Studies Find Microfinance Does Not Reduce Poverty, Assets Do

ACORN ACORN International Canada Citizen Wealth Financial Justice International

Hamburg  Several years ago ACORN International did a research report that seemed heresy to many, but started from the simple proposition that since microfinance is debt, debt does not reduce poverty, therefore the value of microfinance was the same as buying a job through an employment agency: work at a steep price. For many the …

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Zoning Payday Lenders Out of the City

ACORN ACORN International Canada Citizen Wealth Financial Justice

New Orleans    Payday lenders are weeds that crack the sidewalk. Payday lenders are “broken window” signposts advertising lower income neighborhoods and tending to push communities and families over the edge. There may not be an area in North America that has been more effective in using city zoning policies to aggressively root out payday lenders …

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Hard Ball Politics and Hidden Cameras in the House of Labor

ACORN ACORN International Canada International Labor Organizing

Buckhorn Lake,    Ontario Unions wear politics like a second shirt, always in the closet ready to grab off the hanger and put on. Because they are membership organizations, labor leaders in their normal world representing workers who are their members are also always running for office as politicians in their own right. Most of the …

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