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**The Economist**


31st August Edition


Leaders ~ Editorial

Good evening friends and readers. This is the first edition of the Economist I have released in a long while, and although I can’t promise to be as active as I once was (I have real life commitments now I’m no longer a student) I will attempt to keep the paper alive as best as I can with no other columnists contributing. You’re sorely missed Scipio...

Since I last wrote the world has turned upside down. A friend of mine rejoined the game the other day after two months absence, took one look at the world map and nearly died as they realised the USA was occupied and the UK was a member of the occupying forces. “What the hell happened?” he asked. Well the story is a long and complex one, which as always I’ll tackle as impartially as possible, to clear it up for all the young players who missed the excitement.

Some months ago when the ATLANTIS-PEACE war was drawing to a close with Romania losing the West Siberian Region and Hungary developing into a burgeoning super-power, there was a war in Europe. Like many before it this war developed into a full-scale division in ATLANTIS between the old guard players of Eastern Europe who supported Sweden, and those Anglo-American countries who implicitly backed the new German state. This wasn’t out of any hate for the Swedes, or any love for PEACE- merely a desire to protect an ally who had acted with good intentions.

The division meant that the UK was left in the lurch- EDEN didn’t want us and the newly announced FORTIS alliance had (at the time) unfavourable terms. Diehard ATLANTIS people blocked PEACE membership as much as they could, and for some time despite (as many Americans noticed) having a pro-PEACE leadership we remained a neutral country. However the conflict with Sweden alienated us from many of our former allies, and many pro-ATLANTIS people began to wane in their support, until only a few role-players who liked the idea of a US-UK ‘special relationship’ in real life remained. By the time Hassan made his famous declaration that the UK would be occupying Nova Scotia as part of the allied PEACE war effort against North America the UK was desperately in need of some identity. New players and old had been wooed slowly to the PEACE cause and resistance was minimal. Although many privately still question our new allies, it became obvious that the UK was stronger than ever under Hassan Pesaran and under PEACE.

That is the story up until now, dear readers. Now let’s look at what is happening NOW.




Leaders ~ An interview with GLaDOS

Good evening GLaDOS, I thought we were going to miss you today. I'd just like to ask a few questions, I hope you don't mind.

First of all, you're a (fairly) recent migrant to the UK. Would you like to give us some background as to why you chose this country?

-Well, at the Time I arrived, the UK was becoming a very exciting place. Kumnaa had just taken over, and interesting things were brewing. I like to be at the centre of things, and the UK is certainly there.

Since then you've been in congress, fought in the special forces, led the Royal Air Force and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. What do you think was your most important role?

-I think the most important post I have had is Minister of Foreign Affairs. As MoFA I have solidified our relations with PEACE nations everywhere, and opened up relations with neutral nations.

It hasn't escaped anyone's notice that you are a leading candidate in the upcoming Presidential elections. What made you decide to run for President?

-Well, I decided to run because I believe that I can help the UK get through these interesting times, and I believe that right now I am the best person to be president of the United Kingdom

With your experience with both the military and foreign affairs side of things you should be a strong successor to help propel forward Hassan's reforms. Without giving too much away, what new ideas do you have for these areas?

-Well, I promise some big changes to the Royal guard, and some other cool stuff, including some changes to the way our mobile forces function.

TUP (your party) is famous for having a strong domestic policy. Have you got any great domestic policy ideas you'd like to advertise early? Are there any current initiatives you'd like to see expanded?

-I think all of our current schemes serve a very good purpose. I am also proud of the MoHA, which is run by one of TUP's finest, Mr Woldy. I would like to see the role of the MoHA expanded somewhat, to increase the level of fun and activity within the United Kingdom

The PEACE-USA war seems to be a bit ambiguous right now. Could you offer any insight onto what is going on?

-The war is currently favouring the USA somewhat, as they now make an assault on California, and the Spanish attempt to retake Asturias, their high iron region. Regardless, the war is not over by a long-shot, and will continue to go on for quite a while

This is probably a bit long as it is- so we'll wrap things up there. Do you have any final words for our readers?

-If you want the candidate who has the most experience, and actually cares about the common man, vote for GLaDOS. (Also, shadow is a butt).



Thank you for your time GLaDOS, and I hope you have a strong clean campaign.



Leaders ~ The great bank robbery

Meanwhile in the financial markets of the UK’s banking system disaster has struck. Some months ago the long-term Chancellor, Arthur Wellesley, made some effort to convince players to start up their own banks emulating his very own Wellington Chase. His reasoning was that a strong banking sector would circulate gold and cash through the economy, building investment and so on.

One of those who took the idea to heart was a young player called Silent Hero, who seemed to grasp the concept very quickly. He convinced three fellow UKRP members to join his enterprise, with LordJustice and Frank Furglar putting up most of the cash, and himself and Craig Rossiter acting as clerks in the newly named HFLC Bank. The bank did reasonable business, and became established as a source for loans and a safe deposit bank.

Sometime after its founding it emerged that Silent Hero was, as some suspected, another multi-account of the infamous Connor Mawn. Connor Mawn was well known as a multi-accounter, and was banned from the forums for slander. Many suspected he was in fact very young, and although he claimed to be at secondary school the evidence suggested he was in fact younger. This, you understand, is simply background. The long and short of it is that Silent Hero confessed his true identity and threw himself on the mercy of the forum community.

Despite his past mistakes the forum community gracefully accepted his apology and acknowledged that the new Silent Hero citizen was upstanding and hard working, unlike his alter-ego, and gave him another chance. Weeks passed with no incident, and then one day the gold disappeared from HFLC’s bank accounts and appeared in Silent Hero’s. It is still unclear what exactly happened in this regard, however it appears the gold was donated to Silent Hero, then back to HFLC, before being donated once more to Silent Hero where it stayed. Silent Hero/Connor claims that the money was initially donated to him by Craig Rossiter, and that he himself took it the second time to punish Craig for some misdemeanour. What is clear here is that regardless of the exact circumstances of the robbery, the gold belongs to HFLC’s investors, and HFLC must repay those debts however it can. Having not examined the contracts they make with depositors it is difficult for me to say how this would be achieved, but it’s safe to say ‘with difficulty’.

The bank is now in the awkward position of having to beg for money from the thief, and hope he gives it back. Our only suggestion is that future banks write into their formative contract the ownership of each partner based on initial investment. In this way the admins would be able to enforce the division of the stolen money between the partners. It would also be prudent to list collateral from all members in any loan/deposit contract, mentioning that in the event of a loss each member must find a proportion of the lost gold. Oh...and never trust Connor Mawn.





Britain ~ Party politics in the UK

This is a difficult subject to approach unbiased, as a leading member of The Unity Party. However I’d like to give it a shot. If you think I’ve misrepresented your views please just say.

There are five main parties in the UK, plus at least two minor parties of note. The five main parties are UK Reform (UKRP), The Unity Party (TUP), The People’s Communist Party (PCP), Radical Freethinkers Alliance (RFA) and the British Empire Party (BEP). All of them represent political standpoints roughly based on real life political ideologies. UK reform is a centre-right libertarian party, TUP is a centre-left social democrat party, PCP is a far left party which is often described as democratic socialist, RFA is an independents party and BEP is a centre-right party with some mostly-undefined goals as of yet.

UK Reform was for most of late 2008 and early 2009 the dominant party of UK politics. With Rayf Drayson, Dishmcds, Deathtoll32, JerryGFL and SaraDroz all occupying Presidencies during this period they established themselves as number one. To this day they are the largest party by membership. The main belief they espouse is in private enterprise, and they usually oppose any kind of interference in the markets. They also supported the removal of the NHS, and still to this day oppose large government spending on citizens. Their economic views are most often espoused by Arthur Wellesley, who is best described as a Liberpublican (an American in real life, this is a combination of Libertarian and Republican). LordJustice is also one of the best at portraying the UKRP line, though new star Saint Benedict is becoming more prominent. In the recent debate about whether the UK government should nationalise parts of the food industry to lower prices for new citizens at the cost of food market GMs, the UKRP took a firm no stance.

The Unity Party is currently the largest party in congress and member Hassan Pesaran is currently President. The Unity Party has had strong electoral success over past months, being the largest party in congress for two terms now, and with a TUP supported President winning every election since April. The Unity Party is social democrat, and believes in a mixture of socialist and centrist policy economically. It has in the past supported measures jointly with the PCP, though often in early 2009 the two parties were at odds. More recently The Unity Party has taken a strong and often populist position, supporting the ‘ordinary player’ through measures such as gifting communes and market intervention in the food industry. TUP is led by the Council of Unity, which is essentially made up of congress members and ex-congress members who attempt to give direction to the party. The current President of the Party Mr Woldy is very popular in his home region and nationally, and is widely accepted as one of the Parties best Presidents ever. There is no lead spokesperson for the party, but people like Malta_1990, Karacticus, GLaDOS and so on carry the torch both in the UK and internationally.

The People’s Communist Party is the leading far-left party in the UK. Although I confess to knowing little of its early history, at the time of my joining in December 2008 the PCP was a party of fun. A lot of its members spent most of their time in the notorious Bob Boblo’s House, and although they popped up in congress to propose a number of important (at the time) pieces of legislation such as the Skilled Workers Scheme they didn’t take their communism too seriously and a lot of people joined for the community. As TUP took over the PCP in terms of membership there were a couple months of fierce rivalry before the party settled back and relaxed into its former glory. However lately a few new members have started to propose communism in seriousness, and active members started to leave for The Unity Party and the Radical Freethinkers Alliance. It seems like the PCP is on a downward spiral, and that if it continues to espouse radical communist ideals it will struggle to maintain the fun factor that always attracted its core membership. The PCP’s main spokespeople are Stan Wephan, Johnobrow Dodds and Sir Digby-Chicken Caesar. They espouse many far-left principles, and run a set of businesses known as ‘the People’s Communes’ which provide food, housing and weapons for members.

The Radical Freethinkers Alliance was originally founded by TUP member Final Destiny as the Independent Free-Thinkers Party (IF-TP). However it was former leader and current anti-PEACE activist Goku Jones who made the party into what it is today. Under his leadership the FTP rebranded and rose as high as fourth place, and at its current rate of growth looks to pass the PCP fairly shortly. The RFA has no single line, as it is an independents party, and allows members of smaller parties ineligible for congress to run under its banner. It does have however a very strong military membership, with many active members of the Navy being members. A political military is inevitable in eRepublik, with there being no real line between experience and military strength. However parties which have claimed to be military parties in the past (such as the Liberal Social Democrats) have had little success. The RFA have to ensure that if they are to succeed they keep their winning formula- as an independent party for people who don’t want to commit to an ideology. The main spokespeople for the RFA are Flamur (who is mainly forum-active) and AltmerVampire (who is mainly found on the eUK IRC channel).

Finally the BEP are the fifth place party of the day. The position of fifth place party is often hard fought over- the parties who have resided here in the past have coveted the ability to stand for congress but have rarely lasted long. The BEP exploded into prominence as many new parties do- with a huge influx of members from new citizens attracted by the implications of the name. Although initially the party advocated military expansion, once their members understood that this would be impossible with our current setup they settled into building a party that could hopefully outlast their predecessors. The BEP is centre-right and generally has a similar market view to the UKRP. It is difficult to pin down their exact position as the succession of very different leaders has made it difficult to gauge. Dodgy Dude, who led the party, spoke in favour of Political Take-Over’s for example. However this cannot really be taken to be a party line, since the party is divided on so many issues. Party spokespeople include Daniel Thorold and Dodgy Dude (if he’s still in the party- he switches so often I’m not sure).

I hope that you’re not too angry after reading that. And I hope if you didn’t care that much you had the sense to skip to the next section. Please no “tl;dr” comments.





Europe ~ The breaking point of PEACE?

What is the cause of war? The answer is a difficult one, because in eRepublik things are so different to real life. Very few Presidents attack countries for fun in the real world. However some causes are the same- Overpopulation, overproduction and unused military power. Why did Romania attack Indonesia? Did it need the extra land, the resources of Asia? No, it simply had a large and restless population, a well designed military machine and nothing to attack. The same can be said, to a lesser extent, of Hungary’s march into Germany and ultimately the United States. Power, left unused, makes people restless. Restless people elect warmongering leaders. Uncle Sam. Kalleholm. The list goes on- violent leaders expending the violent energy of countries, often with disastrous results. It could be argued that the arrogance of Uncle Sam has led directly to the countries current occupation.

So what is my point many of you are asking? Well when eRepublik was built countries were added based mainly on their real life population size, and more importantly the number of people in their countries with internet access. Hence Europe is now almost complete, saving Belarus. In Europe there is one super-power (Hungary) one emerging super-power (France), several great powers (Italy, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom) and a bunch of middling powers. It is in fact the greatest concentration of people and power in the world, but due to the inability to attack non-bordering nations those people and that power is bottled up, contained. Sweden even invaded an allied country it was that desperate to gain land.

So essentially we have a situation where in Europe there are limited resources (only three sources of high iron), high populations and a number of powers that can be quite isolationist in their outlook. If war comes and PEACE falls like its brother Atlantis did then it will be, in my opinion, Europe which will be the battlefield.





The Americas ~ AHA and the implications of allowing sub-alliances

AHA is the alliance of South American nations. As an alliance it is more established than its new sister SOL, but both share common factors. Both are regional alliances. Both contain a number of very weak nations. Both are subsets of the super-alliance PEACE GC. I’m not going to go into detail explaining the reasoning behind these alliances; you can find their pages on the wiki easily enough. The issue at hand here is the implications the formation of these alliances has for PEACE as a whole.

So let’s talk alliances. It is hard to make comparative assessments, because there have only really been two proven alliances in eRepublik so far, and one of those still exists. But there is one situation I would like to point to, for a little perspective. After the fall of ATLANTIS, there were a number of ex-ATLANTIS nations which were still looking for direction. Namely: the UK, USA, Canada, Spain and possibly one or two Nordic/Eastern European countries. There were a number of options presented, and believe it or not neutrality wasn’t originally one of them. Several members of the eUK, including former President JerryGFL and current President Hassan Pesaran were looking to potentially establish new alliances.

However, there were some issues to be faced. With Hungary now occupying Germany, joining an alliance which didn’t include them would be suicide. The real politik of the situation was that so shortly after defeating one major anti-PEACE alliance Hungary were not going to let another potentially anti-Hungary alliance form on their Western borders. Similarly joining a mini-European alliance with Italy, France, and maybe one or two Atlantis powers wouldn’t work either- seeing this as a potential further demolition of remaining European support the USA could have invaded. At the least sanctions would have been levelled, and there is no guarantee we would have succeeded. So in the end the UK joined PEACE.

To try and explain why that is relevant, let me reiterate why the experiment failed. It failed because the UK was not strong enough to defend itself or its allies alone, and no other alliance would allow the new one time enough to form itself into an organisation capable of the level of communication and defensive cohesion to survive.

Now if we look again to AHA and SOL, what do we see? We see small but compact regional alliances forming. SOL effectively closes off large parts of Asia to Indonesian aggression; AHA is a closed group alliance with one powerful member, Brazil. These alliances, if operating parallel to PEACE, would be seen as threats. But by operating within the organisation and following orders they can survive and develop. The big issue is- what if they break away? AHA is in a much stronger position than SOL to do this, but who knows for the future? By allowing smaller alliances to nurture under the umbrella, you give the nations involved all the advantages of founding a new alliance with none of the potential disadvantages (outside pressure, even invasion being most common).

In the future the biggest threat to PEACE might not be EDEN or FORTIS, it may come from within. Because alliances (like countries) are organisations, not individuals. A good leader now may be replaced by a bad leader later. There is always a Kalleholm somewhere, waiting for people to elect him.





Middle-East and Africa ~ The Turkish Question

Is Turkey in PEACE? A question most PEACE members seem unable to answer. Turkey left the alliance several times over the issue of its continued occupation of Greece and Israel, which many PEACE leaders opposed. It has since then participated only half-heartedly in any PEACE battles, and has mainly focused very narrowly on expanding its influence over its two formerly occupied neighbours.

The thing is, despite Israel being basically pro-USA (mainly because the largely [real-life] Israeli and Jewish population have strong links with the country), Greece is a mixed bag of Atlantis and PEACE fans. Yet Greece, with its high iron, seems to be Turkey’s number one target. Despite their best efforts, the Turks seem unable to secure Greece, whose population has grown to quite a respectable size of late.

The Turkish question is easily laid out but difficult to lay to rest: What should PEACE do about the rogue state? Although many readers are probably thinking that we are a ‘cat’s-paw’ of PEACE or some such fallacy, the truth is that all PEACE nations must work together if they hope to succeed. If that means taking orders from a Greek, a Frenchman or a Hungarian then that is fine- nationality is unimportant. However the Turks seem to be just off doing their own thing. Unified purpose is important to success, and somebody needs to remind the Turks of this.

After all, imagine a strong regional power with a long term grudge against a smaller neighbour (with ambiguous alliance loyalty) attacking that smaller neighbour and occupying them...in the process alienating members of their own alliance. No I’m not talking about the Swedish-German war, though I could be. Its wars like this that break alliances. Watching the notoriously neutral Irish defence forces marching to the aid of Greece today I wondered how much longer PEACE was going to look the other way.

I have the greatest respect for some eTurks and eGreeks, but if something isn’t done soon then the Turkish Question could be resolved, but to nobodies satisfaction.





Asia ~ Western Siberia and what it means for us

Many of you will remember the heroic battle for West Siberia. Atlantis vs. PEACE. Romania vs. Indonesia. It was epic, expensive, and we lost. As Indonesia occupied the industrial heart of Romania many wondered whether Romania could recover from the loss of its favourite region. Because WSR is a drug. So much gold has been invested there; so many soldiers used it as a base. Despite its remote location it is the most valuable single region on Earth.

Months ago when Russia was a tiny nation swung by thousands of mobile voters from the super-alliances things were simpler. WSR was either Romanian or Indonesian, nobody expected the Russians to get such a valuable region. But now the region represents yet another potential breaking point in the super-alliance PEACE. Indonesia needs the region, needs its resources, income and the pride associated with the victory. It needs the people who work in the factories and the factories themselves.

But the issue is that Russia is now a great power, with over ten thousand inhabitants. It too needs the region, although arguably less so than Indonesia. Sated now after the war on the USA, Russia is happy with the newly returned Urals. But WSR will eventually return to Russian hands, or they will leave the alliance. The question is, will Indonesia give them it back?


[img]http://www.docbrown.info/docspics/paris/paris2006nov072.JPG[/img]

Business ~ The dance for Raw Materials

Some players argue that war is built into this game- it is THE purpose, not merely a function of the purpose. When one looks at the dispersal of iron throughout the new world, it looks like that is true. Admins clearly miscalculated when they invented medium resources- in the globalised market possessing medium resources only means that thousands of gold of investment will be wasted by new citizens starting unprofitable companies.

The real struggle in the new world is over high iron. High grain is common, high oil and wood is largely unnecessary. High iron however is like gold in the real world, expensive, highly sought after and highly volatile. Due to a mixture of region swaps, wars, overpriced workers and low overheads iron is more than double the cost of grain in many countries, despite both being theoretically equal in terms of production costs.

The knock-on effect is that possessing the iron firsthand, and thus being able to sell directly to your weapons companies at something approximating cost, is the primary goal of every country. With so few iron resources available however it is almost impossible to achieve, especially as geographic layout doesn’t accurately correspond to population distribution. In Europe, Asturias, Central Greece and Podolia are the only sources. Over one hundred thousand people sharing just three sources of iron. It’s bound to get messy.

In the Americas, all three of their resources are next to one another- two in Brazil (North and North East region) and one in Peru. There is almost no chance of the USA or Canada getting hold of those, and so both large countries will forever rely on imports. In Asia there are a number of supplies, yet only one country (Indonesia) has any say over who holds them. At the minute Indonesia and Iran monopolise China and Russia’s Asian sources, with the former also occupying the regions other resources.

Here in Western Europe it is a case of live and let live- the UK won’t be breaking through France and Spain any time soon, central Greece is too far away- we’re basically stuck on imports forever. This is either unfair or intriguing; depending on how much you enjoy long and complex trade agreements. Basically it ensures our membership of an alliance forever, because without a source of iron we’re going to be stuck.

The other issue I’d like to mention before I sign off for this week is the stability (or lack of) in those areas I have mentioned. Central Greece is constantly under Turkish attack. Asturias could flip back into Spanish hands at any time. Podolia is too close to Romania for comfort. WSR as I already mentioned could switch hands, as could Iran’s region and Western Aus. Basically the whole situation is massively unstable, and stabilising those regions should be our number one country. Iron is to us what Oil is to our real life counterparts.



**The Economist**