Nationwide, payday loan providers outnumber McDonalds, with approximately 16,000 shops. Per capita, Mississippi has got the many, together with the greatest poverty price when you look at the nation. That starvation cuts deep in Delta towns like Clarksdale.
In neighboring Arkansas, payday lending traced a decade-long arc that ended during 2009 in prohibition. That produces Arkansas, another bad state, one thing of a test instance for studying the advantages and cons of high-cost, short-term credit.
In western Helena, Ark., Vance Kalb’s pawn and weapon store sits in a gritty block with three other pawn shops – with no payday stores.