Is Muhammad Yunis selling free-market neoliberalism under the guise of ending poverty?
Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi economist, godfather of microcredit and founder of the now-famous Grameen Bank, enchants many different types of people with his imaginings of a better future. A popular public speaker, Yunus is a relatively short man with a silver mane, a round beaming face, and a perpetually optimistic demeanor. At his talks, he regularly draws standing ovations from socially conscious progressives, business-oriented free-marketeers and numerous personalities in between. What Yunus has to offer, his supporters would say, is a method for ending poverty. These supporters include the Norwegian committee that awarded Yunus and his Grameen Bank the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. This makes things all the more frustrating for Yunus’s detractors. Those to the left would argue that the economist is selling “free market” neoliberalism in the guise of liberal do-gooderism. Right-wing libertarians, in contrast, contend that he is peddling communitarian snake oil in a business-friendly c
