Fade to Black? Get the Gist on the informal, grey, black, and terrorist economies

Where’s the link?

The link between the informal market, the grey market, the black market, and terrorism is tenuous, but the lack of research in the area may hide these connections. The larger a nation’s informal economy, the greater the opportunity for unlicensed workers to exploit the black market or be exploited by those in the black market.

Since the informal market operates “under the table” without taxation, workers are a good target for money laundering or even counterfeit money distribution. What is considered merely the informal economy may play a role in enabling or supporting darker deeds such as money laundering. Informal employment might also be a gateway to the black market especially as the wealth gap widens. Undocumented migrants may use black market connections to get through a border, and those same connections could kidnap them and sell them into slavery. Often these migrants are treated as second class citizens and paid next to nothing because their work and their existence in the country go unreported.