Moorlock reviewed Off the Books by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh
Review of 'Off the Books' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Venkatesh stumbled on the underground economy of a poor neighborhood in Chicago and “saw a world open in front of me whose significance I couldn’t have imagined. The innumerable economic exchanges that took place every hour, every day, no longer seemed random or happenstance. There was a vast structure in place, a set of rules that defined who traded with whom, who could work on a street corner or park bench, and what prices could be set and what revenue could be earned. There were codes in place for settling disputes and adjudicating conflicts, unwritten standards that tried to ensure that haggling did not get out of hand…” He brought an academic eye to this economy (and an investigative style not afraid of getting its fingers dirty) and shares what he observed.