The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank ("Bank rural" in Bengali) - 190 other candidates who have gone before - on the ground that "have demonstrated that even the poorest of the poor can work to advance its development. " The Grameen Bank, founded by Yunus, is just a bank specialized in microfinance in helping the most disadvantaged. Muhammad Yunus was born in 1940 in Chittagong, market town of East Bengal, and has dedicated his life to the realization of projects for the emancipation from misery. As an undergraduate, he became professor of economics at the University of Chittagong, and in 1965, won a Fulbright scholarship, which provided for a continuous stay of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he received his Ph.D. in 1969. He later taught at Middle Tennessee State University as Assistant Professor of Economics. During his stay in the U.S. (where he remained until 1972), she met Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, who showed him how all too often we tend to apply simple solutions to complex problems and as a concrete method of analysis can help identify solutions for the future much more than many abstract postulates. Returning to his homeland, Yunus, after a brief stint as a representative of the Government in the General Economics Division of Bangladesh, he was Professor of Economics and Director of the Department of Economics, University of Chittagong, from 1972 to 1989. In 1976 he launched the initiative of the Grameen Bank, the first ethical bank in the world, demonstrating that, by granting tiny loans to poor families, can do more than with the traditional policies of foreign aid: the recipe is very simple, is that to increase the income of the poor by promoting business growth (and market) at the lowest level of the economy. Muhammad Yunus, since 1983, is also the director of the Grameen Bank. Member of numerous committees - National and global - in the fields of education, disaster preparedness, health and economic development programs, banking, population, received large amounts of major international awards. Creator of the Grameen Bank and, therefore, defined by the media the "Banker to the Poor", Bangladesh has promoted the "micro-credit project, which has come to affect 72,096 villages (86% of the entire country), and over 2,247 agencies three million people. This model has spread, directly or indirectly, in the five continents (through hundreds of banks like the Grameen), involving more than six and a half million of beneficiaries, not only in developing countries. The Grameen Bank has specialized in particular loans in the "base" of $ 100 and allowed thus to create the conditions essential to start self-employment to millions of people, achieving an overall net income, which, in 2005, for example , was 1,000,441,986 taka (more than fifteen million dollars). Of great importance is the role of women, who are the main protagonists of the experiment of Yunus (97% of the total borrowers). His model of solidarity, also was applied by the World Bank and other international organizations. Starting from the study of economics a village of Bengal, Muhammad Yunus realized that, while the most prosperous countries in the constraint to development was the lack of capital and credit for economic activities in less developed countries would have needed was a policy of small loans, to promote 'emancipation of subsistence economy, broaden the economic base and enhance the entrepreneurial capacity of the poor. The result of this bold and innovative decision was extraordinary. As he reminded the skeptics, convinced that after the success of financing activities in the first village, the project would not work: "We did it in twenty villages and it worked. Now we have done in all states and work. The return of the money is more than 99%. The bank increased its profits every year, people radically change their lives for the mere fact of having the money and take advantage of skills, creativity and intelligence to change their lives. " The formula of the Grameen Bank has been tested with similar and more positive effects throughout the world. In Bangladesh, where thirty years ago began the first experiments, a significant portion of loans is now earmarked for purchases of small but comfortable houses, improvement of living conditions, exploitation of land resources, conduct a profitable employment. This funding have encouraged the development of an increasingly mature and build a more modern and tolerant society. Muhammad Yunus, therefore, proposed a model that showed how to balance two factors often considered the antithesis: on the one hand, the creative power of dreams, desires, hope and, second, pragmatism, the ' attention to the reality in all its forms, even the most raw. The jury of the Nobel Prize, that a "lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways not to get out of poverty," shows that the economy can make a vital contribution to freedom and dignity of men, if used with intelligence, openness and a sense of concreteness. For this, the economist Muhammd Yunus has won this prestigious award.
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