

Kiva Brings Microlending To US-based Entrepreneurs In Need - lrm242
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/10/kiva-brings-microlending-home-to-us-entrepreneurs-in-need/

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dflock
I think this is a good idea. I already lend/invest via Kiva and would support
it expanding to cover the whole globe. I don't see why the micro-financing
model should just apply to the so called developing world. Why not any cash
strapped small business anywhere? This makes more sense since the global
financial markets accidentally flushed themselves (and all our money) down the
toilet. The actual function of traditional banks in an economy is to enhance
liquidity by buffering money and lending where required, keeping the money
flowing around the economy. I think we could probably cut out the middleman
and do this mostly peer-to-peer, without traditional banks - via micro-
financing over the internet, kiva style. Now might be a good time to get this
working.

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wlievens
If kiva ever manages to give a small interest on the loans, I expect it
explode in popularity. But there's probably huge legal hurdles to doing that?
Or are they ideologically opposed?

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dflock
Probably a bit of both. At present I don't see why they shouldn't be at least
as popular as a normal charitable donation. With Kiva, your money goes to some
real individual, they use it to build their business, tell you about what they
did, then the give the money back - and the cycle repeats indefinitely. One
donation lasts forever.

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crsmith
I love this idea. One of the entrepreneurs has her business a couple blocks
from where I live.

[http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about...](http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=113783)

I went to check it out and said hi. I really like the idea of being able to
meet the entrepreneurs on Kiva.

