ABSTRACT
Reflecting back on The Civil Corporation, which was published in 2001, and on what has changed since, Simon Zadek pointed to the geopolitical shift towards Asia and Russia, the increasing influence of investment markets, the reemergence of a strong state role and greater emphasis on partnerships and collaboration. It is credible systemic risk accompanied by demonstrable failure of our two primary large-scale instruments of change, namely public policy and capital market allocation. After speaking to Zadek in Geneva, the author took a train through the picturesque Swiss Alps to Gstaad, where Muhammad Yunus was speaking at a conference on microfinance, the movement he helped to seed through the example of the Grameen Bank. Part of Yunus's 'worm's-eye view' perspective was a gradual realisation that microfinance works best when the loans are given to women. Today, economic theory presents the human being as a single-dimensional being: all you enjoy is making money.
