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Pawnonomics by Stephen Krupnik tells the rich and notorious history of the pawnbroking industry and sheds new light on this venerable and still relevant financial institution. Look for it coming to a bookseller near you in May 2009.

Five thousand years of history, much of it shrouded in misinformation, have supported the claim that the pawn broking industry is the second oldest profession.

Krupnik explores common myths and misconceptions about pawn broking and explains in lay-terms the innermost workings and machinery of the industry, so that readers can appreciate its complexity and its value.  He also delves into the sometimes-deserved dark reputation of pawn broking, speculating on how the business of usury can sometimes be its own worst enemy.

Told from an insider’s perspective, Pawnonomics busts old ideas and builds new bridges of understanding for this much maligned and misunderstood tradition.  Through masterful prose and a dash of humor, Stephen Krupnik has written a book that will both educate and entertain.

More About Pawnonomics By Stephen Krupnik

Why are pawnbrokers thought to be dishonest and predatory?  How can pawn broking be relevant in a modern world economy?  Isn’t pawn broking just another way to rip off desperate people and steal their valuables?

These and other misconceptions, prejudices, and questions about the pawn broking trade are answered in author Stephen Krupnik’s new and thoroughly original Pawnonomics, a review of the pawn broking industry and its practices.

For five thousand years pawnbrokers have lent credit to the needy and desperate, the wealthy and the indigent, and the enterprising and opportunistic.  Considered by many to be the world’s second oldest profession, the pawn broking industry has survived where many other enterprises have died away or morphed into a shadow of their former glory.

Pawn broking remains as it has always been: enterprising, omnipresent, and misunderstood.

Pawnonomics takes an unflinching eye and examines the industry socially, economically, and historically to better understand and appreciate the important role pawn broking has played in the shaping, not only of the ancient world, but our modern one as well.  Along with traditional banking, micro-lending, and consumer credit, pawn broking plays a vital and pivotal role in many parts of the global economy in assisting the poor to fund dreams and fulfill destinies.

The pawnbrokers, like micro-lending institutions in third world countries, are actually improving the image of high interest credit companies by demonstrating on a world stage the benefits of offering credit access to low income and presumably higher risk groups.

Written from an insider’s perspective, Pawnonomics provides an honest and uncompromising view of the light and dark side of pawn broking, and busts myths and misconceptions along the way. This is a book rich with history, jam packed with little known facts, and sprinkled heavily with wry humor and wit so that readers are not only educated, they are also entertained.