The Economist reported this week (16 May 2009, p. 82) that the world's poor have such difficulty saving that they actually pay effective negative rates on the order of 30 to 40 percent per annum. I've known about this for some years now and already developed a business plan that would allow U.S. mutual funds to tap this latent market. Before you cry no way, check out the article "Reducing the Poor's Investment Risk: Introducing Bearer Money Market Mutual Shares" in the Journal of Financial Transformation, available free here.
The real question is not how to help the poor to save but why The Economist's reporters didn't find and report on my article.
