It is important to locate the genealogies of sub-prime lending. First, some aspects of the sub-prime business have been in operation for centuries. Pawnshops and loan sharks have been the subjects of myths, legends, fables and cautionary tales since before the rise of capitalism and have been a key feature of the life of the poor throughout that system's development. These industries thrived not only on poverty, and usually urbanized poverty, but also, perversely, on hope. Their extortionate fees and rates of interest could be justified not only by necessity, but also be the fact that people tend to need to assume things will get better in the future in order to keep going.

Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, loc. 195