Key insights from
Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel
Audio available
12 minute read
Published Apr 11, 2017
What you'll learn
A mild-mannered business journalist gets in over his head when his assignment sends him to Latin America to investigate a $300 billion-a-year industry: the illegal drug trade. But then he realizes that cartels utilize the same principles of business as high-performing corporations like Wal-Mart or Coca-Cola, and have many of the same issues to disentangle. Narconomics is the story of what that journalist uncovered while spending time with drug lords, farmers, and law enforcement, and along the winding roads that link them all together.
Key insights
- • What you'll learn
- 1 In leaf form, coca leaves are not nearly as potent as the powder, but they still deliver a buzz that farmers and tourists enjoy.
- 2 Experts observe the “balloon effect” in the illegal drug industry: Press down on one spot, and it expands in another.
- 3 Drug cartels are like Wal-Mart—and coca farmers are like the small manufacturers Wal-Mart extorts.
- 4 Sometimes organized crime rivals get tired of slaughter and opt for symbiosis.
- 5 Corporations monitor market trends and diversify their products accordingly—just like cartels.
- 6 The best way to bring down drug cartels is to regulate—not eradicate.
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