David Roodman at the Center for Global Development has begun an “open book” about microfinance. He is publishing chapters as he goes, with space for readers to comment.

As well as an interesting way of working, this threatens to be a very interesting topic. David is not starry eyed about the role that microfinance (and other financial services for the poor) can play in development – he’ll bring an unsual degree of rigour and balance to this debate.