As a person who has loaned money via Kiva, and watching our President attempt to re-start our economy through its true engine, working people, I have begun to wonder - can the principles of microlending be applied at the neighborhood or municipal level in new ways?
I am not an economist. But I am a business person and entrepreneur.
I was reading the Wired Magazine article today titled "Formula for Disaster" which describes the gaping holes in the mathematical models used to justify CDL's and their kin - then I got online and saw the consumer credit efforts of the Fed, and it occurred to me that much of the solution to the credit and finance crisis, in its pure form (lending) might be locally-based and small-scale.
I also came across this article from last year:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/...
So while I am not an economist or banker, I wanted to pose the question here - can neighborhood lending, "bottom-up" finance to borrow a term from President Obama (I love typing that), be the key to how our economy works from here forward? Perhaps there are new, previously uninvented small-scale models, along the lines of muni funds or microloans, that could help people keep their neighbors in their homes or start/continue their businesses?
Maybe someone reading this will go out and create new lending vehicles (and corresponding regulations) that let us all help each other get back on our feet. Heck, maybe barter is involved. But I wanted to ask the question. Thanks for reading.