Week of May 9, 2011

This is our weekly round-up of stories and reports that piqued our curiosity. Please add any suggested “must reads” that have been missed via comments.

• Check out the latest in Savings and Microfinance Research
• Savings as Forward Payments: Innovations on Mobile Money Platforms by Ignacio Mas & Colin Mayer
• “Microfinance and its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh” – An anthropologist refutes the argument that microfinance empowers women and alleviates poverty. 
• CGAP on: Matching Types of Accounts to Types of Needs: Lessons from India - Latest in Savings series. 
• Reaching the Poorest: Findings from the CGAP-Ford Foundation Graduation Program 
• Microfinance Focus: Comparison of the recommendations of the Malegam Committee and Jonathan Lewis moderates a microfinance panel discussion at the Skoll World Forum on Do you have to trade profit for impact?
• Bill Easterly reviews two of microfinance’s most anticipated books: Poor Economics and More than Good Intentions (in the Washington Post)

Last week’s Yunus stories: 

• David Roodman on: Yunus Really Out and The Investigators Speak 
• Grameen Bank's response to the issues raised in the Bangladesh Bank's Review Committee Report
• An interview with chair of investigative committee at New Age.
• Professor Yunus' statement on the outcome of the court case