Entries by kamaainaloan

See gold go UP!

A month ago, gold was trading at $1,175 an ounce. This morning, it is a bit over $1,290. That’s a gain of about 10%, and, no, we didn’t see that coming. So bring us your gold, and we will buy it or lend on it, and either way, we can offer you more than we […]

Crooked lawyers? Say it ain’t so!

The post below is copied from my other blog, Restating the Obvious Maui, at The Maui News. For Kamaaina Loan blog, the key point to add, if you are a borrower, is that pawn loans are “non-recourse loas, which means that if you do not repay, the pawnbroker can keep your collateral, but he cannot […]

Farewell to 2014, a ‘meh’ year for gold

At Kamaaina Loan we look forward to 2015, because gold has got to have a better year than the one it just had. Of course, we make loans and buy gold whether it is up or down, but like most people (bears excepted) we like the price to be up. That allows us to lend […]

Cliff Slater was right

Honolulu rail transit is going to be a disaster. It is no surprise that the cost overrun is already estimated at $500 million. Still worse, Honolulu is thinking of plundering TheBus to cover TheRail. Honolulu once had a good bus service. No longer. And raiding the modernization fund will just destroy what’s left of it. […]

Bad for Russia, good for gold

When asked about the direction gold will take, Big Rich always says, “It will go up, or it will go down, or it will stay the same.” Seldom does it do both so enthusiastically during one 24-hour period than it did Monday and today, however. As Bloomberg News reports: Gold rebounded from yesterday’s biggest drop […]

The people’s bankers

It has been 80 years since the Pecora hearings exposed how big banks work against the public interest. New Deal regulations limited some of the worst depredations and, most importantly, initiated the longest period in history without a financial panic. Since 1980, the trend has been to regulate less and less, or not at all. […]

‘Getting the chair,’ but in a good way

From Norwich, Conn., we learn of a pawnbroker who took the old advice and made lemonade from his lemons. According to WTNH television, it began 5 years ago when Phil Pavone of A-Z Pawn bought a couple of motorized wheelchairs, expecting to resell them. They didn’t move, so he had another thought. Kamaaina Loan blog […]

Crazy for love, maybe?

I think this guy wanted to be caught: Police found that the suspect (in a burglary of a Black River Falls, Wis, pawn shop) cut himself on the broken glass and left blood evidence inside the store. Police collected samples of the blood and processed them as evidence, along with the pipe the suspect used […]

Wow! Sure didn’t see that coming

At the Kamaaina Loan blog we have been following with amusement and fascination the ups and downs of the gold price over the past few weeks. One minute the price jumps to $1250 and a day or two later it’s under $1200 and then back up again. Sometimes the moves can be attributed to some […]

Gold gyrates

The price of gold changes every day, sometimes by quite a lot — a $25-an-ounce move is not unusual. But it doesn’t usually vary so much within a day that Kamaaina Loan has to adjust the amount it offers on gold loans or purchases. Today, as gold continues a strange series of gyrations, a midday […]