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**The Economist 14th May**



Leaders ~ Editorial

Hello friends, and welcome to this week's edition of the Economist. We were absent from the news last week due to a lot of Real Life commitments I had come all at once. After writing an enormous essay on New Left economics and the politics of nationalisation I had all the economic will sapped out of me.

But this week we're back, bigger and better than ever. It's been a minefield of big issues since SaraDroz won the Presidential elections with a huge majority. A lot of big issues have been tabled, causing a degree of consternation amongst the older forum community. House of Lords reform has come up again, but you'll forgive us if we don't cover the latest incarnation of that albatross which hangs around the UK's neck. It seems everyone wants to change something, but everyone disagrees on what to change.

We've also had a load of foreign policy problems, and to try and clear some of them up we've spoken to Minister of Foreign Affairs Goku Jones, who agreed to give us an interview. OK, without further ado, the news!



Leaders ~ Czech issues resolved

During the congressional elections, a number of British soldiers ran for congress in the diminutive central European nation. The Czechs rarely get more that two or three votes per congress member, so the troops easily won, taking over the country. In doing so, they received 80 gold in medals, and then donated an additional 80 gold (roughly) in foreign currency. This caused outrage amongst the more liberal members of the UK House of Commons, as well as amongst the Czech's themselves.

UK Prime Minister Sara Droz promised to return the stolen currencies (in gold) if she won the Presidency. Since then the debate has flown thick and fast, mainly between the military (and their supporters) and leading liberals in congress. I say liberals because this was not a single-party group, although the PCP were prominent leaders in the giving money back camp. In the end the issue went to vote, and the House of Commons voted to return the gold. The question is, what now from here?

International relations theory states that the essence of a great power is behavioural as well as material. It consists not only of the ability to extend power, but also the attitude to go with it. Without extending this debate into real life issues, we can safely say that the act of being caught stealing from the Czech Republic caused reputational damage. However, the act of being forced to give it back (for this is how it will be perceived) makes us appear even weaker. It is questionable whether the favour of a small minority of weak countries was worth the sacrifice we have given. Now we may never again use take-overs of small countries to supplement our weapons arsenal. Whether this was worthwhile or not, we will have to wait and see.





Leaders ~ Ministry of Foreign Affairs speaks out

This week we interview the new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Goku Jones. The Economist recognised Goku's talent very early on, but his appointment was still very controversial. He had a reputation for being a warmonger, a reputation which is now largely dissipated as it has become apparent that what Goku wants is a strong Britain, not just “Rwar for the lulz” in an Uncle Sam sense. So without further ado:

Did you expect to be picked as MoFA? Was it always an ambition of yours?

No it was a total surprise, I actually tried to change Sara's mind several times. All I wanted was to be uMoFA. It was a big challenge and I was thrown in the deep end with the Ireland situation. I think I rose to the occasion though.

As soon as you got into office you became lumbered down with big negotiations. Did you expect it to be such a heavy job?

I did expect it to be a heavy job, so although both getting the job and being at war with the USA were surprises... I knew what I was in for!

A lot of the UK forum going population was surprised (some would say shocked) at your appointment. Do you think there is a side to Goku Jones they've all missed?

Yes! I'm a very hard worker and I understand that things must be built up over time. I think that because I came in and started "rocking the boat" people tried very hard to fault everything that I said. I just wanted things done and quickly, and if that were not possible I wanted to see ambition and planning. These are qualities I see in Sara which is why I endorsed her. I am also very bad at dealing with forum trolls, but in diplomacy I can be as polite and reasonable as anyone else.

On to the issues: The Czech situation is something we have discussed this week in the Economist. Do you think the peace is worth 80 gold, and do you think further repayment is worthwhile?

I think that paying back the stolen gold has gone a long way to repair our reputation with the neutral nations. As for the congress medal gold, that wasn't really stolen so it isn't as big of an issue in my opinion. Relationships with neutral nations are important because if we disrespect them by taking them over, we can easily push them into the hands of our enemies.

-->Just to elaborate on that, do you think any country can be truly neutral in erepublik?

I do not think that it is a viable long term strategy to be neutral in some parts of the world. Ireland pulls it off because they are protected on all sides by ATLANTIS nations which share their language and culture. Belgium and the Czech Republik however sit on the borders of warring nations, so it is easy for them to be military targets. The same goes even more so for the neutral nations of the east. I urge all of these nations to start developing links with ATLANTIS.

Romania has been pushed back and risks losing its Iron regions. Do you think that the UK government should be funding our troops more to fight to retain either the West Siberian Region or Podolia?

The UK should do all that it can to help Romania, and we have already sent all of our mobile troops to the battlefield. We do however need to balance that with the health of our own treasury. I am not a millitary commander or economist so they will have to work out the correct balance.

The Germany-Sweden situation blew up in the press this week, with a leak from the Atlantis IRC (internet relay chat) discussion. Would you mind clarifying the situation and Britain's take on it?

Germany and Sweden have a long history of disagreements and betrayals, which has lead to consistent poor relations. Sweden have recently decided to act on this and attack Germany, both to please their population and for use as a recruitment tool. Of course as they are both ATLANTIS nations, we have intervened to try and resolve the situation peacefully. The UK hoped, and still hopes that a peaceful resolution is possible. We will not be pleased to see a war inside ATLANTIS, especially when the PEACE conflict has become so serious. After some negotiations on IRC a few days ago all sides came to an agreement on a peaceful compromise, any vote on Germany's ATLANTIS membership was delayed for 48 hours so that the compromise could be finalised. However just before the agreement, a mocking attack on Sweden came from Germany's forums.

Sweden have shown consistent strong leadership and negotiation skills, despite coming from a position that the UK finds totally wrong. Germany has show quite the opposite, and while we are doing our best to help them... our efforts are being hampered by their poor diplomacy. ATLANTIS has further delayed any vote on Germany until a full and proper moderated discussion has taken place between both sides. As for the leaked IRC conversation, unfortunately someone did mention some underhand tactics as a way forward. However it was only speculation and was supported by no-one. Especially not by the UK or Sweden.

Finally, how are discussions going with the USA/Canada over the so called war games with Ireland?

We have come to a solution finally. Ireland and the USA will propose peace, this is being voted on at the moment in fact. Then Ireland will attack Canada to activate their USA MPP and restart the war game. As long as Ireland attacks the USA and not vice versa, we will remain out of the war game. I have also negotiated an amendment to The Raleigh Treaty, so we may be able to join the war games on the side of the USA. This will cost around 25g a week. All sides are very pleased by the outcome of our talks and the cheap solution that has been found. Talks are always tough when money and blame are the topics, so the solution found by the USA has saved quite a lot of upset and bad feeling between our nations.

Thank you for your time. Is there anything you'd like to say to the Economist readers?

I would ask The Economist readers to find within themselves their hopes and dreams for this eNation, then work their very hardest to realise them. This game is what you make us it and anything can happen. Oh and if you have some spare cash go and fight for Romania today asap!





Britain ~ A new regime

On the 5th of April, with joint UKRP-TUP support, Sara Droz was elected as the first female British Prime Minister, with a majority unmatched since Final Destiny. Since then, the proposed changes have been many, and have had only one common theme- controversy. The biggest and possibly most controversial was the establishment of the corps as official branches of the army. The Corps Establishment Act is currently in public discussion, and is receiving a lot of criticism from older members, especially former Ministers of Defence Ip Lockard and Hassan Pesaran. Their criticisms surround three key points: lack of government control; lack of need for a change; privatisation not nationalisation. They argue that by nationalising the armed forces we could have achieved the same result with little risk.

On the other hand, it is arguable than the competition generated by the corps system has introduced hundreds of gold of non-government money into the armed forces, massively increased the number of recruitment articles from the armed forces (from 0 last month to more than a dozen so far this month) and all in all made the army more efficient. Camelot, the forerunner corps, already has 24 members, recruited in two weeks. The entire non-para mobile armed forces is only roughly three times that size. In reality the creation of the corps introduces an element of fun into the armed forces that encourages new players to join. Even more elite groups like Camelot have recruited people who have never fought as part of an organised force before and were attracted by the individualistic nature of the corps system.

In conclusion, the debate is divided. Both the UKRP and TUP have supported the concept of corps in manifestos and are generally in favour. The PCP tend to be opposed, although some members are willing to work with the legislation to make it more viable, whilst others are merely outright opposed. Ultimately the result will depend on how congress members vote on the day, but the Economist predicts a victory for the government unless considerable numbers of the UKRP vote against.



Europe ~ Romania at the gates of oblivion

Romania have long been on the offensive. At one point they reached Southern India and had a border with the Indian, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Now, however, they have been pushed back into Europe and attacked simultaneously by Hungary and Indonesia. The two Peace tigers have been showing a remarkable turnaround of late. Some say too remarkable. The likelihood that both nations have used illegal gold and weapons is very high, as the cost of the simultaneous attack today is well over 2000 gold.

Romania have now been pushed back to their pre-WWIII borders in the East, and have lost ground to Hungary in Europe. If they lose both battles today, they will lose all their iron-producing regions and will be in truly deep trouble. Most of the British Army is based in Romania, and most of their new companies are in the two iron regions under assault. Losing both would be a hammer blow to both Romania and Atlantis as a whole. The Secretary General of Atlantis, Shadowukcs, refused to comment other than to say that the situation was changing and it was unpredictable how it would turn out.

Regardless of the outcome of the war, we can expect to see a different Atlantis and a different PEACE.



United States ~ War is no place for games

This week we've seen the diplomatic explosion surrounding the USA-Ireland war games. As many of you will be aware, the war games make use of game mechanics to allow the allied Atlantis nations to fight with the USA in a mock battle with Ireland. The battle theoretically allows around 15 countries to train without having to engage in expensive real wars, which can sap the gold from a medium sized country like the UK in a matter of days.

The problem began to arise when the USA and Ireland declared war. The UK had long planned a war-games exercise with Canada and Ireland as the main contenders, this caught everyone off-guard. The war effectively put the UK in a state of war with the entirety of Atlantis, shutting down all trade and significantly damaging our economy. This size of this cock-up was matched only by the volume of laughter coming from Dishmcds, Glados and the other Peace leaders.

As has already been mentioned by Goku Jones, efforts were being made to resolve the issue. However the issue was clouded because the USA was asking the UK to pay the lion's share, since we were the ones who needed it restarting. Hopefully this issue will be resolved quickly, so we can have the wars without the financial pain to go with them.



Business News ~ Government Intervention

UK Reform Party Country President Sara Droz and Chancellor Arthur Wellesley have this week sanctioned the issue of £50,000. Printing money is something to be done only in a dire economic situation, and this qualifies. With the population almost doubling, the amount of GBP on the monetary markets has plummeted. That has been matched by an enormous rise in the cost of GBP, from 0.027GOLD (benchmark) to 0.033 or even higher. Normal government intervention last month was unsustainable, and so at the behest of the Chancellor congress issued £50,000 to help control the markets.

Why is this necessary? Simply put, to ensure that businesses can both afford to pay wages and to ensure the foreign market is maintained. Imagine I own a grain company in the UK, but I am based in Spain, where I own a food company. My grain company makes no money, as the grain is sold at cost to the food company. I then change Spanish currency into gold, and use that to buy GBP to pay for wages in the UK. Immediately there is a problem. There is no GBP, and the GBP that is there is massively over-valued. Another situation. I own a Q5 house company in the UK. When GBP is worth 0.027, my houses are very competitive, and many citizens from around the world by them up before moving back to their home countries. Sadly the value of GBP has just went up by a fifth, but the actual value of the house is unchanged. To make money on my house, I can't lower the price. So the backbone of our economy, Q4/5 companies, lose sales massively.

The value of stability is not to be underestimated. It is true we want to see the value of GBP rise, but we want to match this with a larger economy. Sadly this hasn't been the case here. The economy has increased in size a little, with the rise in GBP being very large.




**The Economist**

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