The Economic Crisis, in Microcosm

Yesterday I went to a meeting in downtown Toledo, passing along the way a row of shops at the edge of a depressed neighborhood which formerly included a mortgage broker. Glaring yellow sticky letters in its windows had spelled out enticements such as "Zero Down!" [exclamation in original], "Bad Credit OK!"

I drive that way fairly often, and earlier this fall I noticed that the mortgage broker had gone out of business. The interior was empty, though the signage remained as vivid as ever. But yesterday I saw that the glowing letters were gone, and that a new business had taken up in that space: a pawn shop.

An acute summary, I thought, of how we've gotten to where we are and where we may be headed.