the.com/loan sharking
credit for people banks won't touch, priced by menace instead of math.
means lending money at illegally high interest and enforcing repayment through threats or violence rather than courts.
from the term surfaced in late 1800s america, when salary lenders preyed on factory workers between paydays; shark evoked a predator circling the desperate, and by prohibition-era organized crime had turned it into a mob side business alongside bootlegging.
why it worksvictims can't sue over an illegal contract
favorite preygamblers, small shopkeepers, undocumented workers
mob crossoverfunded by cash from drugs and gambling rackets
legal cousinpayday loans hit similar rates, minus the beating
for instance
goodfellas henry hill — 1990 film depicts loan sharking as mafia bread and butter
japan yamikin — underground lenders charge rates topping 1000 percent annually
new york bathhouse loans — 1920s garment district workers borrowed from mob-linked sharks