Any one know how effective something like this is?
Kiva Micro Lender
It seems like a good idea, but i just don't know enough about this sort of thing and I thought some people with econ background or otherwise thought about things like this might have some insight.
Brief summary for lazy linkless folks: is lending small amounts of money to various people around the world a good thing to do? Repayment rate is very high (over 99% i think). You don't earn interest on your loan, but some middle institution will (although Kiva monitors these lenders to ensure that rates are reasonable). This might be changed in the future to encourage further particpation.
My thought is that if this is a good thing, it would be pretty easy to occasionally skim some interest off of paypal and do something good. Especially since its a loan, all you are likely to lose is the interest you would have earned. Any thoughts?