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Over the last thirty years or so, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty and under-development. in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, royalty, movie stars, high profile politicians and `trouble-shooting` economists, such as Jeffrey Sachs and Hernando de Soto. Its most famous pioneer from Bangladesh, Dr Muhammad Yunus, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Microfinance is consistently rated as one of the most important innovations to have come along this past forty years or so. Dr Bateman believes, however, that microfinance doesn`t actually work. His argument is that, if you look more closely, the case for microfinance has actually been largely built on a desire to advance a particular free market ideology, on hype and egregious half-truths, and - latterly - on the Wall Street-style greed, deception and individual self-interest of those actually promoting and working in microfinance. Dr Bateman shows why many of the most fundamental building blocks of microfinance are largely myths, before going on to demonstrate that microfinance actually undermines the institutional foundations required for sustainable development and poverty reduction.

Foreword / James K. Galbraith -- Introduction: setting the scene / Milford Bateman and Kate Maclean -- Background -- The political economy of microfinance / Milford Bateman -- Poverty reduction or the financialization of poverty? / Maren Duvendack and Philip Mader -- Seduction -- Pop development and the uses of feminism / Meena Khandelwal and Carla Freeman -- Petit bourgeois fantasies : microcredit, small-is-beautiful solutions, and development's new anti-politics / Elliott Prasse-Freeman -- Kiva's staging of "peer-to-peer" charitable lending : innovating marketing or egregious deception? / Domen Bajde -- Muhammad Yunus's model of social business : a new, more humane form of capitalism or a failed "next big idea" / Milford Bateman and Sonja Novkovic -- Betrayal -- Bosnia's post-conflict microfinance experiment : a new Balkan tragedy / Milford Bateman and Dean Sinkovic -- From tigers to cats? : the rise and crisis of microfinance in rural India / Marcus Taylor -- The destructive role of microcredit in post-apartheid South Africa / Milford Bateman and Khadija Sharife -- Public goods provision aided by microfinance : an innovative or a flawed idea? / Philip Mader -- The "scandal" of Grameen : the Nobel prize, the bank, and the state in Bangladesh / Lamia Karim -- Agricultural microfinance and risk saturation / Charlotte Heales -- Alternatives -- Banking on the difference : credit unions as superior local financial institutions for the poor / Jessica Gordon-Nembhard -- Microfinance and the "woman" question / Kate Maclean -- Moral and other economies : Nijera Kori and its alternatives to microcredit / Kasia Paprocki -- The "solidarity economy" model and local finance : lessons from new left experiments in Latin America? / Milford Bateman and Kate Maclean -- Conclusion: it's the politics, stupid / Milford Bateman and Kate Maclean -- References -- Contributors -- Index