"You can't establish an exact
black-market rate," he said.
"The
black-market traders did not know what the new governor had up his sleeve, so they began selling what they had in dollars for fear of sustaining losses," the trader said.
This rate is purportedly 2% lower than the
black-market rate, though it currently (as of Oct.
Tony Hall (D-Ohio), the author of legislation passed by the House in late November that is designed to stop the sale of "conflict diamonds"--gems that pay for African wars--says that there are practical as well as humanitarian reasons to police the black-market trade.
Yet law enforcement agencies have a hard time combating Minin and other black-market dealers because, says Wolosky, they are "stateless" threats.
As a direct consequence, the
black-market rate rose to S|pounds~330=$1 as more people exchanged their money at the banks because the difference did not appear worth the risk associated with dealing in the black market.
Despite the crime and the black market, there is a strong sense of community, with neighbors sharing rations, homegrown vegetables (nobody grows flowers anymore), and
black-market spoils.
A more objective survey of steroids' role in sports shows that their health risks, while real, have been grossly exaggerated; that the political response to steroids has been driven more by a moral panic over drug use than by the actual effects of the chemicals; and that the worst problems associated with steroids result from their
black-market status rather than their inherent qualities.
While the Cuban peso is still exchanged at an official rate of one to one, the
black-market rate was running at 100 to one the week we were in Cuba.
The middlemen, financers and others had arranged BPL foodgrain through illegal means and
black-marketed the same.
