Comments on: Kiva

By: Benjamin Hoyt

Benjamin Hoyt — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:16:45 +0000

Yeah. You may be right about that, Ari, but you can read Kiva’s responses to your questions here: http://www.kiva.org/about/microfinance#6._Why_are_microcredit_interest_rates. I leave it up to you to decide if you think it’s worth your time/money.

By: ari

ari — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:41:08 +0000

I may be wrong, but I think I recall from a long time ago that the borrowers are charged interest on the Kiva loans, but that us as lenders don’t see any of that return.

By: Benjamin Hoyt

Benjamin Hoyt — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:41:36 +0000

Ah. Sorry. Didn’t see the link. I think that it’s a valid question, but even the article you link to seems to imply that the effects are positive. Sure, it’d be nice to be able to quantify them further, but on a logical level, microfinancing MUST be positive, economically, for developing countries (at least on the whole). Injecting capital into an economy, at zero interest, directly into the hands of entrepreneurs MUST have a net positive effect on local economies (otherwise, pretty-much everything I learned in school is wrong).

By: ari

ari — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:16:19 +0000

It’s a hyperlinked question, you know… it’s a ‘do any data show microfinance actually has beneficial impacts?’ question…

By: Benjamin Hoyt

Benjamin Hoyt — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:05:14 +0000

Not sure I understand your question, Ari.

By: ari

ari — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:38:34 +0000

But how good is it, really?