Your Humble Blogger can’t honestly praise the speech very highly as a work of craft, but then Mohammad Yunus is not primarily a speechwriter, and I suspect he wrote a good deal of this one himself. After all, it’s not every day a fellow wins the Nobel Prize for Peace. Still, his acceptance speech is worth reading, at least if you haven’t read much of his writing. I have read it before, and I was still moved by the story of how he got into the money-lending business. I think it’s also worth pointing out that, however trite the following statement is, today it was said by the Nobel Laureate for Peace.
Capitalism centers on the free market. It is claimed that the freer the market, the better is the result of capitalism in solving the questions of what, how, and for whom. It is also claimed that the individual search for personal gains brings collective optimal result.I am in favor of strengthening the freedom of the market. At the same time, I am very unhappy about the conceptual restrictions imposed on the players in the market.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.
Thank you for calling my attention to Mr. Yunus’s speech. It is not a great speech as a speech, but it is a tremendously provocative discussion of the deformation of human character by current economic orthodoxies and of the problem of poverty.
It is interesting to contrast the 100% payback rate claimed by Mr. Yunus (and similar claims made by other microlenders) with the high interest rates charged on microloans. I’ve read arguments that loans have a longer-term positive impact than grants because of their inherent encouragement of capitalism as a means to economic development — if I have to pay back the loan, then I have to find a way to make money using the loan, rather than simply support myself. Is a high interest rate simply designed to encourage more aggressive capitalism? Is a high inflation rate (which high interest rates on loans will create given sufficient economic penetration of the lending scheme) somehow beneficial to the lowest rungs of a developing capitalist economy?
Microloans are great, but when Citibank enters the arena, I won’t be any happier about them charging 30% interest to the world’s poorest than I am about them charging 30% interest on mortgage loans to the US’s poorest. And the high interest rates on microloans will eventually attract Citibank.