Lenders of Last Resort in San Francisco
March 14th, 2009Via: San Francisco Chronicle:
Things changed about a year ago. People aren’t coming in for spare cash any more. This is financial life and death.
“This is the worst I have ever seen,” said managing partner Joseph Chait. He would know: His late father took over the business in 1965; his wife’s grandfather started working there in 1952. Chait has been there since 1971.
“We are seeing more people who, if they are not at the end of their rope, they are close to it. They are just trying to stave it off.”
Customers come through the door in a sad, daily procession. They are close to default on their mortgage, car payments or their kid’s tuition. They have made the wrenching decision to quite literally sell the family jewels.
Shemano said they tell stories about a piece of jewelry or silver, how it has been in the family for generations. With every telling, the imagined value tends to grow.
“You’ve got to pop bubbles sometimes,” Chait said. “They tell you, ‘I remember this silver tea set from when I was little.’ And you have to say, ‘Well, it’s worth $40.’ ”
At times there are tears – “about once a week or twice a month on average,” Chait said.
Other times reality is slow to sink in. Chait recalls a woman who wanted cash for her silver and gold Rolex watch. She needed the money, she said, to make her Lexus payment.
“In today’s diverse society, many people depend on pawnbrokers to help them meet those daily financial needs not met by other financial institutions…. Our customers represent the working families of America who have an unexpected need for short term cash. Pawn loans keep the electricity on, the rent paid, and cars working and full of gasoline.” – National Pawnbrokers Association, from linked AFP story above
hahahahaha.
Welcome to The New Economy 3.0.
Where pawnshops and multi-trillion-dollar Federal bailouts guarantee the smooth continuity of Business As Usual.
In all seriousness, can we just punch our tickets and get off this train wreck already? I mean, it’s awesome to see, as Kevin so hilariously puts it, “The Batshit Crazy Southern California Version of the Story Below — Now with Even More Michael Jackson”; but come on.
I know Kevin’s working theory on current events is that the horror show will go on, ad infinitum, as long as there are psychopathic mad power-crazed weasel-men with fiat currency and nuclear footballs left to play with. But I hope, and I think there’s some fair amount of historical evidence to support the hope, that chronically unsustainable systems cannot continue indefinitely, and that ultimately people will make the individual choice to say “fuck it” and find their own ways to make it outside of the system.
What happens if and when those people reach a critical mass, I don’t know.