CHAPTER FOUR Petit Bourgeois Fantasies Microcredit, Small-Is-Beautiul Solutions, and Development's New Antipolitics ELLIOTT PRASSE-FREEMAN Introduction eriseofmicroinanceromanobscureBangladeshinongovernmentalorga nization(NGO) innovation(withaninitialportolioo,amously,US$27)toa worldwideinstitutionmovingUS$90billioninloansthroughvirtuallyevery pocket ofthe globeand all in three decades-has been nothing shortof miraculous.Andperhapsevenmore impressivethanthegrowhofthe industry andthemovementbehindithasbeenmicrocredit'sability toestablishitselfasa comonsensepillar,perhapsthesinequanon,of thisnewcentury'sglobalanti povertydevelopmenteforts.Indeed,whenMohammadYunus(2011),awarded the200NobelPeacePrize orhisrolein oundingandpromotingmicrocredit, entsoar astoclaimthatpovertywouldbeeliminatedromtheearth,people listened,peoplebelieved. Setagainst thispromise,onthesurace,themicrocreditindustryappears tohave beenstrugglingthroughanumberofrough years.Yunushasbeen accusedofmisappropriatingdonorundsinordertokeephisGrameenBank alive(Heineman 2011). For-profit (Thriani2012)andnot-or-profit (Sinclair 2012a;Karim2011b)microfinanceinstitutions(MFis)alikehavebeenexposed asoperatingnodiferently thanthe.usurious predators they weremeant to replacewhichhascorrelatedwithinreasedindebtednessormillionsacross theglobe(Bateman2010)andanumberof armersuicidesinIndia(Polgreen and Bajaj 2011). A massive platorm or eicient peer-to-peer lending that captured theimaginationof theAmericanuppermiddleclass,Kivahasbeen evealedasneitherpeer topeer (Roodman 2009a),norparticularlyeicient (Sinclair2014a). 1 Toppingitall,acomprehensiveassessmentofmicrofinance programshascastthepovertyeliminatingclaimsofthepracticeintoserious 69