Word: barterer
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With the state-run supply system on the verge of collapse, most Poles must turn to alternate sources for food and other scarce items. Those with friends or relatives abroad may get some of what they need via parcel post. Others resort to barter: a mechanic might trade two quarts of motor oil to a salesgirl for a pound of coffee; in Silesia, the miners are reportedly trading coal to farmers for meat. For exorbitant prices, or hard Western currency, almost anything can be gotten on the black market. Sample prices: blue jeans, $180; one pint of vodka...
...some circles coke is a barter item, readily accepted for dental work, as an accountant's fee or in exchange for a discount on a new car. "I have one friend who got stuck with staggering alimony payments," says Jim Groth, a Southern California newspaper editor. "He started dealing a little, and now he is paying off his wife in toot, and everybody is happy...
...guess there's the same amount of use on Capitol Hill and Wall Street." That is not necessarily a comforting defense. Protests Jeff Wald, Helen Reddy's manager and husband, himself a former heavy cocaine user: "I've never seen coke used as a means of barter or a way of making a deal...
Carried by Westar II, INN'S feed provides the kind of national and international coverage few local stations could produce themselves, and at a bargain price: it is free. In exchange for the right to sell three minutes of national advertising, INN provides the show on a barter basis to affiliates, which can sell three minutes of local ads. Says Corporon: "Everybody makes money. And a national news show adds to a local station's prestige, so a little station tends to grow...
Libyan influence is more felt than seen. In the markets, small groups of Libyan soldiers in fatigues or civilian technicians wearing Castro-style caps barter for elaborately decorated Chadian daggers and other trinkets. Virtually the only buildings in town that are being reconstructed are the Libyan embassy and bank. No one is allowed to approach the airport, where Soviet-built MiG-23 and MiG-25 jet fighters are based, or the closely guarded garrison, where up to 7,500 combat troops, supported by Soviet T-54 tanks, are bivouacked. Diplomats say that Libya is providing funds for Chad government salaries...