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Stories Tagged as

Black market

Inside China's "superchip" black market

by Kai Ryssdal and Sean McHenry
Aug 29, 2024
Powerful computer chips are sold in Shenzhen markets despite U.S. restrictions on exports, says Ana Swanson of the New York Times.
An electronics store in a Shenzhen tech market, where vendors are selling some restricted NVIDIA superchips.
Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images
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How the demand for French bulldogs has created a black market 

by Janet Nguyen
Feb 21, 2024
Demand for French bulldogs has soared, leading to high prices, theft and unethical breeding practices.
French bulldog puppies can cost between $3,000 and $10,000, one expert told us. Their high value makes them susceptible to robberies.
Celiaaa/Getty Images Plus
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"Pumping Iron"

The utility of bodybuilding

by David Brancaccio and The Econ Extra Credit Team
Jan 6, 2023
Econ Extra Credit newsletter #132
A screenshot of packaging for "Pumping Iron." The marketing tactics behind the documentary, which featured Schwarzenegger and bodybuilder-actor Lou Ferrigno, affected the sport for decades to come.
YouTube
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Cactus poachers are picking the Texas desert clean of rare species

by Zoe Kurland
Feb 21, 2022
The lucrative cactus black market is booming, and many species are threatened with extinction.
Karen Little, manager of the Sul Ross State University greenhouse, holds a rare Pelecyphora aselliformis cactus, seized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service en route to markets overseas.
Zoe Kurland
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The pangolin black market is fueled by its scales, not its good looks

by Kimberly Adams
May 15, 2019
Pangolin scales are in demand primarily for traditional Chinese medicine.
A baby Sunda pangolin nicknamed 'Sandshrew' is taken out for feeding by Serena Oh, assistant director and head vet of Veterinary Services in Wildlife Reserves Singapore, at the Singapore Zoo on June 30, 2017. Sandshrew was brought to the Wildlife Health and Research Centre on January 16, reportedly found stranded in the Upper Thomson area by a member of the public. Sunda pangolins are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images
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Shelf Life

What North Korea looks like with capitalism "creeping in"

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
Jun 1, 2018
In 2016, writer Travis Jeppesen became the first American to study at a North Korean university.
Men push their bicycles past portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang in 2017.
ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images
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For many Haitians, street dispensaries are the only source of medicine

by Hayley Hershman and Paulina Velasco
Jun 16, 2017
What’s a street dispensary? It’s “a sort of chemical Babel Tower,” according to Arnaud Robert, who reported on these Haitian pharmacies for the June 2017 issue of National Geographic. But the street vendors are not pharmacists, and their wares are not regulated. This illegal, ubiquitous medical practice can have serious consequences for the health of many […]
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Inside the booming black market for bourbon

by Adam Allington
Jun 14, 2017
High demand and short supply mean some labels are all but unavailable in stores.
During the early 1920s, Old Pogue Distillery, (Mason County, Kentucky) sold limited quantities of its whiskey for medicinal purposes under the Old Jordan brand.
Adam Allington/Marketplace
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Migration is a business on Mexico's southern border

by Lorne Matalon
Jul 8, 2016
As people and goods illegally cross the Mexico-Guatemala border, many profit.
The words read "Christ Lives." Migrants and goods such as oil and foodstuffs are transported illegally on a raft below a bridge that is an official port of entry between Mexico and Guatemala.
Lorne Matalon
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The Resource Curse

In struggling Venezuela, cheap gas and food are smuggled out

by Scott Tong
Apr 11, 2016
Gas is so cheap that it can be sold at a profit in neighboring Colombia.
Long lines formed outside a Venezuelan gas station.
Jorge Galino/Marketplace
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