I just ran across MicroPlace and thought wow, that’s a great concept.  You give them money and member institutions lend it out to emerging market entrepreneurs. You get to see pictures of the people in third-world countries who receive the loans. It’s an eBay Company so it has the air of legitimacy, although I have some doubts after delving deeper into their business model.

MicroPlace is similar to Prosper (which Matt wrote about here and here); Prosper is a general lending program available to everyone in the United States.  These people have many reasons to borrow money: house financing, credit card repayment, boob jobs, etc. After making a loan, you can expect a 6 - 20% return on your money.

With MicroPlace you are investing in entrepreneurs in emerging market countries.  Interesting idea. Looking at a list of the countries on MicroPlace, I found Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Soviet Georgia, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan and many others. You can drill down and see the pictures and profiles of the entrepreneurs. (Don’t worry, I’m sure the guy from Ecuador isn’t actually in a jail cell.)

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Like most people, I habitually whine about taxes. In my case it’s because I have been “randomly” audited for nine years in a row. (not feeling so random) For this reason, I think I have special rights to whine.

My main problem with the tax code is its complexity. I can remember many years ago when Ross Perot had his little speech where he put his hand upon the tax code which was nearly as tall as he was. It’s just too complex.

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