Price of a Dream : The Story of the Grameen Bank and the Idea That Is Helping the Poor to Change Their Lives

by David Bornstein

• ISBN13: 9780684870496
• ISBN10: 0684870495
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Touchstone

Summary

One afternoon in 1976 an economics professor, taking a walk in a village in Bangladesh, met a poor woman. The woman was trying to support herself by constructing and selling bamboo stools. She earned two cents a day. When the professor asked her why her profit was so low, she explained that the only person who would lend her money to buy bamboo was the trader who purchased her final product and the price he set barely covered her costs. The professor's instinct was to open his wallet and give her some money. Then he had another thought: Why not give her a loan?

Table of Contents

Prologue: This Business of Bangles	p. 13
Introduction	p. 19
The Idea
Fairy Tales	p. 31
856 Takas	p. 38
Social Collateral	p. 42
It Cannot Be Done	p. 48
He Found You Under a Tree?	p. 56
If You Want to Convince Us	p. 61
The Villagers
Water Upon Land	p. 71
It's All on Trust	p. 78
Stirring the Money	p. 82
Sabina Yasmin	p. 87
The Center Meeting	p. 92
It's Their Problem	p. 104
Can You Walk Far?	p. 109
A Petticoat	p. 113
The Organization
We Don't Want Windows	p. 119
Independence	p. 127
A New Culture	p. 132
A Natural and Better Fighter	p. 137
If a Big Dam Breaks	p. 146
This Is Her Factory	p. 152
A Conversation	p. 156
Peace of Mind	p. 163
It Was Like a Fish Market	p. 169
Little Checks and Big Checks	p. 175
The System
Laying the Foundation	p. 181
I'm Not a Woman Anymore	p. 185
The Logic of Grameen	p. 190
Begum Rokeya	p. 193
The Death of Ali Haider	p. 204
Don't I Think of These Things?	p. 208
The Wisdom in Smallness	p. 213
Armed with Information	p. 218
Credit as a Human Right	p. 227
How Can You Go On with a Situation Like This?	p. 233
An Expensive Way to Transfer Technology	p. 243
A Risk Taker	p. 250
A Great Strategizer	p. 257
An Intensive Care Unit	p. 263
Two Cyclones	p. 268
If I Had to Become a Businesswoman	p. 276
Oirashi's Final House	p. 282
The Future
The Golden Boat	p. 289
One Thousand Doctors	p. 297
The Luck of Manjira	p. 301
An Infinite Amount of Work	p. 308
She Turned Her Face to the Light	p. 314
Struck by Lightning	p. 324
The Price of the American Dream	p. 331
Socially Conscious Capitalism	p. 341
Everywhere You Look	p. 345
Interest	p. 351
Author's Note	p. 353
Acknowledgments	p. 355
Index	p. 359
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