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« The deepest portion of the Gap, the Eastern Congo, still burns | Main | Pining for the days when China was our foe »
Friday, September 18, 2009 at 12:42 AM
12:42AM

Installments: what businessmen called micro-loans a hundred years ago

DateFriday, September 18, 2009 at 12:42AM

TECHNOLOGY: "Nokia to Offer Phone Installments in India," by R. Jai Krishna, Wall Street Journal, 20 August 2009.

Radical stuff: how to sell an expensive bit of technology to someone on the frontier? Way back when, Singer sewing machine company would give American settlers the gear up front, giving them time to pay back the tiny loan in installments. No Nobel Peace Prize for Singer. It was just trying to make a buck.

Now Nokia does the same with cell phones in India.

Radical new financial innovation no one could have foreseen, signaling once again these are new times totally different from the past!

AuthorThomas P.M. Barnett Comment1 Comment |
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Reader Comments (1)

Lady named Clinton was involved in micro loans to help rural 'frontier' women in a evolving economic Gap country learn business fundamentals on behalf of their communities. Wonder what she's up to now?
September 18, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLouis Heberlein

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