This latest “Top Picks of the Microfinance Blogosphere” swoops in for a closer look at spurious links between energy drinks and microfinance, examines ways of opening up impact investing to the masses, maps out Lebanese microfinance, and more.

• “Why is it illegal for me to invest even $100 in the business of my choice?” asks a post by Nilima Achwal on the NextBillion blog. “SOCAP11: Breaking Down Barriers to People Powered Capital” dives deep into “the democratization of impact investing.”
• “While the microfinance sector in Lebanon is growing, it is still relatively small in respect to the unmet need throughout the country,” writes Jonathan Bloom in his post “Passport Series: Lebanon: Part 2: Microfinance” on the Kiva.org blog. He takes a look at the big picture of Islamic banking to contextualize his observations about the work taking place on the ground.
• Five young people of the African Leadership Academy (ALA) “interviewed their peers within their countries to solicit views on a number of questions about education, careers, financial services, leadership and entrepreneurship,” Reeta Roy recounts in “Managing Life Transitions” on The MasterCard Foundation blog.  The post offers up the pivotal points that go with these peers’ coming of age, as part of efforts to answer the wider question: “How do we prepare young people for a lifetime of transitions?”
• “Microfinance and the Effects of Energy Drinks: Which Causes Which?” asks David Roodman in a post on his Open Book blog. After examining a particularly jolting piece of data mining, he suggests that, to inform policy, “we need to go beyond mere correlation, to determine whether interest in microfinance is driving people to look twice at high-calorie drinks or the other way around.” You may want to crack open your second Red Bull of the day to really see where he’s coming from.

Image credit: Iainf

Have you read?

Andhra Pradesh, Haiti & Corporate Capital – Top Picks of the Microfinance Blogosphere – August 22, 2011

Financial Ed, Mobile Money, & Savings – Top Picks of the Microfinance Blogosphere – August 3, 2011

Women, India, & Tourism – Top Picks of the Microfinance Blogosphere – July 19, 2011

Armenia, Andhra Pradesh & Pakistan – Top Picks of the Microfinance Blogosphere – June 13, 2011