Friday, October 13, 2006

Peace Price For Banking?

So the Norwegan Jury for the Nobel Price in Peace was awarded to Muhammad Yunus, a founder of the Micro credit movement.

There are different views among libertarians on this issue. Johan Norberg cheers the decision, while Jeffrey Tucker is more skeptical of the "micro credit" movement ( see here and here).

Anyway, though, regardless of whether or not "micro-credit" is good or bad in terms of impact on the economy and the social structure, what does it have to do with peace? It's like that famous "Chewbacca defence": it has nothing to with it at all. It does not make sense.

Even if we for the sake of the argument assume that "micro-credit" does relieve poverty it has nothing to do with the issue of peace. As The Economist points out, if the committee can't find any worthy participants, than it should abstain from awarding the price to anyone.

1 Comments:

Blogger Lars Smith said...

For a more recent critique of microcredit, read Thomas Dichter's article, link here, http://conservationfinance.wordpress.com/2006/06/26/microcredit-hype-and-hope/

7:45 AM  

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