"The Grameen Bank invests in projects, but its primary goal is to help economic development, and it only turns a modest profit." http://www.mises.org/story/237

"The Grameen Bank invests in projects, but its primary goal is to help economic development, and it only turns a modest profit." http://www.mises.org/story/2375 http://www.mises.org/story/2375 That's a very, uh, charitable way of looking at it. Perhaps Grameen really is what he says he is -- someone who happens to want to make the world a better place by lending money at payday loan rates to extremely poor people. Or perhaps he's running a very large loan-sharking operation with a great PR presence -- the latter would explain why the company lies about its profits and offers loans to people who spend them on consumer goods. "I don't do it for them, I do it because I don't want to feel like an asshole. Yet most people would still consider this charity." How very democratic! You make yourself worse off, and substance addicts worse off, but that's okay because it lets you lie to people so they'll like you more! "Investments measure their success against the market. Charity measures its success against the world." Damn. It's like Brian Eno meets the State of the Union address: melodious, uplifting, and meaningless. A better version: Charity measures itself according to the labor theory of value. Markets measure themselves according to relative value. In other words, charity is a petty outlet for do-gooding impulses that can't be satisfied by doing a measurable amount of good.