In Las Vegas, history has a price, not a past
The Washington Post
As a teenager in Las Vegas, I spent my weekends trawling through secondhand stores and pawnshops, an archaeologist of sorts in a city with no history, said Stefany Anne Golberg, who writes for the Smart Set.  The Las Vegas of my childhood was the unapologetic and unsavory Las Vegas of $4.99, all-you-can-eat, discount fun. That version of the city would fade to the margins a few years later, though even the kiddie casinos and family shooting ranges couldn't kill it completely.
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PayPal courts outside developers
AFP via Yahoo! News
PayPal has opened its software platform to outside developers in a move designed to unleash a flood of creative uses for the online financial transaction service. The company owned by online auction powerhouse eBay marked the occasion with an inaugural PayPal X Innovate conference in San Francisco.More

Inside the global gold frenzy
The New York Times
Here, in a corner of Switzerland where Italian is spoken and roughly one-third of the world's gold is refined into bars and ingots, business is booming. Every day, bangles, bracelets and necklaces arrive in plastic bags — from souks in the Middle East, from pawnshops in Asia and from corner jewelers in Europe and North America. "It could be your grandmother's gold or the gift of an ex-boyfriend," said Erhard Oberli, the chief executive of Argor-Heraeus, a major refiner here that processes roughly 400 tons of gold a year. "Gold doesn't disappear."More

A heartbreaking glimpse into poverty: Powerful documentary aims its lens at a pawnshop in Edmonton, Canada
The Edmonton Journal
The pawnshop in Edmonton, Canada is an unlikely place for a movie set, and its curmudgeonly Jewish owner David Woolfson is an even unlikelier leading man. Yet for a month earlier this year, the store, A1 Trading, along with Woolfson and his customers, served as the backdrop for a powerful documentary that critics across the country are calling a cinema verite masterpiece.More

U.S. jobless rate at 26 year record
The New York Times
The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly jumped to 10.2 percent last month, a 26-1/2-year high, adding to pressure on the Obama administration to do more to tackle unemployment even as signs of recovery mount. The Labor Department said that employers cut 190,000 jobs in October, more than the 175,000 markets had expected but fewer than the 219,000 jobs lost in September.More

EZCORP's net income increases 31 percent
CNN Money
EZCORP's net income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 increased 31 percent to $20.9 million ($0.42 per share) compared to $16.0 million ($0.37 per share) for the prior year quarter. Total revenues for the quarter increased 34 percent to $164.8 million, primarily from a 43 percent increase in total sales (merchandise and jewelry scrapping) and a 39 percent increase in pawn service charges.More

Pawnbroker seeks more than $50,000 in Illinois village lawsuit
La Grange Park Suburban Life
Pawnbroker Andrew Grayson filed a lawsuit against the Village of La Grange, a suburb of Chicago, is as a result of a failed bid to open a pawnshop there after the village banned such businesses, despite the fact Grayson had already been issued a business license.More

Limit on pawnshop merchandise approved
Business Gazette
Prince George's County pawnshops in Maryland, will no longer be allowed to buy or sell basic medical, health and beauty products under a new bill passed by the county council. County Bill 38, which passed 8-0 without comment, is designed to stop frequently stolen items such as razors, lotion and over-the-counter medicine from being sold to the shops. The law takes effect Dec. 18.More

Study: Concentration of payday lending associated with neighborhood crime rates
Reuters
As Congress debates financial regulatory reform and the Obama Administration advocates for greater consumer financial protection, a new study finds a need for Congressional action on fringe banking practices used heavily by financially vulnerable families. The study details the toll on communities with a high concentration of payday lending business and finds a clear association between the presence of payday lenders and neighborhood crime rates. The study recommends that Congress take action to cap payday lender interest rates at 36 percent, enacting for the entire country protections Congress put in place for U.S. military families.  More