Latvian Hookers Signal No Recovery for Economy

[Camtender]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aSRh7Cf2DTrU

When the economy starts to lift itself out of this recession, what will be the leading indicator that tells us we have turned the corner?

Some people track the price of shipping to gauge the health of global trade. Others look at the supply of freshly minted money pouring out of central banks. A few will say that signs of life in the housing markets are evidence of a recovery.

Forget them all. The one lesson we can draw from the global credit crisis is that all the traditional ways of measuring the state of the economy are about as useful as a bottle of suntan lotion in a snowstorm.

So here are two benchmarks we should all be monitoring more closely: extramarital affairs and the price of Latvian hookers. Both are telling us that there is still plenty of trouble ahead.

[World Traveler]

Latvia’s Sex Slaves - Baltic Times 5/7/09

"Latvia’s human trade in misery" (From the Baltic Times)

"RIGA - There are concerns Latvia’s worsening economic situation is behind a rise in an insidious human trade.

A leading Latvian women’s rights group told The Baltic Times human trafficking remained a hidden scourge in Latvian society, warning the increasing economic and social burden borne by women in Latvia made them particularly vulnerable to exploitation...

Speaking ahead of the organization’s ninth anniversary on May 5 Lace said recent economic hardships had resulted in an explosion in the numbers of so-called fictive marriages, with statistics showing that Latvian women in comparison with their counterparts in other European Union states were among the most vulnerable...

Riga’s ignominious reputation as a city of sex and sin, and the resulting rise in so-called black tourism, has also opened markets for trafficked women from Russia, Moldova and even Asia, sold as sex slaves to work in Latvia...

Hundreds of women from the Baltic States who had fallen prey to human traffickers have been rescued by London police in recent years.
Parliament representatives heard that about 20 percent of all sex slavery victims from Lithuania are underage.

Slavery is a growing epidemic in society throughout the world. According to information available, human trafficking, along with drugs and arms, is amongst the top three trades globally in terms of organized crime..."

http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/22865/