DailyDirt: Actual Theft & Underground Economies

Economics

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Economists have a hard enough time trying to figure out economic statistics from legitimate businesses and activities that are honestly reported to the government. But every so often, someone points out that the official numbers for unemployment or GDP are more than just slightly off. Here are just a few interesting stories related to some fairly sizable underground economies.

• An underground economy of off-the-book businesses could account for trillions in commerce and employ nearly half of all workers. This gray market called “System D” could be worth $10 trillion per year, making it the biggest economy after the US (which itself has an underground economy estimated to be about 10-20% of its GDP). [url]
• A real-life heist involving about 8 men posing as police officers made off with about $50 million in diamonds from a plane headed for Zurich, Switzerland. It might be difficult for these robbers to sell these diamonds through legitimate routes, so the jewels will probably become part of an underground currency. [url]
• Surprisingly, Tide detergent isn’t just soap; it’s also used as a currency for buying drugs. Procter & Gamble hasn’t seen much of a negative effect on its brand, so bottles of liquid Tide will likely continue to be part of the black market. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: black market, detergent, diamonds, gray market, heist, system d, theft, tide, underground economy
Companies: p&g