Muhammad Yunus Books

Muhammad Yunus is that rare thing: a bona fide visionary. His dream is the total eradication of poverty from the world. In 1983, against the advice of banking and government officials, Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poorest of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Grameen Bank, based on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege of a fortunate few, now provides over 2.5 billion dollars of micro-loans to more than two million families in rural Bangladesh. Ninety-four percent of Yunus's clients are women, and repayment rates are near 100 percent. Around the world, micro-lending programs inspired by Grameen are blossoming, with more than three hundred programs established in the United States alone. Banker to the Poor is Muhammad Yunus's memoir of how he decided to change his life in order to help the world's poor. In it he traces the intellectual and spiritual journey that led him to fundamentally rethink the economic relationship between rich and poor, and the challenges he and his colleagues faced in founding Grameen. He also provides wise, hopeful guidance for anyone who would like to join him in "putting homelessness and destitution in a museum so that one day our children will visit it and ask how we could have allowed such a terrible thing to go on for so long." The definitive history of micro-credit direct from the man that conceived of it, Banker to the Poor is necessary and inspirational reading for anyone interested in economics, public policy, philanthropy, social history, and business. Muhammad Yunus was born in Bangladesh and earned his Ph.D. in economics in the United States at Vanderbilt University, where he was deeply influenced by the civil rights movement. He still lives in Bangladesh, and travels widely around the world on behalf of Grameen Bank and the concept of micro-credit.

A new edition of the New York Times Bestseller by a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The author describes his vision for an innovative business model that would combine the power of free markets with a quest for a more humane, egalitarian world that could help alleviate world poverty, inequality, and other social problems.

Muhammad Yunus, the practical visionary who pioneered microcredit and, with his Grameen Bank, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, has developed a visionary new dimension for capitalism which he calls “social business.” By harnessing the energy of profit-making to the objective of fulfilling human needs, social business creates self-supporting, viable commercial enterprises that generate economic growth even as they produce goods and services that make the world a better place. In this book, Yunus shows how social business has gone from being a theory to an inspiring practice, adopted by leading corporations, entrepreneurs, and social activists across Asia, South America, Europe and the US. He demonstrates how social business transforms lives; offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own; explains how public and corporate policies must adapt to make room for the social business model; and shows why social business holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise.

The capitalist system, in its current form, is broken. Here, a Nobel Peace Prize-winner outlines his radical economic vision for fixing it. Eight individuals now own more wealth than 50 per cent of the global population, and high unemployment in many countries means that people’s skills, knowledge, and creativity are being wasted. Rampant environmental destruction only adds to this picture of a bleak future in which humankind will no longer be able to sustain itself. But what if there is another way? Muhammad Yunus is the economist who invented microcredit, founded Grameen Bank, and earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his work towards alleviating poverty. Here, he sets forth his vision to establish a new kind of capitalism, where altruism and generosity are valued as much as profit making, and where individuals not only have the capacity to lift themselves out of poverty, but also to affect real change for the planet and its people. A World of Three Zeroes offers a challenge to young people, business and political leaders, and ordinary citizens everywhere to embrace a new form of capitalism, and improve the world for everyone before it’s too late.

De l'un des pays les plus démunis du monde, le Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus a suscité une extraordinaire révolution silencieuse qui touche le destin de millions d'individus et passionne les responsables économiques et politiques du monde entier.

Muhammad Yunus hat vielen Menschen aus der Armut geholfen und ihnen ein Leben in Würde ermöglicht, wofür er den Friedensnobelpreis erhielt. In seinem neuen Buch vermittelt er eine ermutigende Botschaft: Jeder kann etwas tun, um anderen zu helfen. Als Wirtschaftsprofessor aus Bangladesch erkannte er, dass bereits wenige Dollar den Weg zur Freiheit ebnen können oder aber zu lebenslanger Abhängigkeit führen, wenn sie fehlen. Deshalb gründete er eine Bank für die Armen, die Grameen Bank, die Kredite an diejenigen vergibt, die sonst abgewiesen werden. Mit über 2300 Filialen und fast 7 Millionen Kreditnehmern, von denen 97 Prozent Frauen sind, hat die Grameen Bank vielen Menschen ein Leben ohne ständige Existenzsorgen ermöglicht. Yunus geht in diesem Buch weiter und kritisiert „traditionelle“ Unternehmen, die sich ausschließlich auf Profitmaximierung konzentrieren und dadurch globale Probleme wie Armut und Umweltverschmutzung verschärfen. Er plädiert für soziales Unternehmertum, das sozialen Nutzen schafft und zeigt, dass Wirtschaft für die Menschen da sein sollte. Wenn wir solche Unternehmen unterstützen und unsere Kaufkraft nutzen, können wir die Armut auf diesem Planeten bekämpfen – das ist die Vision des Friedensnobelpreisträgers.