19 September 2007

Microfinance: PBS NOW on When Good Microcredit Goes Bad

This Friday, PBS NOW's Enterprising Ideas series puts microfinance under the microscope in an episode about the Mexican company Compartamos. A NOW producer flew to Bangladesh to talk to Muhammad Yunus about why he believes Compartamos is doing great damage to the microcredit movement he pioneered.

Compartamos is a microfinance company that once lent small sums of money to poor, indigenous Mexican women to start businesses. Today it's a for-profit bank with more than 600,000 clients in Mexico. NOW interviews people who passionately believe their lives have been transformed by the loan they received from Compartamos.

NOW airs at 8:30 p.m. on Friday nights. Check your local listings.

The Harvard Business Review also features a look at Microfinance this month - and that look also offers a warning to "Beware of Bad Microcredit."

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