Very informative interview Bill, thanks for sharing it.
It just reminded, how house-ownership is one of very important ways in which people can escape poverty and vulnerability. There indeed is not any other asset quite like a house, where one can pay the rent to oneself by living in one's own home, and build an asset over time instead of paying rent to someone else. And yet, we hardly have touch on this in our financial inclusion agenda. Incidentally, it is also often cheapest capital to obtain because it can be secured through an asset.
Sometimes I do wonder if we have counted trees for too long in microfinance and perhaps missed the forest. The road from microfinance to financial inclusion seems too long.
Thanks for sharing it!
Anuj
From: MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of wmaddocks@gmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 12:03 PM
To: MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MFP] RE: Fw: Your Message to MicrofinancePractice
Hi Anuj,
The data that I was referring to is in this NPR story http://www.npr.org/2013/05/06/181601018/black-and-latino-wealth-falls-further-behind . To be clear no, I was not suggesting poor people should sit out of the credit system but was talking more about ways people find their own solutions when doors are closed to them. I do think more member ownership and local control is where we should be heading. While not member owned, smaller community banks in New Hampshire generally weathered the recession and mortgage crisis well because they weren't invested in the toxic products that spurred the crisis and depended on the local and regional economy which did better than some parts of the U.S. over the past several years. The bigger issue is wealth inequality in the U.S. which obviously touches most of the issues in this string.
Bill
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