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Dear Diary: New Financial Diaries Research Explains Why Many Americans are So Angry
Would you rather have more money or a more stable financial life? A striking 92% of Americans in a recent survey chose stability - a sign of the deep undercurrent of financial insecurity running through the world's richest country. A new book called "The Financial Diaries, How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty" explores this insecurity in remarkable detail. Its co-author, Rachel Schneider of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, discusses the research and its far-reaching implications in NextBillion's latest podcast.
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Don’t Fear the Rate Cap: Why Cambodia’s Microcredit Regulations Aren’t Such a Bad Thing
The Cambodian government recently shocked its microcredit industry by capping interest rates at 18 percent – about half the current rate of most loans. Many analysts sympathetic to the industry have strongly criticized the move, but Milford Bateman argues it's actually an important step in protecting the poor – and resolving an "existential crisis" in a sector plagued by unsustainable growth and high over-indebtedness.
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Why Fossil Fuel Companies Must Evolve or Die: An Interview with Carbon Tracker Founder Mark Campanale
To keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius and (hopefully) avoid the harshest consequences of climate change, up to three-quarters of known fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground. That's the thesis of the Carbon Tracker Initiative and its founder, Mark Campanale. If that sounds like a heavy lift for an oil-dependent world, he raises a compelling point: With collapsing margins and emerging competition from renewables, the fossil fuel industry has no choice but to evolve. Campanale elaborates on these views in this video interview.
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- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Three Reasons Impact Investors Aren’t Sweating Trump’s Climate Policies: An Interview with Nancy Pfund
This week, President Trump signed what's been called a "sweeping demolition of Obama-era policies on coal mining, fracking, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change." So why isn't Nancy Pfund, founder and managing partner of DBL Partners, worried? We discuss politics and the environment with the impact investing pioneer in this video interview.
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- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Mainstreaming Impact Investing: 12 Takeaways from ‘The Economist’ Event
On Feb. 15, 'The Economist' magazine hosted a discussion in New York on how impact investing can truly go mainstream. NextBillion was a media partner at the event, and we've compiled 12 memorable and sometimes unexpected insights from panelists throughout the day.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Social Business Roundup: Laureate Education Goes Big, Omidyar Gives Directly, Surdna Foundation Embraces Impact Investing
In social business news this week, the world's biggest for-profit college company raised $490 million in its public debut, Omidyar Network gave a $493,000 grant to support GiveDirectly's mission of sending unconditional cash transfers to the poor, and the Surdna Foundation announced plans to dedicate 10 percent of its endowment ($100 million) to a new impact investing fund. Read about these developments and more in our news roundup.
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- Education, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Social Business Roundup: Debating UBI in India, Pondering Change at WHO, Questioning SRI
In this week's social business roundup, our editors note the growing debate over replacing welfare programs with a universal basic income (UBI) in India, the limitations of WHO's donor-funded model, and an ironic side-effect of SRI's avoidance of "sin stocks" – among other developments making recent headlines.
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- Energy, Health Care, Investing
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IPOs in Microfinance – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Highlights from Our Twitter Debate
Microfinance's first initial public offerings played an important role in both the sector's emergence and in its fall from grace. But in light of two recent successful IPOs in India, many are wondering if public investment is coming back into vogue in the industry. We gathered a panel of experts, including both optimists and skeptics, to debate the pros and cons of public investment in microfinance in a Twitter chat on Jan. 30; you can read the chat here.
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- Investing