You gotta admit it's darn interesting that the fella who was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize got it on the basis of creating an economic proposition. Then again, since money has led to plenty of armed conflict, it's a natural that money might be part of the solution.

The new Laureate is Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, and it was he who started the Grameen Bank. The idea is microcredit - lending small amounts to poverty-stricken people with no collateral. No typical collateral, that is. Usually bankers look for something that has monetary value, as in a home or stocks. But poverty-stricken people have no collateral in any banker sense of the term, which make them unworthy credit risks, again - in the banker sense of the term.

But Dr. Yunus didn't start this in an ivory tower. Nope. He was disgusted when he saw that a young mother with three children was kept in abject poverty because she couldn't afford to buy the materials for the craft with which she supported her family. She had to buy them from an expensive middle man.

Dr. Yunus then directed his students to study a woman's village, and discovered that 43 people owed a combined total of some $27. He laid out the cash and set them free - economically free, that is, and began to look for a solution. While everyone looks at the tiny sums of money involved, the key was collateral - it was just of a different sort.

Instead of lending to an individual per se, the individual is a member of a group of five who wish to borrow. Only two may have loans outstanding at once, and a loan must be paid back before another loan can be made. That means it's not the banker who is watching the balance; it's your neighbors, friends, compatriots.

Nearly 6 billion dollars has been lent over to the years to over 6 million Bangladeshis, and here's yet another twist: 97% of these people are women.

Let's not get into a gender spat here, but in poor areas as well as rich, it's the women who have the children, raise the children and frequently have to make ends meet to feed the children. Putting five of them in an economic collective - so to speak - is collateral plenty.

But let's get back to why Yunus was given the Nobel Peace Prize, when there is a perfectly good Nobel Prize in Economics.

The major impact of Dr. Yunus' work is not some great insight into the nature of money or the mathematics of its modeling, it's really about the human condition. It was brilliant in its simplicity and its ability to make such a huge difference to so many.

I've been encouraged to engage many economists over the years, but unless someone is talking about increasing the economics of the individual.

So let's not confuse Dr. Yunus' work as one solely for the poor - for poverty is relative, economic enslavement can occur at every level.

The average American college student graduates $20,000 in debt. In banker's thinking, until they have the economic wherewithal to pay it handily and save lots more for a down payment, they can forget buying a house. But buying a house is the single most powerful way to change their economic fortunes.

And a high school graduate? With a low-paying job? A mortgage banker would barely recognize such people.

We need to abandon "banker thinking" in favor of "Yunus thinking" - for everyone. If you can pay rent, you can pay a mortgage. Let's get crackin' on that one. When everyone has stability and a solid financial stake, going to war just doesn't seem so appetizing.

I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.