In the “another good idea I got from reemer department” comes a post about http://www.kiva.org. Simply put, kiva links up capital with entrepreneurs that need it.

Many moons ago I took a course with Reuven Brenner called “Creating Wealth and Prosperity”. It was filled with big picture thinking and I loved it. Professor Brenner is one of the most staunch free market advocates anywhere and has piles of data to back up his assertions. His course can largely be summed up by this quote from his book The Force of Finance:

“Prosperity is the result of matching brains with capital and holding both sides accountable…”

That accountability has traditionally come from a solid legal and regulatory framework. For instance, let’s say a company wants to borrow money to purchase a new factory. In Canada this business can purchase a factory with little fear that it will be expropriated by the government. If expropriation was even a remote possibility, lenders would require a much higher rate of interest on the capital that the company borrowed — to compensate for the higher risk. There are many other potential risks as well: currency fluctuations, corruption and inflation to name just a few. So in high risk countries only projects that can compensate for this risk through profit potential are funded.

Kiva.org eliminates this problem for entrepreneurs whose projects don’t have the profit potential to compensate for the high perceived risk of traditional investors. The projects on kiva.org are small but can have a big impact on the communities they serve. They can create products, services and livelihoods. Choose the project that most speaks to you and distribute a little capital.

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