RE: Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts

"Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts" is the headline of a Washington Post article today. Perhaps the experts... aren't.

From the article: "People don't get it," said Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) at a Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday at which senior oil company executives were grilled about prices. Kohl said: "Demand is not crazy. Why are prices going crazy?" The article quotes from a wide variety of people that are allegedly experts, and they basically say they don't have a clue.

The answer is simple, really. The prices are high because a number of events occurred that tend to create pressure for prices to rise (e.g. increasing global demand), and people who choose to invest in oil futures have gotten auction fever. That drives the prices of future oil deliveries up, and the higher the prices go, the more "feverish" the investors get.

Joe's Story
As the price of oil futures are bid up, it has a carry-over effect on current prices. Over-simplifying, and exaggerating to make the point clearer, suppose Joe has 1000 gallons he wants to sell today to a gas station, he paid $1.50/gallon, he plans to sell it for $2/gallon, and oil futures that are about to "close" are selling at $1.50/gallon. Before lunch, the price for the futures that are about to "close" are driven up to $1.75/gallon, an increase of almost 17% in a few hours. Now Joe's gotta figure after he sells his gas, he's got to buy more at $1.75.

Joe could sell the gas for what he already planned to, make the amount of profit he already expected, buy his next shipment of gas for whatever the market cost is at that time, and mark up his price accordingly. That's the way most of us want Joe to see it. But Joe doesn't see it that way. Joe figures, the gas I have is worth a lot more this afternoon than it was this morning. I'm going to charge the gas station $1.75/gallon this afternoon. And he'll make a lot more profit at the expense of the person who pumps it into his car later. Or maybe he's worried that he'll be accused of price-gouging, so he decides to sell it for only $1.70/gallon.

Good ol' Joe. It's not his fault, it's "just basic supply and demand". Except that the faster he raises his prices, the more it feeds the auction-fever frenzy of the oil future speculators.

If you haven't figured it out, Joe represents the people at the big oil refineries and distributors that decide how much and when to increase their prices.

Who's fault is it?
Well, the market pressures are what they are, and they've been creeping up. The oil future investors have been over-reacting to market pressures because their exchange medium is auction-based. The big oil companies' price setting policies have been exacerbating the problem.

What can be done?
There are several options: change nothing, lower demand, increase supplies, or regulate distribution.

1. Change nothing and the prices may soar to wild heights. I've heard people talking about the "extreme" possibility that gas could go over $5/gallon at the pump. That's nothing, over $20/gallon is possible. Why? Because when auction fever runs amok, prices have no top-end in the short-run. Have you ever been in an auction, started bidding, gotten caught up in it, and bid way more than you really thought the item was worth? It happens every day in every auction-based market. Remember the incredibly high prices of tech-stocks before the tech-bust? Same thing. Dangerous? You bet. Bad enough that nations can go to war to "protect their national interests". For example, oil was a major factor in Japan's expansionist policies leading into World War II -- they wanted to secure the oil resources their economy was becoming dependent on.

2. Lowering demand is not likely at all, and if a major effort were made, it would accomplish too little to cool off the auction-fever.

3. Increasing supplies is technically more plausible, but you'd have to get a majority of oil-producing nations to glut the market to stop the auction speculation frenzy. Those nations only have so much oil, however, and the faster they pump it out, the faster they run out, and they don't have anything to replace that income with, so they want to try to stretch it out. Plus they're getting much higher prices, so they're not as worried about the consequences as others are.

4. Which leaves regulation. There are many ways to regulate, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, from both practical and economic perspectives. Unfortunately, anything that will seriously cool off the oil futures speculators will cause a separate set of negative effects.

What will be done?
Things will keep going just like they have been, and one of two things will happen. The oil market will stabilize enough to cool the investment speculators enough for the last ones in to lose a lot of money, and then prices may start adjusting more slowly. Or, the price increases will continue to rise rapidly and cause repercussions that are so painful, governments will begin increasing regulations, and they'll implement them haphazardly and with increasing severity until there's a global crash.

What should be done?
For many decades, industrial nations have periodically had banking crises characterized by panics that are similar to run-away auction fever, and they've created more and more mechanisms to avoid panic and to intervene when panic does occur. Some of these mechanisms are always-present regulations, and some are regulatory powers that only kick-in under specific circumstances, and only until circumstances improve. It hasn't been perfected, but the overall effect has worked very well for a long time now in the banking industry.

Similar efforts should be made to regulate commodity markets, such as oil. For instance, if retail prices increase by more than a specified percentage in a specified period of time, oil companies could be prevented from increasing their profit-margins. This particular interference in the marketplace would not cause the long lines that rationing causes, but it would effectively cap the oil companies profits until markets stabilized.

Top-it-off
Okay, so I used the topic of experts being puzzled to rattle on about some ramifications of high gas prices and espouse what I think would be an improvement. Getting back to the starting line, I don't know why anyone is puzzled. The market for oil prices is an auction, and the investors playing in it have gotten auction-fever. The question shouldn't be what's driving the high prices, it should be what we're going to do about it, if anything.

I'm Back!

I finished the 2008 Cherry Blossom 5k Sunday morning, the first timed race I've ever competed in, and the first time I've been able to seriously run in many years. And the first timed-race in my life was also the first for my two sons! They didn't take preparations very seriously, and I beat them handily. I don't want to tease them too much, however, so I don't give any extra incentive for next time. It won't take them much effort to trounce me, I suspect.

But for now, my thyroid is under control, I'm not taking any medications with wacko side-effects, and I've getting stronger every week. I'm back! Back to when I used to run just because I love to. Although at the end of the race, it was more like staggering. I left nothing on the course.

I finished in 28 minutes and 47 seconds, averaging 9 minutes and 16 seconds per mile! I placed 63rd out of 267 men (well, males, some as young as 9). I was 6th out of 19 in my age group of 45-49. Not bad, considering I'm twenty-something years out-of-shape, it was cold, it was raining, and I started at the back of the pack, so I spent a lot of effort moving side-to-side to get around people.

Some folks might think I have a tiny little competitive streak, but that's not true. The fact that I've already been examining the results to see how many more people I could have finished in front of if I had shaved off another minute, or two more minutes, is just a form of mental exercise. While I plot my next race. One scheduled for a warmer day.

The Myth of the Ongoing War in Iraq

It's the year 2008 and people are saying "the war in Iraq" to refer to the activities of our U.S. combat troops in Iraq. Republicans are saying it. Democrats are saying it. Independents are saying it. News reporters are saying it. Political commentators are saying it. There's only one problem with it. There is no war in Iraq.

We were at war in Iraq, but that ended when the U.S. and its footnote-allies crushed the Iraqi Army. It began on 20 March 2003, and it ended on 15 April 2003. The war is over.

Ask a thousand people what "war" means and 99% will tell you some variation of: the military of one nation or group of nations fighting the military of another nation or group of nations. On 15 April 2003, Iraq had no military. That's a noteworthy point. Here's another: Iraq has a military now, and the U.S. military is training and equipping them.

Yeah, I've read or heard people whining: "But we still have soldiers there", "But we're still spending billions of dollars on military operations over there", and "But we still have soldiers being killed in combat operations over there".

Okay, here's my specific rebuttals to those issues. We have soldiers in many nations all over the world and we are not at war with those nations. Japan, for example. The amount of money spent doesn't define whether or not we are at war. We spend a lot of money to support our troops in Japan. Altogether we spend hundreds of billions every year on military expenses even in peace-time. Yes, we have soldiers dying in Iraq, but it's not from war, it's from occupying-actions.

Since 15 April 2003, U.S. military forces in Iraq have been attacked, and killed, not by the Iraqi military, but by armed Iraqi citizens who object to our continued presence there and by non-Iraqi instigators generally promoting Iraqi civil war for a variety of reasons. When our combat troops make a raid today, it's not to defeat an opposing army, it's to enforce civil order on those rebellious citizens and to capture or kill anti-Iraqi and anti-U.S. terrorists.

So what? At the end of World War II, there wasn't much armed resistance in Germany because Germany's infrastructure was in ruins, there were relatively few men of fighting age still alive, and it was occupied by multiple very large armies. There wasn't much armed resistance to the occupying forces in Italy, because the citizens were content to start rebuilding for the most part. There wasn't much armed resistance in Japan because their Emperor had surrendered and was still nominally in charge of society. In addition, none of these conquered nations had religiously motivated murderers trying to stir insurrection.

The U.S. had more than enough troops to crush the Iraqi military in 2003. We never had enough troops to enforce civil order afterward. The "surge" helped, and a larger surge would have helped more. An earlier increase in occupying forces would have helped sooner. But it's not us against the Iraqis.

We're for the Iraqis. We want all Iraqis to share the benefits of a peaceful representative democracy. We want them to prosper. We want them to enjoy freedom. We want them to live. Regardless of whether we should have overthrown Saddam Hussein or not, the price we're paying now in lives and money is to promote freedom in an infant democracy. Not to wage war.

Running again!

I used to love running. A long time ago. Over twenty years ago. Then my medical mysteries became debilitating, and I was unable to run. For over 20 years. Then a couple of years ago, my general practitioner finally figured out what all the specialists missed. My thyroid was busted. So I started taking a thyroid hormone replacement, and I got a lot better. But I had other problems. Most of the remaining problems went away when I quit taking a medicine that was supposed to help with the painful burning sensation in my feet (peripheral neuropathy, probably due to the thyroid deal).

I started exercising again. I included walking. Faster... and faster. Then I tried jogging. Boy, did that feel great! After rebuilding a little leg strength, one day I broke into a real run. The first time in over twenty years. Wow! I loved it! I didn't run long, I didn't run fast, and didn't run far, but I ran! I increased all my exercising and ran more and more. Still not a lot, but getting better and better. I had more energy for other things, too, and started doing more things in my spare time.

Then my muscles started freaking out. Muscle relaxers didn't work. Massage made it worse. It got to the point that just touching muscles could hurt a lot. More doctors. More tests. Lots more. An unfortunately familiar pattern. On high-pain days when I couldn't work a full 8 hours, and not knowing what the cause was, I wondered how long I had left to live.

Then I had an annual physical, at my general practitioner's office. They were more worried than usual because I looked so bad. But, a few days later they called and said my cholesterol levels were finally in the good range, and I could quit taking Lipitor. Within a few days, my painful, debilitating muscle problems starting going away! Why didn't the doc's figure that out? Well, severe muscle problems are known side effects of Lipitor, but apparently most people who have those particular side effects have them very soon after they start taking it, and I had been taking it for a couple of years without any problems.

But, once again, I started getting better, exercising more, and finally started running again. Just a few paces at first, then fifty feet, then a hundred. When I got up to where I could do a slow run half-way home from the train station, I signed up for the Cherry Blossom 5K run-walk on April 6th, to give myself an external goal. It's only a 5K run-walk, but it's a real race. My first goal was just to finish, no matter how long it took. Unlike the 10 mile Cherry Blossom, there's no bus to scoop you up if you go too slow.

Well, I joined the fitness club in the building where I work, I've kept exercising, and a couple of weeks ago, I ran the whole way home, about a half-mile. And today... today I ran 3.1 miles on the treadmill... that's 5 kilometers, folks. My top speed was only 9 mph for a few paces, but I did 6 and 7 mph for sustained periods. Of course, the rest of the time I was walking. Total time? 32 minutes, 23 seconds, for an average pace of about 5.7 mph.

The race is a week and two days away, on an early Sunday morning. I'll let you know how it goes. If I live to tell...

Protest of Electronic Voting Machines

This morning, February 12, 2008, I appeared at my polling place in Mosby Elementary School to cast my vote in the Democratic presidential primary, but refused to use the electronic voting machines, due to their inherent unreliability. The chief and assistant chief of the poll determined that this circumstance (my claim that the machines are unreliable) was not clearly covered by their rule books, so they phoned the Fairfax County Electoral Board. After they spoke to officials there, a County official also spoke to me by phone. After a lengthy discussion, the official on the phone spoke to the assistant chief of the poll and authorized me to submit a provisional paper ballot, although they were unable to assure me that my vote would be counted. They further explained that I have the right to appear before the County Electoral Board at Noon tomorrow at the Fairfax County Government Center, Room 315-C, to defend my ballot.

I will appear before the board and base my case on Virginia Code 24.2-642, which begins, “When any voting or counting device becomes inoperative in whole or in part while the polls are open…”, and the fact that it is impossible to know if the voting computer is recording all votes accurately.

My position is that there are only two ways for a person to know that an electronic voting machine is accurately recording votes and thereby fully operational. 1. Have the voting machine produce a paper record that allows each voter to confirm that their vote is accurately recorded on the paper record and use those paper records to validate the records and tabulations of the voting machine, or 2. Have a person who understands every line of code in the software and both the original and current condition of every physical circuit in the computer hardware verify that no errors can occur. In the first case, the use of a voting machine is rendered moot except that unvalidated election results can be produced very quickly. The second case is not humanly possible, and even if it were, we should not trust our election results to any single person.

Official reasons I have heard for the use of electronic voting machines are: 1. They save money, 2. They provide rapid results, and 3. They count more accurately than people counting paper ballots. Unofficial reasons, I suspect, include overly optimistic marketing presentations of the companies who manufacture voting machines, which gloss over the systemic flaws in the voting machine concept.

The fundamental purpose of an election is to provide citizens with the ability to elect representatives by popular, anonymous votes, and there must be a method by which ordinary citizens can validate all votes, otherwise our elections are vulnerable to errors serious enough to effect the outcomes of elections, whether those errors are intentional or unintentional. The purpose of an election is not to save money nor to provide rapid results.

Saving money and providing rapid results should only be considered for methods that improve voting systems that meet the fundamental purposes of elections, which must include the possibility of comprehensive verification. A claim that voting machines count more accurately than people is not true in the case of machines without voter-validated paper trails, because without voter-validated paper trails, it is impossible to know the accuracy of the voting machines' records. The executives and technicians at the voting machine companies say, "Trust us." I, for one, will not.

For these reasons, I will never again use a voting machine that does not include a paper record that allows me to verify that my vote was correctly recorded, so that the rapid-tabulation systems can be verified. I will continue to appear at my polling place in every election and request either a fully auditable system or a paper ballot.

John Lambert
Fairfax, VA

For further reading:

What's More Important: Accurate Elections Or Fast Results?

You Can't Patch An Election

Black Box Voting

E-Voting Undermines Public Confidence In Elections Even Without Evidence of Wrongdoing

Judge Voids Election Results Over E-Voting Results That Couldn't Be Audited

Article index of voting machine issues

UPDATE: 2/13/2008

Well, I got to defend my ballot with the Fairfax County Electoral Board, and it was a fun experience. They had 3 voting members for this process and 2 advisors, and they were all intelligent, reasonable people who were focused on following the rules to ensure the integrity of the election. Excellent! It was determined that the person who authorized me to complete a provisional ballot should not have done so, as the rules provided those only for people who were not in the polling book, but contended that they should have been in the book, not for people who wanted a paper ballot because of any other reason. Well, the rules for the Board are different from the rules at the poll, so the issue was now different. One voting member took the position that I was eligble to vote, and they had my sealed vote, so they should count it. Another took the position that I shouldn't have received the provisional ballot in the first place, so it should not be counted. The third's position was that I was trying to "strong-arm" a way to use a paper ballot, when the rules did not provide for that (which was correct), so he was opposed to counting my vote. Then they asked the advisors about precedents and were told that this issue has arisen in the past, and the votes were counted. Based on that insight, they all agreed to count my vote.

The best thing, though, is that when I inquired about how I could pursue moving Virginia away from non-voter validated voting systems, they told me that it had already been done. Last year (I probably missed this in my research because it was so recent), the Virginia Legislature passed a law that all new voting equipment must include the option to process paper ballots. And there will be at least four in use in Fairfax County this November. (And they said that they would make sure that one of those machines was in my precinct!)

Everything Has An Upside

Personally, I don't recommend you try to develop peripheral neuropathy for any reason, but if you're stuck with it, there can be advantages...

When I was in the neighborhood of ten years old, I accidentally raked the index and middle fingers of my left hand across the rotating blade of a table saw. It sliced into each finger tip parallel to my fingernails and took out chunks of meat. I was surprised at how much blood could come out of fingers, since there aren't any arteries that far from the heart. But those little veins and capillaries carried an awful lot of blood. Yuk. I hate seeing blood. Especially mine.

Of course, the wound healed over within a week or two, but those fingertips were still sensitive to touch for a long time after that. Eventually, though, they got to where I didn't notice them any more.

That is, until the first time I tried to play a guitar. Trying to fret the strings was too painful to endure. Yeah, I know, it hurts every new guitar player until calluses form. Except my index and middle fingers hurt far worse than the other two fingers, especially when I pressed right on the scars in certain directions, so I'm pretty sure that was worse than usual. At any rate, it was bad enough to keep me from trying for more than a few minutes once every few years.

Now, take that scenario, add a couple of decades of nerve deterioration in my hands, and viola, those two troublesome fingertips no longer hurt too much to fret a guitar! They still hurt a little bit, but I figure they're about the level that most people would normally feel. That's where my neuropathy really pays off! :) And as an added bonus, my ring and little fingers on my left hand don't hurt at all... they're too numb!

My best neuro-doc has also told me that my peripheral neuropathy may improve eventually, since it was caused by deficient levels of thyroid hormones that is now being controlled. So, I may lose numb-finger "advantage", but if I do, you can be sure I'll have well-developed calluses long before then. Make hay while the sun shines, as they say, or in this case, make calluses while the pain is numbed!

Why guitar? I couldn't stand the poor sounds I was getting out of my violin long enough to get to the point where it wasn't too annoying. I don't really care much for the sound my autoharp makes. My trumpet is a little too LOUD to practice whenever I want. The guitar is easy to get good sounds out of if you can hold the strings down, I like the sound I get with thumb picking/strumming (don't care much for the sound I get from picks), and its quiet enough that I can practice any time I want!

Oh, and why are my hands and arms numb, but the nerve damage in my feet causes a nasty burning sensation? I dunno. It's relatively common for peripheral neuropathy, but no one seems to know why some people get burning sensations vs. numbness in various places. That's one of the 23,917,603 reasons I say that medical science, like all other sciences, is still in its infancy.

Ouch Relief

Well, the nerve blocks were nice for a few hours each time, but then they wore off. Nothing was helping much and we (the doctors and I) weren't making useful progress in figuring out exactly what was wrong with my muscles, ligaments, and tendons, let alone why.

I can now report very good news, however. About a month ago, I had my annual physical, which showed that my cholesterol was finally back into a healthy range, so I stopped taking Lipitor. A few days later, my muscle/ligament/tendon problems were noticably better, on average. And kept getting better. I didn't want to blog this until now, thinking that couldn't be it, and I might start getting worse again.

My neurologist has just told me that considering all the circumstances, he's certain that my muscle problems for the last 9 months was indeed due to Lipitor side-effects, despite the fact that I was on Lipitor for a couple of years before that without those effects. As I've started telling friends and relatives about the Lipitor connection, now they've been telling me, "Oh, you were on Lipitor? I could have told you that causes muscle problems." Nothing like hindsight...

We have no idea why those side-effects kicked in all of a sudden, but boy, what a relief to be rid of them, and to know what the cause was. That was kind of like my nasty experience with Cymbalta, which the neuro-docs put me on a high "theraputic" dose of to try to ease the burning in my feet. I was on that for a long time also before side-effects kicked in and knocked me sideways.

So, I've been perking up, muscles/tendons/ligaments are back to "normal" for me.
I've gotten caught up at work, and things are looking rosy again. And my hobby activity is picking up again, as evidenced by this post! The only pills I'm on now are Levoxyl (thyroid hormone replacement) and 3000IU/day of vitamin D, so I shouldn't be getting any new side-effects from miscellaneous drugs.

A moral to this story? Perhaps that perscription drugs can be just as dangerous as illegal drugs. And no, I don't use illegal drugs... I have enough problems without intentionally causing more.

Leg? What leg?

My left leg (below the hip/groin area, above the ankle, and excluding the knee), doesn't hurt as much as my right leg, and I think that can only be due to the nerve block & cortisone derivative treatment earlier this week. The funny thing is, those parts of my legs hurt so much less than other parts, the other parts have held my attention to the point that I didn't even realize until now that those parts of my legs were hurting. Hm... is that good or bad?

Well, I'm still going to do my best to follow advice I got many years ago, from my first pain management specialist: ignore it all as much as you can and get on with things. That doesn't always work, but it's better than the alternatives.

Ouch

My excuse for not posting in a long time is that I've been in a lot of pain. Peripheral neuropathy due to hypothyroidism. Yuk. I've been able to keep up with my full-time job, but just barely. Yesterday a neurologist injected some nerve-block type stuff in some muscles and tendons in the left side of my butt. The goal is for us to compare how that effects my left side to my untreated right side. It's a diagnostic process right now. The first few hours were pretty nice, with a neglible amount of pain in my left butt, and even a little less pain in my left leg, but then it started fading, as expected. I'll see that doc again in two weeks. Right now, I'm really wishing I could have a pain free part of me again.

Pig Track

7 June Update: This week, 143 even. I think next week's weight-in will be the final one for this event.



19 Apr Update: Last week, 146.5, this week, 144.5. My long term target was 145, but I think the Pig Club considers it a good thing if you weight less than the weight that was your original target.


What is the Pig Club?

6 Apr Update: Last week I wasn't at HUD, so I missed the weigh-in. This week I'm down to 147 even.

15 Mar Update: Last week I was down to 148. This week I'm down to 147.5 -- just haven't been very hungry...

24 Feb Update: Last week I was up slightly to 153. This week I was down to 150, earning myself the coveted title of Lean Machine of the Week. Who cares about emmies, grammies, and oscars?

9 Feb Update: The Pig Club's tracking system can't handle a goal of staying the same weight, so I've changed my goal to lose 5 pounds from my starting weight. And I'm headed in the wrong direction...

Update & Poem

Hmm. I haven't posted in over a month. Well, that's about when my muscles started going on strike. The first 3 1/2 months of this year seemed like my body was improving steadily, with just a few minor setbacks now and then. Then my muscles started tightening up.

No big deal, I always have a prescription of muscle relaxers (methocarbomol) from my doc, and I usually keep some on hand. I just take those for a day or two, the muscles get over whatever was causing the problem, and I'm no worse for wear. Except this time.

The problem hasn't subsided, is worse than ever before, and the muscle relaxers have barely kept me functional enough to do my job. I have an appt this coming Friday to talk to the doc again to try to figure out what the cause is so I can start improving again. She's a great doc, I procrastinated making an appt, and it takes a long time to get one, because she's so popular.

---

Okay, this isn't Carla's poem, it's mine. But I don't wanna create a new category for one entry, and "Carla's poetry" is the closest. It's the only poem I've ever written that I like. And I thought it had been lost forever, but Carla had copied it years ago, and just found it. This poem is from a guy (me) who used to worry about the "waste" of giving cut flowers as a present, until he realized...

An Economist's Justification

"A waste of money,
these flowers will rot!
They'll dry up and wither,
and then what have you got?"

Yes, I know my dozen messengers
will not produce like kind,
but even if they do prove brief,
I certainly will not mind.

For regardless of their life-span,
and their non-regeneration,
yet they provide a forum
of unequaled demonstration;

The Love that these kind friends reflect
says, "I love you a lot!"
And when these sweet red roses,
with their joy have been forgot,
your knowledge of my love for you,
of a certainty, will not.

Thus their cost is not so great,
when their true benefit you see --
for these flowers tell the whole world
that you're worth everything to me!

P.S. Regarding that last line. You always have been. You always will be.

Prosperity for Posterity

Prosperity for US
Well, I read about Prosper.com a few months ago in Readers Digest magazine, but forgot about it until this past week. It's a pretty cool peer-to-peer loan system for U.S. residents founded by the guy who started ELoan.com, and I've opened an account (it's free) and started fiddling with it. (For details on how it works, visit their web site.)

This prompted me to look at our debts, and I was surprised to find that we have 3 credit card accounts with small balances that have exorbitant interest rates. So, I studied up how to apply for a loan on Prosper, joined a group, got my info verified, and posted an application for a $5k loan to pay off those 3 credit cards. I put in the maximum interest rate allowed by Virginia, 11%, and it got fully funded within minutes. However, I'm letting the listing stay open for the maximum time of 10 days, and since it was fully funded at 11%, additional lenders (individual investors) have been bidding to get a piece of my loan, thereby bidding down the interest rate, which is now below 10%. Way cool! Check it out:

You can borrow, you can earn money by lending, or you can earn money by managing a group.

Prosperity for the rest of the World
One guy borrowing money via Prosper is using the money to reinvest, partly in microloans at kiva.org. I never heard of kiva.org, so of course I had to check it out.

Kiva (from the Swahilli word for "agreement") allows anyone to make microloans to the working poor in some of the poorest areas of the world. The staff at Kiva vets each borrower, and though the amounts are generally small by U.S. standards, they can have profound impacts on the people who receive these loans.

Some of these folks may never have another opportunity like this to improve their and their families lives, and you can help. You can make a small loan to someone on the other side of the planet and improve their lives forever.