Muhammad Yunus: 'Economists have misunderstood human beings'

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2012/mar/19/muhammad-yunus-economics-social-business
<snip>
Economist Muhammad Yunus suggests how businesses can put the creativity and innovation of capitalism to uses other than making money. He talks about how his model of social business has worked in Bangladesh and looks forward to a world where no one will be known as 'an unemployed person'

[Odin2005]

1. He forgot to say INTENTIONALLY misunderstood.

The Corporate Elites demand "economists" that are compliant propagandists.

[Warpy]

4. And for their part, too many economists want to develop grand theories to hang their names on

so they can get rich and famous, themselves. All too often they turn out like Milton Friedman, reacting against a model that actually worked and winning the Nobel more for the density of his prose than the refurbished mercantilism he gave the world as monetarism.

Another example were Scholes and Merton, also Nobel winners, whose formulas provided the framework for Long Term Capital Management, a hedge fund that went spectacularly bust in 1998, nearly taking several other firms with it.

While most people with advanced degrees in economics go on to cushy jobs as corporate mouthpieces, the ones who do the real damage are the ones who feel compelled to come up with elegant theories that just don't work.

[Fool Count]

2. He may want to enhance his arsenal of positive examples beyond Bangladesh

if he aspires to worldwide impact of his ideas.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Is a Nobel price good enough to you?

And here s a huge clue, he already is having a global impact.

[Fool Count]

6. Nuh, Obama has a Nobel price. So does the guy who invented lobotomy.

Bangladesh remains among the poorest countries in the world, while South Korea,
which only 60 years ago was on par with Bangladesh economically, somehow managed
to climb out of poverty into the ranks of affluent nations without any benefit of his
ideas. So I will withhold my judgement until some actual measurable and substantial
good results from Mr. Yunus' suggestions, not just feel-good anecdotes. The solutions
he proposes are simple (not to say simplistic) and with modest benefits may also carry
a real danger of over-reliance on them instead of time-tested and proven hard-core
development and poverty-fighting measures, which are difficult and require constant
focused effort from governments. But for starters, I would settle for a quantitative
comparative economic analyses of impact Dr. Yunus approach is having on rates of economic
growth and poverty reduction. Have you seen any?

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Yes, but you should read on him

Serious. You have no clue what you ate talking about. He IS the father of micro Loans. These have even come to the oh so special united states.

[Fool Count]

8. I know who he is and what he does. What I don't know is if those micro loans

of his really help development and poverty reduction in any measurable way.
I am afraid no one else knows that either yet.

[think]

3. Worth watching the vid. The Banker to the Poor has had my respect for some time.

As he says social businesses are an exciting concept that can solve problems and help change the world. The Dannon Yogurt partnership example was intriguing.

Thank you for posting.