John At The Center

The flow of pawn customers has increased because the depletion of people’s cash holdings has been “a gradual process” since the crisis, Rubinov said. “It’s not a sudden assault as if someone robbed them…it’s that the well is slowly drying up.”“The way I’m hearing it, the banks are holding off on personal loans. I guess the public doesn’t have anything else to fall back on,” Rubinov said. He found a moment to talk during a brief break in the stream of clients coming up the stairs, each escorted by a scout from the street carrying flyers that say “We Buy Gold, Diamonds, Watche

via Boom Times for Diamond District – Real Time Economics – WSJ.