Amongst many other international awards, Muhammad Yunus received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama, in 2009.
It might come as a surprise for readers to learn that, legally, Grammeen Bank has not been classified as a bank in the USA and it has, therefore, not been subject to usual bank regulation. This is because Grameen America can't accept deposits from the public and, instead, raises capital through non-refundable deposits or 'donations.' In other words, Grameen has not been fully-accountable to the people financing it; for they are not investors and their motivation has not been profit. In 2008, Grameen America opened its first Branch in the New York borough of Queens. This was followed, in 2009, with a branch in the South Side of Omaha, Nebraska, where almost all borrowers have been unemployed, women immigrants from Latin America.
It has recently been reported that many of the poor women who received their initial $1500 loans from Grameen America in New York and Omaha, have been persuaded to pour this borrowed-cash into 'Herbalife' and other 'MLM income opportunity' frauds, believing that they were going to achieve total financial freedom through buying a quota of products each month whilst recruiting their friends and relatives to duplicate the same endless-chain plan. In this way, numerous empty stores in Omaha were transformed into so-called 'Herbalife Nutrition Clubs.' These were typically draped with green curtains and decorated with posters of soccer stars who play for clubs sponsored by 'Herbalife.'
Sadly, these so-called 'Herbalife Clubs' continue to vanish and the loans which were used to create them, have not been repaid via profits generated via regular sales of 'Herbalife' products to the general public (based on value and demand).
In reality, so-called 'MLM income opportunities' have been dissimulated closed-market swindles (i.e. without a significant or sustainable source of revenue other than that deriving from their own contributing participants, due to the fact that 'MLM' wampum always been effectively-unsaleable on the open market). Classically, other than an insignificant minority of schills at the top of these pyramids, so-called 'MLM income opportunities,' have had 100% rolling loss/churn rates, whilst this key-information has been deliberately hidden from the public by their instigators.
Until recently the Grameen Bank has operated a policy of trusting its clients to make their own choice of business. However, for obvious reasons, certain Grameen staff have belatedly begun to advise their American borrowers not to get involved with with 'MLM' in general, and 'Herbalife,' in particular.
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111904370004577390241476503930.html#articleTabs_article%3D1
It is interesting to note that the US federal government's Small Business Administration (without actually naming any so-called 'MLM' companies, because that is forbidden by law) specifically lists all 'pyramid sales plans' as being ineligible for financial assistance; describing them as:
... 'plans, where a participant's primary incentive is based on the sales made by an ever-increasing number of participants. Such products as cosmetics, household goods, and other soft goods lend themselves to this type of business.'
It is interesting to note that the US federal government's Small Business Administration (without actually naming any so-called 'MLM' companies, because that is forbidden by law) specifically lists all 'pyramid sales plans' as being ineligible for financial assistance; describing them as:
... 'plans, where a participant's primary incentive is based on the sales made by an ever-increasing number of participants. Such products as cosmetics, household goods, and other soft goods lend themselves to this type of business.'
David Brear (copyright 2012)
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