Hot Topics »
 

13 Comments

  • ariel 3 months ago

    Oh, I see–this is like a seed round for sub primers not a mortgage. Not only they are expect to own the house and pay it back, but also to build a business now.
    Wow, this looks like nothing that can turn out to an actual pitfall!
    :P
    So… in 2010 when the next crisist will hit us, we can compamize that in 2008 at least we had houses to try and sell for the higher bidder, instead of a busniess plan that you can wipe ur a$$ with.

    Those greedy banks, don’t they ever learn?… Get ready for another bump!~~ I say, long for the next year or so, and then, short it baby.

    • Geoffrey S. Mendelson 3 months ago

      If you look at it as a savings plan, you will end up like the banks who let people take out mortgages they could never afford to pay. If you look at it as venture capital for the poor and uneducated, then it makes a lot more sense.

      VC exists because although it’s mostly a loosing game, the few (less than 1 in 20 in the long term) that win pay far more than other 19 that crash and burn.

      People have been starting businesses for a long time without $20,000 business plans, MBA’s and the Internet. Investing less than the cost of a Silicon Valley business plan on a company is attractive in the right circumstances.

      Long on the people that provide the money, training and help to the people that need it and are willing to work, short on the banks looking for another quick buck who provide money with no assistance to those looking for quick cash with no strings.

      Geoff.

      • Jonathan P. Chance 3 months ago

        Another lose-lose situation in which private central banks issue “money” out of nothing and con ignorant taxpayers into endless corporate bailouts.

        Wall Street will love this, since economic literacy is absent from the institutional “education” system.

        Don’t let schooling interfere with your education. Buy a usury-free solar bank.

        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GlobalRelations/message/447

        • julie Alexandria 3 months ago

          I couldn’t agree with you more, Jonathan.
          It is so sad that the US education system teaches absolutely NOTHING in regards to our Financial structure, Financial planning or personal financial responsibility. Ignorance is bliss - especially when you have the tax payers and corporate bailouts to cushion your fall.

          • Charlie Daniel 3 months ago

            Interesting because I have been thinking about his for years, “the US education system teaches absolutely NOTHING in regards to our Financial structure, Financial planning or personal financial responsibility.”…I have always wondered why we spend 6weeks teaching the civil war, 4 weeks learning about Hemmingway but not a moment on balancing a checkbook…after much thought, i think the education system skirts the issue because there is no one right answer. Everyone handles their personal finance diferrently…some people are fiscally conservative while others are very risky…both sides have failure and success…I don’t know the answer but I do ponder the question…

            • Tim H. 3 months ago

              It is troubling that US education teaches complex math, but does very little to teach basic financial mathematics. Take credit cards. How many college students are lured into using credit cards as soon as they enter college without knowing the basics of how to keep out of debt? Could this be predatory lending?? It’s no wonder a large number of Americans are deep in debt. A large number of kids are deep in debt before they get out of college – or get their first job. The documentary “Maxed Out” does a great job of showing debt has become a problem for some in America.

              I think microlending is appropriate for some of the poorer regions of this world to get the smallest of businesses started. I’m just concerned that greed could turn microlending into another form of predatory lending if not handled properly. I’m long on it with caution.

        • DiamondJim 3 months ago

          Interesting take on microlending here:

          http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2008/03/17/080317ta_talk_surowiecki

          How much can microloans really do? Developed nations are at their best when the majority of skilled workers are employed by large institutions (corporate structure paying a livable wage for many). No developed economy relies on thousands of small businesses funded by small sums of money; what’s the takeaway?

          • Jeff Garlick 3 months ago

            I like the social aspect of helping people to find better lives but I can’t say the same for charging them HUGE interest rates to do it. It seems like Exxon Mobil running commercials praising themselves for helping to rid the 3rd world of Malaria when what the REALLY want is for us not to notice $12,000 a minute profits and windfalls at the expense of the paycheck to paycheck worker at the pumps!

            Yes it’s GREAT that microloaners are lifting people up but if they’re also helping to bury them again - why bother?

            Profit from the poor - sounds like OUR government’s model of business?

            • Geoffrey S. Mendelson 3 months ago

              Jeff,

              You wrote: “Yes it’s GREAT that microloaners are lifting people up but if they’re also helping to bury them again - why bother?”

              The point is the microloaners who received the Nobel Prize lifted the poor from extreme poverty to less extreme poverty. When big banks become microloaners, they just lift themselves.

              If you give a person who can’t afford any fuel a gallon of gasoline, they can have cooked food and fresh water. If you give it to a person with an SUV, it makes no noticable change in their lifestyle.

              Exxon Mobile does not make any money from people who can’t afford their products, that $12,000 a minute comes from people who can. People who borrowing $100 for a year might not mean more than a movie and a pizza.

              Lend that same $100 to George Hussein Onyango Obama and it’s a whole different story. In the real world there are a lot more people living like him than you or me (and I live on at lot less than most US/EU residents).

              Geoff.

              • Jeff Garlick 3 months ago

                You make some EXCELLENT points Geoff and I think you understand it MUCH better than I could ever hope to!

                It’s a better world when ANYONE makes the world better but I just worry that not everyone will be unscrupulous in the trend of lending! I’m a bit cynical but I just can’t help thinking that some of the nobility of this is also profit driven.

                Thanks for explaining it making me see a different side to it!

                Jeff

              • Jonathan P. Chance 3 months ago

                Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 5 of the Constitution empowers Congress to issue money.

                There has never been a legitimate reason for the Treasury to tax wages or borrow money from the Federal Reserve Corporation when it has the power to issue lawful currency such as United States Notes and renewable energy credits (US RECs) directly to individual citizens.

                Unfortunately, the stock market is manipulated by those who own or control private central banks and other financial institutions. It’s a casino, not an economy.

                So-called “financial planning” and “personal financial responsibility” is impossible within a system based on fraud, theft, slavery and terrorism. That’s why monetary reform is required.

                http://JPChance.wordpress.com

                • RacerX 3 months ago

                  I’m neutral on it.

                  For one, the organizations loaning money to the 3rd-world poor, with the intention of profiting are essentially loan-sharking; High interest, no collateral loans.

                  For the “charitable” organizations.. I am certainly for helping to alleviate poverty. But are we really doing that by getting the 3rd world “hooked on stuff” like cell phones, etc. I laughed watching a Blackberry ad for Kiva. It seems like “well, we’ve penetrated most of our markets. Now let’s expand to 3rd world markets.”

                  Even with the goal of providing more food. It seems that it will encourage even more [unsustainable] population growth, more consumption, and ultimately more poverty, disease, and overall societal collapse for those regions.

                  Also, a lot of the 3rd world countries are run by seriously crooked governments and/or military states, and who’s to say. Heck, even in the States you could argue that the governments have become bedfellows to the global banks/oil/etc. in keeping Americans “fat, dumb, and lazy”.

                  As far as financial education for people.. I don’t know if you can arbitrarily blame it on the government. That sounds like sheep thinking to me.

                  Yes I am sympathetic to the impoverished. But I’d like to see more well-thought out plans rather than throwing money to crooked military regimes (like North Korea), where the aid goes to the crooks on the dole rather than people in need.

                  Ultimately I believe there needs to be more sustainable solutions to these societies’ problems–not just “earn more, buy more, consume more”.

                  • cheritycall One month ago

                    Hello, Do something for help the hungry people from Africa and India,
                    I created this blog about them:
                    on http://tinyurl.com/5hu74e

                    Leave a Reply