The Angry Arab News Service

"Jeffreys' book explores how the sex trade has been transformed from a small-scale, furtive, vilified industry, into a hugely profitable and legitimised one. As such, the text teems with startling figures. There's the fact that the stripping industry is worth at least $75bn worldwide, bringing in $15bn in the US alone - more than the revenues generated by baseball. Or the detail that the pornography business is now so successful and mainstream that it is covered by the financial newspapers, with some companies, such as Beate Uhse - Germany's most successful sex-shop chain - listed on the stock exchange. "Prostitution is now a significant market sector within national economies," she says, with her usual forthright intensity. "The sex industry in the Netherlands, where [prostitution] is legalised, is worth 5% of the GDP."" (thanks Marcy)