Reviewing several companies' earnings reports and management commentary, which indicate economic trends.

Certain companies provide insight into economic trends, and investors should watch these for clues to the economy's direction.

Pawn companies like CSH may offer a promising year for investors looking for a steady increase throughout 2010.

When Oregon capped payday loan APRs at 36% in 2007 Advance America closed all their stores in the state. Why? Because the legislature made it impossible for them to collect interest at rates that sometimes ran as high as 700%. So they took their business elsewhere. Payday lenders sometimes try to get around usury laws by denying that they're making loans at all. In an attempt to characterize loans as something else they may call them “sale-leaseback” transactions “deferred presentments ” “cash advances ” “deferred deposits ” “check loans” and the like. In a paper called “Usury Law Payday ...

Few industries look forward to choppy economic waters. Pawnshops aren't one of them.  Cash America (CSH) owns about 500 pawnshops in 22 states. The stock has a P/E ratio of 4.9 and pays a yield of 0.60%. EZCorp (EZPW) has over 290 pawnshops in the US and over 90 shops in Mexico. The stock has a P/E ratio of 9.96. First Cash Financial Services (FCFS) operates over 275 pawn shops. The stock has a forward P/E ratio of 12. “You can look at all the publicly traded [pawnshop] companies; their businesses obviously have benefited from this current economic cycle ...