The tanking economy is putting local governments in a double bind. As the ranks of the poor and jobless swell, authorities have dwindling funds to help them. Incredibly, officials in San Francisco and other cities can't even prioritize who to help because they don't know who their poorest citizens are. The problem lies with an obsolete federal measure of poverty that will only make hard times harder in San Francisco until it's changed. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spearheaded just such a revolution in New York City, allowing officials to better direct their limited funds and energy.

With "green" on everyone's tongues, it was only a matter of time before the question of environmentally-friendly practices arose in microfinance.  Practitioners and microfinance partner groups have focused their efforts on asking questions about the impact of microfinance clients on the natural environment.  I, on the other hand, can't help but wonder if we should be asking what microfinance can do to protect the most vulnerable from environmental woes brought about by climate change. 

Last fall, Countrywide Financial, then the nation's largest mortgage lender, had a curious new idea --or, more precisely, an old one. No longer would it slush foreign capital through Wall Street to make subprime loans. Instead, the lender would depend entirely on deposits from savers who would finance one another's mortgages--kind of like that humble thrift institution run by George Bailey in the movie It's a Wonderful Life.