[MoF] (Sort off) monthly report

Day 2,206, 05:19 • Published in Netherlands Netherlands • by Ministerie van Economische Zak


As it’s been a while since I published an update I decided to set aside some other erep (forum) issue to update you all again. I have a few hours of today which gives me the opportunity to put some time on an article rather than only doing a quick action or glance at the markets before attending to work again.

Those forum issues, where one or two congress members are quite persistent on stating the same questions over and over again, are causing me to put loads of extra time in some sheets without any extra result coming from it. Therefore its mostly lost time. Frustrating as most of the answers they seem to seek are available to them all the time but they refuse to look themselves it seems.

But as I can only spend my time once and decided to publish this article to you all instead of only “reporting” to a few congressmen these Congress members, as a result, have to wait a while longer before I can proceed on reworking the sheet but I’m sure they value the information presented here way more than the reshuffling of information they already possess.

Due to the amount of time I need RL on a few issues and the amount of time needed in eRep for my core business I will not be able to also publish in Dutch but despite that I decided to publish although our laws that some of our citizens think are sacred dictate otherwise. From this also I trust those CM to value the article way more than me ignoring the need for a Dutch translation this time. (lack off) time is also the reason I am not using pictures; Seeking them costs time. I rather focus on content without much bling bling and let others publish bling bling without content. And as finances should be rather serious I figure that fits best also.



As it’s been a while I give you a report of both this and previous two periods so as a result all that’s done. Well the overview that is as I’m quite sure there are no more then 2-3 people that really know/understand the amount of work that has to be and actually is done on a daily bases. There even have been times the last 3 periods where the MM screen of erep was constantly monitored as we have been on the edge of the next steep decline of the gold price. We’ve even crossed the edge a few times but somehow managed to grasp a straw and climb back again. I guess this must have been a bit of the feel stockbrokers must have in hectic times. Due to the nature off my office layout I’m able to do so otherwise this work would not even have been possible. At least not in a way that minimises our risks.

Changes
In these three periods a lot has changed. We made a succesfull Airstrike into eCan to start with at the end of the first period. Van Spijck as he was still called back then was allowed to add another CP term to it and despite several setbacks managed to pull it off just before the end of the second term to also get two other regions in eCan assuring us a 40 members congress at a, back then, reasonable, cost to our treasure.

After this was done we were all surprised by the introduction of the Determination Bonus (D😎 and Occupation Tax (OT)the admins introduced. It not only changed the game and world map drastically, getting us all our original regions back, it also gives huge financial challenges.

What has been done?

Monetary Market
Well, working on the MM in my role as MG in the first place as that has been the constant concern. Prices of gold have been stable for quite some time but margins were very low so the amount of profit that could be made was also very low. Plus, the risks were high as well as the margins are that small. In the last month that even got worse after the introduction of the OT and DB. Margins dropped to 1% and at times even less. So although in the last month I had a number of transactions that topped all scales the results are still marginal at best. The current term hasn’t ended yet but there will be no further profits so the final results are known. In the graph that by now should be familiar to everybody that hasn’t been eBorn the last 3 months this looks like this;


eCanadian treaty
After the signing of the ‘Maple Tulip’ agreement that was signed with eCan there have been discussions about interpretation of it when it comes to payments. There were misunderstandings at the eCan side but in the end we came to the shared view we already thought we had. Payments have been made and the way things are calculated were made clear to prevent future misunderstanding.
Payments we had to make were 3.000cc over previous term (oktober CP elections) and 11.414cc this term. A rough indication of the month to come indicates the costs of around 14.000cc on rent alone.

Occupation Tax effects
The admins introduced the OT that had a large impact on us as due to that parts of our taks income went to Poland. Luckily, due to the DB that only lasted very short when it comes to these losses (roughly 8,4k was lost in roughly 8 days).

It also has effect on our income. At first glance one might think our tax income has increased. However; A large portion of that taxes are eCan taxes that we need to repay. This period isn’t over yet but we will end up having to pay another amount of roughly 16k to compensate eCan. Together with the rent we pay that means this month’s renting of eCan regions causes us to pay roughly 27k from the gross tax income we had. That to us is a huge amount!

Our spending
So how did our spending look like? During the first term this report covers we did spend a lot. Not only we started the airstrike (83.333cc, approved by congress) we also signed 5 MPP’s (50.000cc) and paid some players to start the RW in NN (6.500) along with some minor other spending we did spend almost 141k where budget was a bit less than 40k. This overspending of roughly 100k was approved by congress for the execution of the airstrike as well as approved use of the Emergency Fund. That however didn’t actually mean use of the EF as from the previous term some funds meant to replenish the EF could be used instead leaving the EF itself at the same level.

The second term was focussed on finishing the started Airstrike and following attacks on two other eCan regions. For that 3 MPP’s were renewed (30.000cc) and 20.000 out of EF was added to Militairy Units treasure to set CO’s. In the end not all was used, but once transferred into a MU it can’t be taken off. Some small payments, like forum registration bonus were also paid resulting in some remaining funds of roughly 5.500cc. That’s reserved for replenishing the EF (more on that later).

The current and last term is not ended yet but the balance is clear roughly.
The earlier stated rent and tax compensation has to be paid and one MPP is signed. Some forum subsidy is paid but apart from that no expenses were done. That means at this moment we will be able to replenish almost 10k of the EF.


(Miss)use of the Emergency Fund
As most of you know eNL has an emergency fund (EF) that in case of war can be used if congress approves. There are rules that describe where it can be used for and how much it must contain. A few months back however congress was asked to make use of the EF for other reasons. And while the EF at that point already was at the minimum level congress approved and money from the EF was spend on supplies that had nothing to do with war.

As a result of this our EF dropped below the minimum amount it needs to contain. This was neglected by the CP we had back then as well as congress so both did not take responsibility for our reserves and apparently seem unable to safeguard our finances. For future governments that implicates that budget is lower than it already is as the EF needs to be replenished to at least reach the minimum level again. As you could read above our last, almost ended, term already did so we’re on track to have done so within a few months. If future governments respect our budgets that is.

The fact that this initial use was allowed to happen is worrying and could become a disaster if those kind of people are allowed to influence or judge our spendings. Had it been for the purpose of letting the Airstrike succeed no one would have had any reason to complain or question it, but just for the sake of spending because we can is something we have very bad experience with and it seems common sense is drifting away within eNL when it comes to finances.



Openness of governments
The last couple of months several people stated, shouted or posted loads of nonsense about gov spending. It would be hidden or kept away from people. Some even insinuated games were played and there was spend more than reported.

This is pure slander (or at best dirty politics) for which, if something like that was stated by a few others, no doubt people would have proposed blacklisting or even impeachment procedures.

The fact is that everything the government spends is recorded and visible to all. Not only government but also to congress. Even the whole world is able to see it as it’s all recorded in a public file. Anyone who states otherwise is lying and for sure has no sincere intentions.



History and use of MM funds
There have been questions by some people about the purpose of the results from the work on the MM and why we don’t use those funds. Some even question the fact that money is used on the MM and think it should be spend to supply weapons.

The latter would result in spending more than is allowed so I won’t take that seriously although a few players truly seem to think that is wise. And as some have a history of actually doing so as well it is a serious threat to our finances. Players that are here for a year or two know the effects of this behaviour and I trust the average player to be more wise and will prevent those players to assume power should they try.
To the first option however I think it’s wise to elaborate a bit especially since it’s becoming a long lasting job and even older players seem to forget what it’s all about.

How it started
The start of the work on the MM, as most of you recall, was caused by the financial crises we faced July ’12. For those who don’t know or want to reread this article explains the situation we faced.

The MM program was started with the intention to generate a large amount of money with which we could then buy weapons to liberate ourselves from the occupation we faced.

Slow start
When I started as MoF there were still huge possibilities as gold was very expensive and as a result the margins were large. However not by far as large as in the month's before that. We however lacked the funds to make considerable profit and congress was very stubborn on the matter. Most even were still denying the fact that we were facing bankruptcy and wanted to continue spending more than we could.
Once congress decided to give me some funds to work with the margins that could be made had dropped considerably further yet I would like very much they were at those levels now.

Goal
As the first goal, freeing ourselves from Poland by supplying huge amounts of weapons to anyone that was willing to fight for us, very soon went out of reach, the goal changed. What we need most is extra funds to aid our new players so they will last and grow strong so they become a valuable asset to us all. For that, in general, two options are available; Give them supplies or let them just train and become strong so they eventually can make a difference in battle.

The first is short term only when it comes to D1-3 and has proven to be impossible as we simply lack the funds as it would need several 100k's a month.

Growing stronger is a very long term goal as becoming strong simply lasts long. And it is rather difficult as upgrading you’re training grounds cost a lot of gold. At least the first one. Relatively speaking of course as they all cost the same but once you have the first one at Q4 you gain gold quickly so should be able to upgrade the rest fast. That is if you don’t spend you’re gold on useless fighting that makes you invest the gold in weapons and food.
This problem could be given an impulse by helping people to upgrade their (first) training facilities. I’m sure several older players are helping starting players out on this. I know I am. Sometimes a loan, mostly a gift. It would however be nice if there could be a government program to do so.
yet our normal budget but also the MM profit's are not allowing this yet.

Luckily we gained an amount of gold that can be used for that.
That has been discussed 4 months back but as gov changed was never finished nor did anybode work on a proposal. A while back, after DemNL published a similar thought in an article referring to another nation doing so it was discussed shortly on forum. I even indicated back then how things could work while having some safeguards to prevent huge losses for the state but nothing happened. I’m glad however ElGorro after reading another article and stating we should do something like that on forum now promised to come up with a proposal on it (and by the looks of posts Notie is helping) and am longing for a proposal that aids the people in need yet prevents large risks. In effect being a valuable way for eNL to grow stronger as a nation.

What to do with the (future) results?
But back to the MM profits; What will we do with them? Well that’s quite clear to me; We should use the results as an extra budget for the government òr for an extra program that can be initiated. A sort of subsidy so to say. For that however we need to have a fairly stable profit at a level that allows us to actually do that. For that we need enough funds first to use on as much as possible orgs as every org gains up to a maximum profit on average. Every extra org in use therefore gains extra money. We have not yet reached the point where we need to be so sadly more patience is needed. Up until that point is reached MM needs to be considered off limits to anyone. No gov should be allowed to use it for short term gain. So it needs to be considered as non existing for now. For some people that seems very hard as they keep pushing toward use of it, but that would push is back into the financial ravine that we are still climbing out of. One could only hope for a rapid increase of the gold price as that would make things much easier.

Weekstrom
Minister of Finance


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