Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis
At a cost of 0 billion to American taxpayers, the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s was one of the worst financial crises of the twentieth century as well as a series of crimes unparalleled in American history. Yet the vast majority of its perpetrators will never be prosecuted, and those who were received minimal sentences. In the first in-depth scrutiny of these white-collar crimes, this groundbreaking book comes to disturbing conclusions about the deliberate nature of this financial fraud, the political collusion involved, and the leniency of the criminal justice system in dealing with these “Gucci-clad white-collar criminals.” “An important, arresting book.” –Michael Rogin, author of Blackface, White Noise “The b
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Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World
- ISBN13: 9780470196328
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Microfinancing is considered one of the most effective strategies in the fight against global poverty. And now, in Small Loans, Big Changes, author Alex Counts reveals how Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus revolutionized global antipoverty efforts through the development of this approach. This book presents compelling stories of women benefiting from Yunus’s microcredit in rural Bangladesh and urban Chicago, and recounts the experiences of different borrowers in each country, interspersing them with stories of Yunus, his colleagues, and their counterparts in Chicago.
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7 Responses to “Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis”
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June 29th, 2010 at 7:51 am
Review for Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis
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A rigourously detailed, cited, and sad indictment on one of the most significant domestic issues in recent U.S.A. history. Read how the bankers and politicians saw it coming, but instead of prevention, deliberatly increased the magnitude of the crisis to a level of such massive debt, that the American public would be forced to flip the bill instead of the criminals who are at fault.
June 29th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Review for Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis
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This book was well researched. I bought this book for the purpose of writing a research paper. However, it is an interesting read at the same time, very factual. Another book on this subject I would recommend is “S&L Hell by Kathleen Day
June 29th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Review for Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World
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Dear Friends,
I have just finished an amazing and inspiring book that I’d like to make you aware of – Small Loans, Big Dreams – by my good friend, colleague, and advisor Alex Counts, President and CEO of the Grameen Foundation. For those of you who may have read his other book – Give Us Credit – you will love catching up with some of those women from Bangladesh and from Chicago he brought alive in 1996. Women like Shandha, the “mother hen” of her credit center whose son became one of the first recipients of Grameen’s high education loan and has now completed his master’s degree. Or Omiyale and Queenesta, two African-American woman living in Chicago who were part of a solidarity group called Les Papillons (The Butterflies). You’ll love getting caught up with how their lives have been evolving as they continue to face the obstacles and bumps in the road that the poor all over the world face.
Even if you didn’t read Give Us Credit, you’ll love reading about these women and their struggles now. Alex is an amazing storyteller and you quickly get caught up in their lives as they participate in microfinance programs half way around the world from each other. You see so quickly just how microfinance transforms lives, although not always in the nice, neat way we would like to see it function. Alex is nothing if not honest as he lets his subjects’ stories unfold. It is fascinating to see the intertwining of the modifications the Grameen Bank and other microfinance institutions have made over time and the lives of real people as those changes affect their lives and their choices. As Alex says, “. . . their uneven but steady progress has reaffirmed my belief in microfinance, and also my desire to ensure that the model continues to improve and serve the poor better through more responsive products.”
At the same time, this book is not just about these women. Rather, it is fundamentally a book about how Professor Muhammad Yunus and the microfinance movement are changing the world. Throughout the book, Alex provides his own insights into microfinance as it has evolved from the origins of the Grameen Bank to that of a broader social and business movement. After reading the book, you will understand much better why microfinance is today at a crossroads, what the divisions are about, and why Fonkoze in Haiti keeps its focus on the core business of microfinance – reducing poverty – by refining and extending the tools (whether financial, educational or health care related) that it makes available to the poor, wherever they are on their journey out of poverty. This is a big book about small loans that will help you understand the gigantic movement they have spawned. When you get the time, do pick it up and take a peek inside . . . it won’t be easy to put it back down.
Enjoy!
Anne Hastings
Fonkoze Haiti
June 29th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Review for Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World
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You might not think that Chicago, U.S.A. and Chittagong, Bangladesh have much in common, but in his book, Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World, Grameen Foundation Director Alex Counts shows that they do. Each region has determined women of strong spirit struggling for their family’s survival. Sometimes, all it takes to set them on the path to entrepreneurship is a small bank loan and a small group of like-minded others to support them and hold them accountable.
This idea is the genius of microcredit: banking for people too impoverished to provide the required collateral for a regular bank account. After achieving remarkable success in Bangladesh, where the Grameen Bank is now sustainable, founder Muhammad Yunus turned his attention to developing the system in other countries, including U.S.A. Alex Counts strings the continuing story of Mohammad Yunus’s life and work together with fascinating accounts of women in Chicago and Bangladesh, along with brief histories of the two regions. Development professionals and all good-hearted people will be challenged by the stories of government cowardice in attacking poverty and individual courage in overcoming it. Above all, the book sets forth the larger vision of the common good that is so often lost in today’s global society.
–Anna H. Bedford
Little Rock, AR
June 29th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Review for Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World
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Alex Counts is one of those rare visionaries who also has the gift of storytelling. As you read the histories of the women in this book, you’ll be captivated both by Counts’ empathetic connection with them and his passion for the work of Grameen. The author is straightforward about the struggles and successes of a movement which has become one of the most powerful weapons against poverty in our time. After reading it, don’t be surprised if you start chasing harder after your own big dreams.
June 29th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Review for Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World
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As an aspiring social entrepreneur and recent college graduate, I am grateful for the insights provided by Alex Counts into the history and inner workings of Grameen Bank and the greater microfinance movement. Having worked directly with the Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus for decades in addressing poverty both in Bangladesh in the U.S., Counts has a unique perspective into this powerful approach to poverty alleviation. He effectively utilizes the stories of the day-to-day lives of women in rural Bangladesh, in juxtaposition with those of women in Urban Chicago, to demonstrate the universal applicability of microcredit as well its potential to unlock the hidden entrepreneurial potential of the poor. I would whole-heartedly recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about one of the most exciting movements in the present fight against global poverty.
June 29th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Review for Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance are Changing the World
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Small Loans, Big Dreams is a great read on many levels. It reads like an inspiring novel that you just don’t want to put down AND it captures the history, current reality and rich potential for the future of one of the most effective programs for empowering the poor – microcredit. Put this on your must read list and be prepared not to be able to put it down until the end.
This book is perfect for people who enjoy reading about everyday heros – regular people who overcome personal and social obstacles to create a better life for themselves, their families and others. It is difficult not to be touched and get a deeper appreciation for our humanity as you read the stories of the women who step out of out what is comfortable and familiar in their culture and become leaders for a new future. Reading the stories of these women creating a new future in the circumstances they have, it is hard not to be left with more courage and commitment to tackle the issues and circumstances in our personal lives and our communities. With simplicity, gradualism, faith and partnership, truly any difference can be made. This book demonstrates this.
This book is ALSO perfect for people who like to read books about real world issues. Alex shares the evolution of perhaps the most effective program of all time to combat poverty and he does it so that the reader has multiple perspectives (Muhammad Yunus’s personal history/journey to empower the poorest of the poor, the current economic and social constraints that disable the poor from participating in capitalism and pulling themselves out of poverty, a glimpse of the day to day experience and dedication of the staff at the Grameen Bank and those women who use micro-finance to give themselves and their families better lives). It is useful, understandable and insightful to readers regardless of whether you consider yourself knowledgeable about economics or a complete beginner.
This book would be excellent for book clubs and discussion groups – there is something for everyone to love and so many directions that discussions could take, every reader would have much to contribute and also be left wanting to learn more. I knew nothing of economics before I read this and now I both know more and what to know more. It was interesting to see the comparisons of the programs in the US and Bangladesh and to realize in our American `land of opportunity for all’ we literally have more societal and legal constraints that are actually in the way of empowering our poor to get out of poverty.
The original micro-finance programs have been able to be duplicated in many different cultures and countries, which is a testimony to the integrity and resiliency of Yunus’ thinking and design and the work of many people. Alex also presents the future opportunity for real social change through the strengths of the networks and relationships. You will be left with both opportunity and optimism for our future.