Words of wisdom on micro-finance

The book Due Diligence investigates. It finds no evidence that small loans lift people out of poverty en masse. Yet it observes that financial services resemble clean water and electricity in being essential to a modern life. The practical question is not whether microfinance should continue, but how it can play to its strengths, which lie in providing useful services to millions of poor people in a businesslike way.

That is David Roodman, the author of Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance.