Payday lenders find lucrative home in Ariz.

Craig Harris, Ryan Konig and Matt Dempsey of The Arizona Republic looked at how minimum regulation and a large population of low-income workers has created a thriving market for payday lenders. “In the past four years, the number of payday-loan offices in Arizona has nearly tripled to 610, and there are more of these offices across the state than McDonald’s restaurants and Starbucks coffee shops combined. Arizona also has a higher number of payday-loan offices per capita than the national average.” The paper projects that Arizonans will pay $165 million dollars in interest on such loans this year.