No available Kiva loan requests!

I was going to fund another micro-loan through Kiva.org using the money that has already been repaid on some of my loans from last month, but the Kiva Web site reports that they have no available loans to be funded! In other words, there is actually an over-supply of money to be lent relative to demand for new borrowing. Part of the issue is manpower on the ground in these developing countries to rapidly but properly process loan requests from the local micro-entrepreneurs. Not to complain, because we lenders depend on those local lending partners to properly vet loan requests. The local requests also need to be translated into English.

The list of available loans is updated every hour. I hit refresh a few times and eventually the "no loans" page is replaced with a loan page that has one new loan that was funded even before I clicked "Lend."

Wow.

But it just goes to show that despite the "recession" and all of the people who have lost jobs, there is still a vast amount of free cash sloshing around in the economy.

I'll check back at a slower time of day, like maybe early tomorrow morning.

I just hit refresh again and another single loan is available. I clicked refresh again and it was actually still available. A couple more refreshes and it is at 72% funded. I could fund it, but this is an experiment to see how quickly a fresh loan is getting funded. ... 78% ... gone ... and yet another loan comes and goes in a single refresh ... now three loans available ... now gone -- fundraising page says four, but all have been funded! Kiva needs a better real-time database interface. Still, that is a "good" problem to have in today's economy.

Wait... a new loan appeared and still needs another $25 ... click "Lend" ... oh well, "Due to the overwhelming demand of other users, it was not possible to fulfill your loan." Maybe tomorrow.

-- Jack Krupansky