[MoF] Maandverslag / Month report
Ministerie van Economische Zak
ENGLISH BELOW
Deze maand is in financieel opzicht lastig geweest maar er zijn ook nieuwe kansen ontstaan. Ik zal hier het eea uitleggen.
De Monetaire Markt
Aan het begin van de CP periode van Aries I ontstonden er een aantal financiële dreigingen die er voor zorgden dat ik een deel van de aanbiedingen op de MM heb teruggetrokken. Aangezien elke aanbieding minder direct ook minder opbrengsten betekent heeft deze maand dus beduidend minder opgebracht dan het anders zou hebben gedaan. Zeker als je bedenkt dat in de periode er voor door ElGorro net een aantal langslepende toegangsissues waren opgelost en we dus weer een stijgende lijn te pakken hadden. De winstontwikkeling is in onderstaande grafiek weer te zien.
Gelukkig is de dreiging nu weer geweken en kan ik de markt weer uitgebreider gaan benutten.
Gebruik Noodfonds
Aries heeft aan het begin van zijn termijn aan het congres gevraagd om gebruik te mogen maken van het zogenaamde noodfonds. Financieel gezien een zeer onverstandige keuze aangezien er geen enkele kans was op een succesvolle RW, waar het geld (deels) voor werd gevraagd. Bovendien werd er bij de aanvraag zelfs al aangegeven dat het geld ook voor andere zaken zou worden gebruikt dan een RW alleen. Feitelijk werd gewoon een budget verhoging gevraagd. Een zeer vreemde situatie waar ik zelf niets van snap. Het congres heeft er echter toestemming voor gegeven ondanks deze, financieel, zeer onverstandige keuze. Het gebeurt helaas regelmatig, ook in het verleden al een paar keer, dat het congres over financiële zaken een besluit neemt zonder de gevolgen voldoende te kennen, of, kwalijker als je het mij vraagt, dat wel te kennen maar alleen op korte termijn winst/populariteit te focussen. Uiteraard het gevolg van een democratie, zoals ook in RL het geval. Alleen is het in RL doorgaands zo dat de stemmende personen een achterban/ministerie voor zich hebben werken wat eea door kan rekenen. Iets wat hier helaas verre van het geval is.
(In mijn ogen) onverstandige besluitvorming is één ding natuurlijk. In dit geval was het besluit feitelijk ook nog eens wettelijk onjuist. Het gebruik van het noodfonds is namelijk aan regels gebonden die voorschrijven dat het alleen mag worden gebruikt als we in oorlog zijn (sommigen vinden dat we dat zijn doordat we bezet zijn, maar eerdere verzoeken werden juist om redenen van niet in oorlog zijn afgewezen). Daar naast is er voorgeschreven dat het fonds een minimum omvang dient te bezitten. Door de toestemming die het congres gaf zijn we daar direct onder gekomen aangezien we precies op dat minimum niveau zaten. De komende periodes moet het noodfonds dus weer worden aangevuld en toekomstige uitgaven zijn door deze, door het congres goedgekeurde beslissing, dus nog moeilijker geworden.
Het is, mijns inziens, hoog tijd dat er een commissie of rekenkamer komt die alle ideeën van een regering of congres kan toetsen en desnoods via een veto kan tegenhouden aangezien adviezen of meningen van de verantwoordelijk minister met regelmaat worden genegeerd.
Work tax
Is dan alles negatief geweest op financieel gebied? Nee, dat was het niet . De invoering van de Work Tax heeft er voor gezorgd dat onze belasting inkomsten behoorlijk stegen en we op grond daarvan juist meer kunnen de komende tijd. Een mooie belasting als je het mij vraagt omdat het spelers die nauwelijks eigen bedrijven hebben (bijna) niet raakt, maar spelers met veel eigen bedrijven wel een beetje. Daar staat tegenover dat zij iets minder winst overhouden van hun productie, maar dat geld zal ongetwijfeld vooral ten goede komen aan de minder vermogende spelers. Typisch overigens dat er in het congres direct weer stemmen opgingen die belasting maar te verlagen. Iets wat het congres eerder gedaan heeft met andere belastingen wat onze neergaande spiraal voor de overheidsfinanciën alleen maar versterkt heeft. Ook hier geldt dat de onwetendheid, of korte termijn politiek, van congresleden op financieel gebied ons regelmatig tegenwerkt aangaande de lange termijn doelen die daardoor nog langer buiten beeld blijven.
Aanzuivering noodfonds
Door de extra opbrengsten van de Work Tax is het mogelijk direct al een deel van het noodfonds weer aan te zuiveren maar het staat nog steeds onder het wettelijk minimum niveau.
Weekstrom
Minister van Financiën
This month has, on a financial point of view, been very tough, but some new opportunities arose as well.
The Monetary Market
At the beginning of Aries CP term a few financial threads arose that forced me to withdrawn part of the offers on the MM. Since every offer less on the market reduces the profit this month’s gains were much less as otherwise would have been the case. Especially when you bear in mind that some long lasting access issues were solved during the previous period by ElGorro and we just managed to increase the revenues as can be seen in the graph below.
Luckily those threads are gone now and I can start working the market to a greater extend again.
Use of Emergency Fund
At the start of his term Aries asked congress permission to use the Emergency Fund. From a financial poit of view very unwise as there was no change of a successful RW where the money (partially) was asked for. On top of that it was stated from the start it would be used for other matters as well. It was simply a question to increase his budget. A very strange situation that I don’t understand at all. Congress however gave permission despite the financially unwise request. Sadly it happens on a regular basis, in the past as well, that congress decides on a financial subject without knowing the consequences, or, even worse if you ask me, knowing it but only focussing on short term gain/popularity. That’s of course the consequence of democracy, just like in RL. In RL however the people that vote have people/a ministry that works for them to calculate stuff. Something we’re far away from here.
(In my eyes) unwise decisions is one thing of course. In this case the decision was also legally wrong. Use of the Emergency Fund is bound to rules that state use is only permitted in case of war (some say we are due to the occupation, but earlier requests were turned down because we were not at war). Besides that it is dictated the fund has to be at a minimum level. By giving permission congress caused the fund to immediately go below that level as it already was at the lowest level. The coming periods the fund has to be replenished again and future expenses are, by decision of the congress, made even more difficult.
It is, according to me, about time there comes a commission or audit office that checks the ideas from a government or congress and, if necessary by veto, can block things as advise or opinions of the responsible minister are ignored on a regular basis.
Work Tax
Has it all been negative on the financial issues then? No, it wasn’t. The introduction of the Work tax caused our tax income to increase considerably so we are able to do more in the future. A nice taxation if you ask me as players with hardly any companies are not or hardly affected while those with a lot of companies are touched a little. The downside for them of course is they have a bit less profit from their production, but that money will no doubt benefit mostly to the less rich players. Typical by the way that in congress there were immediately people suggesting to lower the tax. Something congress has done before with other taxes which strengthened our down going spiral on governmental budget. Here also the ignorance, or short sighted politics, of congress members on financial issues works against our long term goals that due to that stay out of sight longer again.
Replenishing Emergency Fund
Due to the extra revenues from the Work Tax it was possible to replenish part of the Emergency Fund immediately, but it’s still below the legal minimum level.
Weekstrom
Minister of Finance
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Comments
Well I do like you give alot more context in this report on what your MMM-plan holds. It's bad to hear that emergency funds need to be replenished, which is odd, since the gov wasn't allowed to dip into those funds.
Would be nice if you could pinpoint how that happened.
I do find the change-government-structure-solution a bit too drastic. A good MoF is indeed one who tells his CP no from time to time. It's the government who does most of the spending, not congres, but the latter has less overview, so if it does it could be a big dent in the overal chest. But indeed an audit or something alike before a big new transaction will be made could be a good idea.
I'm not sure where I stand on the work-tax. It's a bit odd we don't have any control over it now...
Considering the work tax, almost every country in the eworld has reduced it to 1%, so it's not that crazy that some people want it lowered right?
you get 3 guesses on how the EF vote went
Well, from a just started player I could imagine the question Daniel, from an older player it is, for me, hard to give an answer time and time again as I did explain several times. The first time in a, lengthy I might add, article that still can be found (in Dutch) in game but also on our forum; http://www.enetherlands.nl/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=10596#p133270
And indeed I would have liked it very much if gov/CP would listen. And I do not hold a political agenda. I only look at things from a financial point of view. You can say or think a lot of vS, but he's always listens, whether he likes it or not, while on two occasions a CP didn't. One even threatened me to comply : -(. Stepping back however I didn't find wise as the result could be even more (over)spending so I stayed to prevent further damage. For that reason I also don't tell the results in numbers as that also make people shortsighted or imperious to a quick success.
But as it's unwise to do it all by myself I did propose several changes already in the past that would give at least one other person an insight in what I do and where we stand. But guess what; Nothing happened.
And indeed gov does most of the spending. It's congress however that did the changes that helped us to drop dramaticly in income. Much more then due to the ingame changes that occurred. And it's also our congress that prevented loads of extra income when it was still possible. We would have had millions if I wasn't obstructed.
As for other countries; There are countries as well that did raise the work tax. Plus most, if not all, counties do have a way larger income/budget. And believe me or not, but I have insight in all of them.
Oh and almost forgot; We dipped below because congress didn't do its job when the request (that should never have been done, for using that budget) came. It's all in the private congress section. But I guess you, among many others, have no access there and I'm not allowed ofc to share info from there.
The usage of the EF (of which 30k NLG was taken) has helped us gain 1400 gold during the National Shield event, which is something everybody seems to forget about... 1400 gold is much more than the 30k NLG, so in the long run this was an investment.
Problem is, we can't touch that money until we liberate one of our regions...
I'm quite sure we wouldn't have made it to the 300% without that 30k investment, so at least 400 gold should be attributed to the 30k NLG. That's actually a profit of 50k NLG.
Actually, our state has enough NLG and gold. The only thing is that Weekstrom is using it on the MM, which is the only reason it's not in the EF. So I don't see the problem. If Weekstrom wants to work by the law, he should simply use 30k less to work with on the MM, and the problem is solved.
the 300% mark was reached due to 2 RW's. Those RW's were not paid for by MOD. MOD supplied weapons to, mainly, lower level players that did help ofc, but in the end would have made no big difference as the 300% mark was overshot by quite a reasonable amount. And had it been still 290% near the end I'm sure some high hitters would have brought it past the 300% mark. Calculations on costs vs rewards were posted on forum also. Not even by me.
As for the amount available; As said before Those funds are earmarked for two reasons; Buying/upgrading state comp plus earmarked inheritances of which I have got stewardship. But as people keep on misusing visible figures, now even on in-game media, I guess I have to store those funds out of sight... (Sigh)
If you take that into account our reserves are quite low and as most of you now the main part of the remaining gold represents a much higher value than it has atm but can't be turned back into that amount. Selling it now would mean a huge loss (>90%!)
Also the EF vote in question is still in the private section of congress, which means you shouldn't be talking about it here. I did ask the CoC at the time to move it to the public section but the answer was "no".
@Tim: Did I discuss anything only found on the private section? As far as I know I didn't. This 30k gap is public knowledge, well at least it should be. It can in any case be found on several places outside of the private section.
On the same topic, this 30k gap is still there. It hasn't been replenished as the article suggests. I can add a link to the evidence here, but I think some caution is wise on the topic of our finances. I guess that's also the reason Weekstrom never adds labels to the vertical axis of his figures.
Anyway, as a CM you know where to look. 😉
@Weekstrom: The gold that was bought at over 2k NLG/gold was a mistake at that time. At the moment it simply should be regarded as being worth slightly over 200 NLG. So the (>90😵 loss has already been made...
Selling it now therefore means no additional loss whatsoever.
And storing funds out of sight is illegal. Congress needs to be able to check our possessions...
Nice report, but very sad to read how things go. One might think that you have proven yourself now and a CP or congress would follow you're advice or opinion. What else do we have a mof for? looks to me a mof (if impartial) should always have the final say if it comes to spending (or gaining) money.
The CP can always fire the MoF, so simply has more power than the MoF, also on financial matters. In this case the CP needed congress approval for his plans, and he got it, so that the MoF had to obey. If the MoF wouldn't have obeyed, congress could have started a motion of no confidence, and would have replaced Weekstrom by someone more loyal to the CP.
That's completely besides the point. A CP should rely on his ministers. If the mof or any other minister has an opinion on the part he's responsible for any decent CP would listen. It looks as if that wasn't the case last term.
I don't see how it's besides the point. It proves that the MoF does NOT have the final say...
Can you please send me the link for those MoF spreadsheets with financial data? They are very useful, but I can't find them anymore 🙁
Have you received them already?
If you haven't, I can also send you the link.
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Good report about the current finances. The members of congress should take a closer look at the finances of the country, it is not always clear. Maybe start a topic in the congress sections where the congress could ask questions and get a overview of the situation.
Very nice report, and from a strictly financial point of view you may be totally right. But on the Shield Event; that was an opportunity to create more unity too - fighting for a shared goal and that made it imo money well-spent. As hard as you are working in increasing our funds, it still takes a long breath because of low income and the huge amount of money needed to seriously start a liberation campaign of any kind. Taking that into account, I find it hard to always choose the in the long run wiser decision (that is: saving up for times to come). So, no hard numbers but more "soft" reasons that explain my vote in the matter.
I for sure would have supported that if that would have been the reason for asking. Not by voting yes on use of EF though. Other sources should have been used or at least that should have been tried first. A completely different path was chosen however.
Besides that I don't think we get extra unity by supplying some weapons. That's only a very short term effect that is gone once the weapons are used.
I'm convinced that posting inbetween results, pushing each other to fight, making competitions between players of roughly equal strength, handing out weapons from person to person as I myself have done works way better then a more or less anonymous gift from gov. As the people I helped myself come to me if they have questions. People that simply responded under an article to get 10 weps will not.
It saddens me that every time people act as if you can not play or get unity if gov doesn't pay things for you. That sounds like communism or something like that which, to me, promotes playing without thinking yourself. It creates players that don't need/take responsibility for their own game. Those kind of players will most likely only play a short period of time as there is no challenge for them or it is to difficult. In the long run we will not benefit. The good boys and girls that also benefit not meant ofc as we do have those as well. But my guess is those people stand out and will get help anyway when needed.
What was it several people stated in RL and here as well?
Don't ask what gov can do for you but what you can do for our gov/nation...
It saddens me that even our MoF doesnt have the intellectual decency to picture us a COMPLETE story.
Is this an objective evaluation of events?
Not only the tournament gold and other rewards the State earned this month seem mysteriously disappeared, the cause-effect relations are subjective and unfounded and non-public information appears to be spread. Besides that its a blatant public attack on deliberate government policy e😜ost.
Honestly Weekstrom, I estimated you higher than this, even tho its known that you disagree with the chosen course. Mentioning only the spending and ignoring the gains (mysteriously enough apart from the MoF gains?) is dishonest.
I am genuinly interested to read a complete picture. (beginning+in-out=end)
This is a very good report.
Hope more reports like that are coming in the future 🙂
Why don't you post also the total tax income on some graphs?