There’s a rule of thumb in microfinance that says a small working-capital loan to an entrepreneur typically benefits not just him or her, but as many as five people – a spouse, a child, an employee, or maybe a student. This morning I saw that benefit multiplied exponentially. Loan officers at Akiba Commercial Bank manage…Read more »

I used to live next door to Ernest Hemingway in Paris. It’s true – in a manner of speaking. He rented rooms at 117 rue Notre Dame des Champs, above a saw mill, with his first wife, Hadley.  I had an apartment at the top of No. 115, a six-story Art Deco wedding cake with…Read more »

Tianshan Road in PingZhuang, Chifeng Prefecture, Inner Mongolia, is a long way from the familiar – a frontier, on levels too numerous to mention.  But if you squint a little through the hard March light, what comes to mind is a mid-sized city in western Pennsylvania, complete with graying piles of leftover snow and the…Read more »

Cadillac ran a great ad on TV not long ago. Some white-toothed, studley guy zips around joyfully in a silvery, leather-rich Caddy, smug as can be. Things are obviously good. Very good. Then comes the pay-off line: “Life,” the narrator intones, “is just high school with money.” No kidding. And because I’m headed to my…Read more »

Good morning, and welcome to you all.  I mean it genuinely when I say what an honor it is for me to speak to you.  In many ways, this morning feels as though I’ve come full circle in my relationship with SAIS and the MIPP program. I especially want to thank Dr. Leeds for this…Read more »

“I went swimming yesterday in the Amazon.  It was pretty cool.” I fired off that brief email to my little sister on Friday afternoon while waiting for the TAM flight from Manaus to Miami.  In addition to being gloriously supportive of her brother, she’s got a fine appreciation for the exotic. Rightly so.  For a…Read more »

“Just another day at the office.” Film producer Steve Atlas says this sometimes when things on the road get especially weird or wonderful – and there is no shortage of either on this trip. Like that out-of-body hour we spent in Inner Mongolia with Mr. Wong, a senior-level bureaucrat and government microfinance enabler whose office…Read more »

It’s summer in America, and that means… family vacation! So this week we loaded up the minivan and the boys and made the annual pilgrimage to our house in South Carolina’s Low Country. Sometimes I wonder why. As we traversed the Tappan Zee Bridge, we were granted with the majestic sweep of the Hudson. Despite…Read more »

Route 4, ‘Pune Highway’, Maharashtra State, India: The signs for Pune start appearing miles before the city outskirts – an endless parade of towering, glossy billboards promising luxe apartment life in this boomtown of New India. “One Home, Numerous Wishes!” “Make Life an Occasion.” “Experience the Delightful Living!” And my favorite, the simple and definitive,…Read more »