Not sure how you can claim to understand how micro-finance has impacted other parts of the world any better than us. I can produce on-the-ground experts for you that back up my claims. I didn’t just make them up.

Stop reporting on others’ intrepretations – go see for yourself (then form an opinion…)

But microlending is the first step in supporting micro-entrepreneurship, not the last word. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, see Paul Polack.

1) Bad intermediaries – e.g. Kiva relies on local partners to source and vet the debtors and to make sure they are in compliance, and to assure transparency in general.

2) Self-serving lending structure – Since microlending is at the core a for-profit business, and since there is no regulation or oversight required, and since most operations are in areas where there is little infrastructure and weak authority, many of the lenders are taking advantage of people who are looking for a life preserver.

Personally I am philosophically opposed to uncollateralized debt except to effect a regime change in attractor space from a poverty trap to an increasing returns environment. In other words, education and subsistence entrepreneurship. Other than that, equity should be used as it dominates from a game-theoretic perspective, and feels better from a human perspective :-)