Muhammad Yunus is that rare thing: a bona fide visionary. His dream is the total eradication of poverty fr om the wo r ld. In 1983, against the advice of banking a nd government officials, Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poo r est of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Grameen Bank, ba sed on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege Muhammad Yunus is that rare thing: a bona fide visionary. His dream is the total eradication of poverty fr om the wo r ld. In 1983, against the advice of banking a nd government officials, Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poo r est of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Grameen Bank, ba sed on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege of a fo r tunate few, now provides over 2.5 billion dollars of micro-loans to mo r e than two million families in rural Bangladesh. Ninety-four percent of Yunus's clients are women, a nd repayment rates are near 100 percent. Around the wo r ld, micro-lending programs inspired by Grameen are blossoming, with mo r e than three hundred programs established in the United States alone.

Banker to the Poo r is Muhammad Yunus's memoir of how he decided to change his life in o r der to help the wo r ld's poo r . In it he traces the intellectual a nd spiritual journey that led him to fundamentally rethink the economic relationship between rich a nd poo r , a nd the challenges he a nd his colleagues faced in founding Grameen. He also provides wise, hopeful guidance fo r anyone who would like to join him in ",putting homelessness a nd destitution in a museum so that one day our children will visit it a nd ask how we could have allowed such a terrible thing to go on fo r so long.", The definitive histo r y of micro-credit direct fr om the man that conceived of it, Banker to the Poo r is necessary a nd inspirational reading fo r anyone interested in economics, public policy, philanthropy, social histo r y, a nd business.

Muhammad Yunus was bo r n in Bangladesh a nd earned his Ph.D. in economics in the United States at Va nderbilt University, wh ere he was deeply influenced by the civil rights movement. He still lives in Bangladesh, a nd travels widely around the wo r ld on behalf of Grameen Bank a nd the concept of micro-credit.