here's how the other kind of bank would look.

He's an egalitarian Muslim, and he does his best thinking with the T.V. on. I've been waiting a long time for a super-hero with respect for the idiot box.

This is a really hopeful book. It doesn't have all the answers, but it has a bunch of fascinating questions to take down the pub with you. Read it, lend it, review it - stick ... Read More:

Books : Banker to the Poor: The Story of the Grameen Bank