Study
The expansion of coca-cocaine markets in the Amazon is not solely attributable to state failure or criminal groups. This paper demonstrates how long-term development projects in the Amazon frequently result in the opening of agricultural frontiers, the attraction of settlers, and the transformation of the ecology. The unintended consequences of these state-development projects are the progressive impoverishment of local agricultural communities, the degradation of soil quality, and the deterioration of land security tenure. In this scenario, coca crops emerge as the most viable option for ensuring livelihoods.
Study
Digitalization is not limited to the legal economy. It also permeates illegal markets, improving the way people exchange goods and services while making detection much more difficult. For example, this research shows that perfectly legal apps are used to sell drugs. The experience of drug sellers and users is quite clear: apps like Telegram make drug market activity easier, faster, and safer. This article was the first to bring this phenomenon to light.
Website
The Swiss platform Stop Piracy provides reliable, fact-based information on counterfeiting and piracy, thereby making an important contribution to raising public awareness. The compact fact sheets are particularly helpful, as they clearly show how to recognise counterfeits and dubious online providers. Anyone who wants to deal with the topic not only theoretically but also practically will find an excellent point of contact here.
Book
If you want to understand how illegal markets work — and not just assume that they are merely the consequence of criminal organizations or failed states — this book offers a fresh perspective on hard-to-research economies. It pays attention to additional elements that constitute economies beyond the law, such as credit, infrastructure, social acceptance, and the meaning of commodities. It is the first serious attempt to conceptualize, classify, and suggest future research directions on illegal markets from a sociological perspective.
Film
If you want to know how opportunities encourage crime, we recommend the film The Wolf of Wall Street. The film is based on the story of stockbroker Jordan Belfort and is set in New York in the 1980s and 1990s. The scene of the crime is the barely regulated market for so-called penny stocks. The film shows how easy it was to manipulate the market and defraud unsuspecting customers at the time and how low the chance of getting caught was – especially when you lock the financial regulators away in ice-cold offices...
Book
As a journalist at the German business magazine WirtschafsWoche, Christof Schürmann has been critically monitoring corporate reporting for many years. He not only looks at general business and financial developments but also addresses related issues of accounting and financial reporting. He shows where there is room for manoeuvre and provides examples of how this can be exploited.
Study
For an additional economic perspective: the OECD study highlights the economic consequences of counterfeiting and piracy in Switzerland. It shows how severely export-oriented industries such as the watch and pharmaceutical industries are affected and provides up-to-date data on trade routes, damage costs and global contexts.
KI ist die nächste wegweisende Herausforderung für die Musikindustrie. Baustellen gibt es viele, aber Aufregung über vermeintliche KI-Hits in den Charts hilft nicht weiter. Worauf es jetzt ankommt.
FAZ
Der Politologe Herfried Münkler wertet den US-Angriff auf Venezuela als völkerrechtswidrig. Es gehe US-Präsident Trump dabei um Machtpolitik. Dieser werde auch in anderen Staaten wie Grönland versuchen, „Einflusszonen“ einzurichten.May, Philipp
Deutschlandfunk
