From the desk of Bob Meyer...10/24/06

Idea + $27 = Nobel Peace Prize!

In 1976 Muhammad Yunus, when taking a trip to the village of Jobra in Bangladesh during the devastating famine of that year, met a woman who was struggling to make ends meet as a weaver of bamboo stools.

She needed to borrow money to buy materials; but having no assets the conventional banks shunned her. Her only option was to turn to local money-lenders whose extortionate rates of interest consumed nearly all her profits.

Yunus, then a professor of rural economics at Chittagong University, reached into his own pocket and gave the woman and several of her neighbors loans totaling $27. When they surprised him and paid back the loans, he started traveling from village to village offering more tiny loans. And in the process, cutting out the greedy middlemen.

That led to his founding of the Grameen Bank (Grameen means ?village? in Bengali), and the rest is history. The bank has now loaned $5.72 billion to 6.6 million Bangladeshi, 97% of whom were women, and today provides services in more than 70,000 villages.

This year Muhammad Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize, a long-overdue stamp of international recognition for his accomplishment of the seemingly impossible. He enabled millions of people to become productive, self-reliant citizens by extending them a little credit, so they could fight their way out of poverty and climb the economic ladder with dignity.

Yunus popularized the term ?microfinance,? and there are now several web sites that enable individuals to give or lend small amounts of money to others who post their funding needs. One is www.donorschoose.org, where public-school teachers can post wish-lists for supplies and resources their budgets won?t cover; later kids often send pictures and thank-you notes to the donors.

Globalgiving.com works similarly but funds small charitable projects around the world, and kiva.org connects users with loan-seeking entrepreneurs outside the United States. At prosper.com, those with money to lend can view requests from U.S. residents with Social Security numbers. (The sites all have layers of safeguards, such as verifying hardship tales and checking terrorist databases.)

Barter Funded $50 Million In Scientific Research

In Canada, the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) had been paying for scientific research with fish. The department offered fisherman extra quotas of snow crab and other species, in exchange for scientific surveys and stock assessments.

But then a New Brunswick crabber went to court, arguing that the fisheries minister had no right to take quota from his fleet to pay for scientific research. A federal court of appeal backed him up, ruling that that the scheme was illegal because the minister was paying with assets that didn?t belong to him...in effect misappropriating resources.

The DFO is now conducting a review to see how much of its science will be affected ,and how many programs it may have to pay for out of its budget. It was estimated that about $50 million worth of scientific research was acquired through the barter project.

IMS Kicks Off Its Holiday Expos With Major Success In Chicago

International Monetary Systems (OTCBB:INLM) used the newly acquired Illinois Trade Association?s Annual Trade & Holiday Gift Show at Harper College in Palatine as a launch pad for the company?s upcoming series of eleven Barter Expos.

All-time interest along with a record attendance carried the day at the October 21 holiday show in Palatine. IMS expects large client turnouts will also take place in the scheduled cities of Milwaukee (WI), Modesto (CA), Columbus (OH), Reno (NV), San Jose (CA), Hartford (CT), Denver (CO), Chattanooga (TN), Santa Rosa (CA), and Las Vegas (NV).

For further details, contact the office nearest you for dates and directions.

Suze Orman Advises Barter As Means For Business Women To Find Greater Wealth

Famed financial advisor Suze Orman, writing in the November issue of PINK, says business women should learn more about barter, because it?s one of the twelve ways women can find financial liberation. Orman suggested it?s an excellent means for obtaining travel, dining, giving gifts and conducting business without using cash.

TTi CORRECTION

In last week?s issue we reported that TeleTrade International (www.eValues.net) was the only barter site certified to be 99% hacker safe...due to an independent, daily certification program. That report was incorrect, as we later learned. Other online barter sites that have third party certified verification include: http://www.worldtradebanc.com, http://www.bartercenterinternational.com and http://www.dobarter.com.

China?s Reserves Top $1 Trillion

China?s holdings of foreign currencies and securities now top $1 trillion...a sum greater than the annual economic output of all but nine countries. Roughly 70% of the Chinese reserves are believed to be in U.S. dollar assets and 20% in euros. Another 10% are in other currencies, including the Japanese yen and Korean won, according to economist Brad Setser at Roubini Global Economics. 

Another indication of the worldwide respect China is getting is the recent initial public offering of Industrial & Commercial bank of China, Ltd. the world?s biggest IPO which starts trading October 27. It attracted $350 billion of demand from global investors and $80 billion from domestic investors for the $21.9 billion deal! (China Merchants Bank Ltd. had $100 billion of demand for its $2.4 billion deal last month.)

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