I have been reading his book - Creating a World Without Poverty - A not inconsiderable ambition as John Major might have said had he ever shown any interest in the subject.
It has taken me a while to get into it but there are some real gems. I suspect they are much used and polished but one which seems apposite now is given on page 49:-
In the past, financial institutions always asked themselves,Well now, there is a question. Would you like to know the answer?
"Are the poor credit-worthy?" and always answered no.......
I reversed the question: "Are the banks people-worthy?"
Would you like to know the answer before Gordy and Al make £450 billion and change of doubloons from our pockets available to them?
I certainly do not want to see people thrown out of their homes or jobs, small businesses closed down, I don't want to see queues of people outside banks, I don't want to see ATM machines flashing up messages to say:-
- Sorry chum no more doubloons, ever! Have you ever considered the advantages of a barter system?-
I hope they have secured said sum on the soft and squashy parts, the first born and sets of golf clubs of the merchants of debt. I hope they have the bottle to take action when the culture of corporate greed reasserts itself. Of course it could be that the man with the plan at that time will be Dave!
If banks are not people-worthy, what can we do to make them just a little bit more?
Yunus started his own bank, Grameen, and I am sure you could argue about lots that he has done and how it has been done but I think he has done something to attack systemic poverty.
