Application of sweezy’s demand curve in relation to Drug Cartels By Callum Martin
Dec 13, 2014
Application of sweezy’s demand curve in relation to Drug Cartels
By Callum Martin
What are Drug Cartels?
• Criminal Organisations developed primarily to promote and control drug trafficking.
• The term was applied when the largest trafficking organisations reached an agreement to coordinate production and distribution.
• Actually no longer exist due to demerger.
How are Drug Cartels Structured?
• Falcons “eyes and ears”, lowest rank.
• Hitmen; armed groups carrying out assassinations and defence of territory.
• Lieutenants; Second highest rank.. Management of Hitmen.
• Drug lords (Capos); Highest position available, supervises everything.
Mexican Drug War
Know any of these faces? $$$
Facts and Figures of Mexican Drug War
• 50,000 troops actively fighting drug war
• 3,000 soldiers killed in 6 years.
• The Zeta cartel; largest, commands 10,000 gunmen stretching from the Texas border to Central America.
• The United Nations estimates that the U.S. narcotics market is worth about $60 billion annually.
• Of which Colombian and Mexican cartels take in $18 billion to $39 billion from drug sales in the US each year.
• In 2007 Mexican authorities made the largest cash seizure in history when they discovered $205 million in the home of a suspected cartel supplier of meth-precursor chemicals. The money weighed more than 4,500 pounds.
Extent Of US Drug Problem
Sweezy and this Demand Curve of his..
• Created by Paul Sweezy, a Marxist Economist in 1939.
• The kinked demand curve theory is an economic theory regarding oligopoly and monopolistic competition.
• Classical economic theory assumes that a profit-maximizing producer with some market power (Oligopoly) will set marginal costs equal to marginal revenue.
• This result does not occur if a "kink" exists. Because of this jump discontinuity in the marginal revenue curve, marginal costs could change without necessarily changing the price or quantity
So Here it is..
• p*, is profit maximizing for any marginal cost curve (MC) that cuts the vertical section of the marginal revenue curve (MR)
• The kinked demand theory of oligopoly behaviour predicts that prices are likely to remain unchanged for small changes in costs.
• Unfortunately, this theory is silent on how price is initially set and, hence, does not explain price levels.
So how does this all relate to Drugs then?
• Well if Cartels don’t need to Compete on Price, then they will find non-pricing strategies to try and gain market share.
• This is the root of Mexico’s problems as Cartels have realised what Sweezy was on about.
• They turn to murder to eliminate rivals.
Thanks for listening
Now For A Quiz!
How many trucks leave from Zetas' stronghold in north-eastern Mexico to
cross into Texas on a daily basis?
A) 85
B) 850
C) 8500
How much does a Kilogram of Mexican Black Tar Heroin Cost?
A) $12,890
B) $78,000
C) $33,000
And Finally, How Often is there a Drug related murder in Mexio?
A) 98 minutes
B) 11 minutes
C) 3 hours