Comments on: Muhammad Yunus and Grameen America http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/07/26/muhammad-yunus-and-grameen-america/ A slice of lime in the soda Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:59:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: y2kurtus http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/07/26/muhammad-yunus-and-grameen-america/comment-page-1/#comment-28981 y2kurtus Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:13:04 +0000 http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/?p=9126#comment-28981 Felix, my fantastic mutual community bank runs a lot like your fantastic credit union. I can say with high confidence that neither of our instituions can successfully extend credit to individuals who cannot document income above a poverty line level and who do not have any assets to use as security for a loan. The lenders at my bank make dozens of business loans each year which are tiny by any industry standard even in my small state. Yet having said that there is no interest at all in doing commercial loans in the sub $25,000 range... even sub $50,000 is a favor. It's just not enough to cover the cost of servicing and underwriting the loan. Anyone who can change the status quo for the young working poor is welcome in my book. Right now the status quo is a landscaper who makes $10/hour mowing lawns and works 60 hours a week for 3 years with a 20" push mower before he can buy a zero turn riding mower and do twice the work in half the time trippling his howerly income. Anything we can do to improve access to education and access to capital is worth doing! Felix, my fantastic mutual community bank runs a lot like your fantastic credit union. I can say with high confidence that neither of our instituions can successfully extend credit to individuals who cannot document income above a poverty line level and who do not have any assets to use as security for a loan.

The lenders at my bank make dozens of business loans each year which are tiny by any industry standard even in my small state. Yet having said that there is no interest at all in doing commercial loans in the sub $25,000 range… even sub $50,000 is a favor. It’s just not enough to cover the cost of servicing and underwriting the loan.

Anyone who can change the status quo for the young working poor is welcome in my book. Right now the status quo is a landscaper who makes $10/hour mowing lawns and works 60 hours a week for 3 years with a 20″ push mower before he can buy a zero turn riding mower and do twice the work in half the time trippling his howerly income.

Anything we can do to improve access to education and access to capital is worth doing!

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