More on Microcredit: A Video and Excellent Article on Noble Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus

Here you can link to a video to learn more about microcredit and learn about 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus' amazing work in bringing credit and hope to some of the world's poorest people.

Thursday's Video Conference: Founder of Microcredit Website KIVA: Matt Flannery

Click Here for the website kiva.org, to read more about how you can help empower some of the world's poorest people.

Biggest Dow Jones Point Drop Ever

Here are today's headlines from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The Dow fell 777 points, mainly on news the U.S. House of Representatives defeated the proposed $700 billion financial rescue package.

The Dark Bailout

Students Talking Free Trade

"Business is Booming On College Campuses" ... according to the StarTribune

PHOTO: University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management's Hanson Hall, a new 47.9 million dollar building.

Business is Booming in the classroom, according to this article written by the Minneapolis StarTribune.

Some stats:

1. 4,000 high school students applied for 450 spots for admittance into the U of M's Carlson School of Management.

2. 40% of University of St. Thomas students major in a business related degree.

3. University of Minnesota-Duluth's Labovitz School of Business has gone from 1,200 students in 1998 to 2,000 now, and is building a new $23 million building.

And of course a great incentive for students to major in business/economics, is the pay; see here for a previous Redonomics post on this.

Have Change For A Quadtrillion?

This actual check from Zimbabwe, 1.027 Quadtrillion, is worth about $27 US Dollars. I previously blogged about the world's worst hyperinflation here, here, here, and here.

Detroit House Sells For $1

This house could have been all yours... for $1. Read here from the Detroit News.

DETROIT -- "One dollar can get you a large soda at McDonald's, a used VHS movie at 7-Eleven or a house in Detroit.

The fact that a home on the city's east side was listed for $1 recently shows how depressed the real estate market has become in one of America's poorest big cities.

And it still took 19 days to find a buyer.

The sale price of the home may be an anomaly, but illustrates both the depths of the foreclosure crisis in Detroit and the rapid scuttling of vacant homes in some of the city's impoverished neighborhoods.

The home, at 8111 Traverse Street, a few blocks from Detroit City Airport, was the nicest house on the block when it sold for $65,000 in November 2006, said neighbor Carl Upshaw. But the home was foreclosed last summer, and it wasn't long until "the vultures closed in," Upshaw said. "The siding was the first to go. Then they took the fence. Then they broke in and took everything else."

The company hired to manage the home and sell it, the Bearing Group, boarded up the home only to find the boards stolen and used to board up another abandoned home nearby.

Scrappers tore out the copper plumbing, the furnace and the light fixtures, taking everything of value, including the kitchen sink.

"It about doesn't make sense to put the family out," Upshaw said. "Once people are gone, you're gonna lose the house in this neighborhood."

Tuesday, the home was wide open. Doors leading into the kitchen and the basement were missing, and the front windows had been smashed. Weeds grew chest-high, and charred remains marked a spot where the garage recently burned.

Put on the market in January for $1,100, the house had no lookers other than the squatters who sometimes stayed there at night. Facing $4,000 in back taxes and a large unpaid water bill, the bank that owned the property lowered the price to $1."