Author Nils Gilman argues that black markets may not be a negative from every perspective. “If you like entrepreneurship, if you like innovation,” says Gilman, “then you’ve got to love deviant globalization.” Gilman notes that the narcotics industry in Mexico directly employees 400,000 people – more than finance or oil.
There is some great research being done on the black market, in Ireland Karen Mayor is working on a paper on the topic.
Deviant globalization is a strange thing, on one hand you have tourism, then on the flip side you have sex tourism. Legal drugs are one market, illegal drugs are another and a serious multi-billion industry too. There is military distribution then you have arms dealers, for almost any industry there is an illegal version and this video is looking at these in a manner that doesn’t get into the morality of it but rather the economics of the issue. This is fascinating viewing, the full clip is here