[headquarters]

In times of war and crisis ,the goverment will try to restrict commerce to preserve some materials and goods and to control distribution.

Inevitably this will lead to a "black" economy -meaning that its of the books and outside control.

It exists todaywith guns,drugs,women,underpaid labour etc in all countries- and also on some scale by moving goods off the books to evade taxes .

But if foodstuff,fuel,clothing and raw materials that are common commodities today were moved to the list ,organized crime would expand enormously .

Any farmer with a connected friend in the city could funnel part of the produce outside the ration system and recieve payment off the books.As money would have loosing value , an exchange could evolve where script from a trusted broker or stockist could be the new currency after the markets expand and evolve beyond barter.

For some it would be a more honourable way to get out from under goverment control - say if medication and food was restricted to the obidient/tolerated population.
( " I see your son has been dodging the draft - I am sorry but that means that all of you are on 1/2 rations until he turns up..")

For some it would be a golden opportunity to create themselves as a magnate .

Many organized crime factions have origins that lay in militias and self defense groups - that market could open up again in T2K -and the groups that dont have those origins could evolve into getting a piece of the pai here as well .

I see huge expansion for some organizations - those who can adapt to creating services or obtaiing goods of value -others that rely on international imports of drugs and prostitutes or have operations that rely on a functioning curency system etc will dissolve.