Tanglad writes:

A whopping 90 to 99 percent of these loans are paid back with interest, another shining indicator of microcredit’s success. But there is an ugly side to ensuring repayment, where poor women are made to police one another and punish defaulters with collective acts of aggression… Microcredit beneficiaries are grouped into cohorts of five to fifteen members. They are given clear instructions: “You are all responsible for the loan and have to make sure that no one defaults.” This lays the foundation of a very effective surveillance system, wherein poor women monitor other poor women. And the poorest women, the ones who need loans the most, are evicted from the group to minimize the risk of default.

Apparently, women involved in microlending go to great lengths to repay their loans, cutting back on family expenses, like food, and children's school items. Still, writes Sarah Bosely in the Guardian, "Women could change the face of Africa." Bosely reports from Uganda, where women hold families together, despite being victims of sexual extortion and violence. She notes that the UN finds that 60% of the billion poorest people on the planet are women; 70% of the 130 million children who are not in school are girls. Wouldn't it make sense that any assistance would be a good thing?

Not according to Tanglad, who argues:

The supposed success of “compassionate capitalism” strategies obscures the enormous social costs behind statistics such as amazing loan repayment rates. Social costs that are ultimately borne by women who are already marginalized by their socioeconomic and indigenous status.

Microcredit: “A Political Economy Of Shame” [Racialicious]
Hope Rests With Africa's Women [Guardian]
Related: Do Hopes For Development In Africa Really Only Lie With Women?

Earlier: Money Doesn't Make The World Go Around, But It Helps

And today's teens don't just want to ogle the wealthy; they want in on the action: The new tween-friendly flagship Juicy Couture store in New York offers $328 rhinestone-encrusted cashmere hoodies. Are kids today learning that money makes everything better?

Ms. La Ferla interviews Juliet B. Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College. She claims: "We are living in an era in which emulations and aspiration has upscaled very significantly. The media tells us, 'Anybody can succeed. You just have to have the right clothing, the right friends, the right décor.'"

Cintra Wilson attempted to shop at the Juicy Couture store, which embodies the spoiled brattitude that is so hot right now. She writes: "Juicy is posing as disestablishment chic. It is putting food coloring in its blond hair and driving to the underage punk show in Dad’s Lexus. Juicy is de-punkinated punk that rarely verges into the naughty."

Little girls have almost always dreamed of being princesses, but there's something disturbing about the ways they're going about it these days. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White were kind to animals and never flashed their crotches when getting out of a car; Little Orphan Annie was just as charming and popular when dressed in rags as she was when she became an heiress. She certainly never got carted away to jail by the cops. But these stories about the younger generation are worrying: If all of their idols shop for a living, they confuse expensive with stylish and think that money and happiness are the same, aren't they in for a rude awakening when they get old enough to pay the bills?

Markets Stall But Spoiled Always Sells [NY Times]
Rhinestones Are A Tween’s Best Friend [NY Times]

Ginger Reeder, a Neiman vice president, says: "These gifts are not meant to be anything more than something to make you smile, make you go 'Oh my gosh, who would have thought about that?'" Oh, sure, it's all in good fun. But Neiman Marcus reported last month that it lost $35.6 million in the third quarter of the year. Costs were up and sales were down. And that was before the worst of the financial crisis. "We are anticipating the months ahead will be difficult," Chairman and Chief Executive Burt Tansky said, back in early August. What about now?

Reeder says of the Neiman Christmas catalog (which is planned a year in advance), "I think we all need a break." And it can be an escape, to lose yourself in pages of luxury items you can't afford. (hence the appeal of Vogue.) But isn't trying to acquire things you don't have the means to purchase how this country ended up in a credit crisis? There's nothing wrong with dreaming. But perhaps the time for conspicuous consumption and lusting after ridiculously expensive material goods has come to an end? I mean: Looking at this Jimmy Choo bag does not make me feel better about my finances.

Neiman Marcus Catalog Remains Extravagant [MSNBC]

When was the last time you even saw a Susan B. Anthony dollar? Oh, sure, they've got Sacajawea holding it down now. Love how she's trying to support a kid on that buck. Who else? The Liberty dollar features Lady Liberty but um, she's not real, right?

Meanwhile, the British pound has The Queen on it and Anna tells me there are "women on a fair number of Australian currency notes and coins." International readers! Are there chicks on your bills or coins? Let us know (or post pictures in the comments.) Oh, and don't forget to include how much a woman is worth.

Women Worth Less, and You Can Take That to the Bank [AdRants]