MicroLoans

When money and friendship mix, the results can get awkward: You front a friend some cash, and then what? Venmo, an app that helps you exchange money through mobile devices, is designed to remove that awkwardness and replace it with something social, and even fun.

Sometimes, small gestures can make huge differences in people's lives and livelihoods. That's the premise -- and the power -- of microlending. For proof, one need look no further than the stories of Marcia and Karen, two entrepreneurs in Costa Rica.

On Tuesday, Starbucks launched "Create Jobs for USA," a program to raise loan funds for small businesses. We talked to CEO Howard Schultz about his concerns about gridlock in Washington, unemployment, the need for a sense of solidarity, and the role of corporate leaders in getting America out of this downturn.

Peer-to-peer lending site Prosper.com has stopped letting high-risk borrowers use its site because too many of them failed to repay their loans. The site's problem, says columnist and one-time lender Alex Salkever, is that Prosper got in the way of letting a social bond form between microborrower and microlender.

Microloans for small businesses have taken off in Peru, where informal employment is high and access to credit is low. The nation now ranks No. 1 in the annual Economist Intelligence Unit survey of world's best business environments for microlending.

I used to be a big fan of the microlending nonprofit Kiva.org, thinking my $25 and $50 loans were really going via Kiva to that goat farmer in Kenya smiling on its Web site, and the single mother in Guatemala running a clothing shop to support her kids. Then I read how Kiva doesn't really make...

This isn't your father's banker. Your father's banker was probably human. Today, you can get online loans without ever stepping into a bank -- actually, without even leaving your home. But that facelessness can be either convenient or dangerous. You need to be cautious when shopping for online...

When I was getting ready to finance my college education, (after hitting up my parents) I looked to Federal Pell grants and the beloved FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). But things have changed, and in the age of Facebook and online interconnectivity, it only makes sense that...