World Black Market Booms

We all know black market goods are available all over the world, but what you may not know is that if you add up all revenue generated from un-taxed business it would equal the second largest economy of the world, behind only the United States.

This off-the-books economy is referred to as System-D, a name that grew out of French speaking parts of Africa and the Caribbean where the practice has been prevalent for years. The D is short for débrouillard, a French word used to describe particularly effective and motivated people.

In 2012 nearly half of the worlds labor force is employed by System-D and those numbers are growing steadily, as are the revenues it generates.

On Around the World, Christiane Amanpour sits down with Journalist Robert Neuwirth, a pioneer in the study of the System-D economy and author of the book Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy