David Roodman's Microfinance Open Book Blog

Phil Mader and others picked up a theme I neglected in my previous post: the stories of microcredit-induced suicide in India. I gather that these have been prominent in the local media and have been a key part of the campaign to rein in microfinance institutions.

Did you catch the microcredit debate at the Clinton Global Initiative conference last Tuesday? OK, I wasn't invited to the ex-president's annual gathering either. But, rather amazingly, I watched the debate live on my Droid while being a soccer dad. You can watch the whole thing at the bottom of this post. It was a good show. It put on one stage the two leading (disagreeing) voices in the hottest controversy in microfinance.

First, an apology: I've been silent without explanation these last few weeks. I've been diverted this summer from microcredit to macrocredit as I write a retrospective on the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation movement. The deadline has felt tight enough to squeeze out blogging (though I hope to change that soon, and will let you know) and, as a further cause of hesitation, I have been unsure about whether to post here or on CGD's main blog.