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From November 12 - 16, Marketplace's Stephen Henn reports on individuals who make a living under the radar of the traditional economy. Marijuana is delivered door to door to thousands of New Yorkers -- and law enforcement looks the other way. Colombian drug dealers convert "dirty money" into clean, usable cash. Guns abound in Brooklyn. Forced labor makes a comeback in isolated immigrant communities. And drug-runners, prostitutes and bookies reveal the intricacies of their shady careers in their own voices.
November 16, 2001
Illicit Market Share
"You create a good product, you market it, good customer service and relations, and you
will have repeat clients. It's that simple.”
--Lizzy, a Washington D.C. call girl
RealAudio | Text
November 16, 2001
Diary of a Midwife
"After 25 years of practice, I know I'm at least as skilled in helping women give birth as many physicians, but in many parts of the country, doctors have fought to keep midwives like myself illegal -- arguing we are unskilled, unskilled, and potentially dangerous."
--Marie, the midwife
RealAudio
November 15, 2001
Disposable People
"The price of a slave in the pre-Civil War South -- when adjusted for inflation -- was around $40,000. Today, around the world, the average price of a slave is about $90 -- disposable."
--Marketplace's Stephen Henn
RealAudio
November 15, 2001
Diary of a Lady Bookie
"Bookmaking is a lot like Wall Street -- it's all a numbers game."
--"Lynn," the bookie
RealAudio
November 14, 2001
Gambling Ain't What it Used to Be
"It is not like years ago -- you don't break anybody's legs anymore. You gotta be crazy, the trouble -- it's not worth the headache."
--“Tony,” the bookie
RealAudio | Text
November 14, 2001
Diary of an Entrepreneur-Prostitute
"Although I know how to run a very profitable business, and feel good about the work I did, I know that my Ivy League education and master's degree won't protect me from people's judgements."
--anonymous former prostitute
RealAudio
November 13, 2001
Pot to Your Door, 30 Minutes or Less
"When you're delivering drugs door to door, discretion is the key. Drug-runners, with pocketfuls of cash and satchels stuffed with marijuana, need to disappear into crowds as a necessity of business."
--Marketplace’s Stephen Henn
RealAudio | Text
November 13, 2001
(Un)happiness is a Warm Gun...In Bushwick
"So many young people around here have them that I can walk a block away from my house in any direction and run into some young kid with a gun."
--Jesus Gonzalez, 16
RealAudio | Text
Jesus Gonzalez’s story was produced by Radio Rookies at WNYC in New York:
http://www.wnyc.org/new/RadioRookies/i_news_radiorookies.html.
November 13, 2001
Diary of a Former Abortionist
"Not in our wildest dreams did we, a group of ordinary women, think we'd be running a floating underground abortion service, and ever performing the abortions ourselves. It was women's needs that drove us."
--Laura Kaplan, former "Jane" member
RealAudio
November 12, 2001
The Black Market Peso Exchange
"If you are smuggler in Colombia, you cannot pay through the banks. You know the banks will tell you, ‘Let me see your import documents and the customs clearance process, and all the import duties that you pay.’ They have no documents."
--Jesus Giraldo Botero, Colombia Customs Service
RealAudio | Text
November 12, 2001
Diary of an Upscale Drug-Runner
"Unlike many corporate jobs, delivering pot was a rush. There's a certain thrill you can get in sucking a few thousand dollars every day out of the legitimate economy and into the invisible one coursing just beneath the surface."
--"Jody," former drug "mule"
RealAudio
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