[PiZ] The Day Everyone Freaked - Econ Update Day 1,213 | March 17, 2011

Day 1,213, 08:01 • Published in Philippines USA • by PigInZen

[ePH-eUSA] The Day Everyone Freaked - Econ Update Day 1,211 | March 15, 2011


OK, Wait. Just... Wait.



First things first: This tune started playing while I was writing this article so go listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC587OXtsAY
Jimmy Eat World - Work


I find the reactions currently in shouts in eRepublik to be quite hilarious. I haven't even checked the eUSA or ePH forums this morning and nor have I connected to IRC yet. I think I'll hold off for a bit, at least until this article is done.

I see our admins made another happy change last night. OK. Before I get into the meat of today's article a couple of things. The first is a true, real-life WTF? moment. Yesterday I had iTunes generate a Genius Mix based on "Just The Girl" by The Click Five (hey - so I like the poppy shit eff off). This morning at the office I picked up listening to this list from where I left it. There's some decent stuff in it, some Yellowcard, Good Charlotte, Blink, Jimmy Eat World, Goldfinger, etc. I have 70k+ titles and over 1800 artists so this Genius list fit the mood. ANYWAY. So here I am listening to some Brat Pop/Punk and all of a sudden "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" by the Beach Boys starts playing.

W. T. F?

Now, I like the Beach Boys, I'm old enough to remember when their shit got played on the AM radio (laugh with me here kids, I'm sure you don't even know WTF an AM radio is). But Green Day, Bad Religion, The Offspring, Yellowcard, Blink 182 and... THE BEACH BOYS? Sure. I imagine it matched on the vocal range alone. But it was a fucked up moment there for a few seconds.

Today's Feature Article will cover the recent change to production in higher quality companies and the effects on the marketplace. But first... naturally... a market snapshot!


Economic Writers Group & Economic Summit IRC Channel Formed

In order to better serve those in the eRep population that take great geek pleasure from all things eRep Econ several key dorks have decided to form a Writers Group in which we'll shout and promote other's articles in order to spread our individual readership to new countries and groups. In conjunction with this we've formed a Global Economics channel in IRC.


Articles Worth Reading

I will be adding links to other prominent/insightful articles here. Not today as I'm pressed for time. But there will be a section for us to cross-link our articles to gain broader exposure to economic discussions occurring around eRep.


IRC User? Join #eEcon

If you're interested in joining the Economic Discussion drop by #eEcon in IRC.


Current Monetary Market Snapshot



Currency spreads are continuing to close as those selling Gold are beginning to clue in to reality. I sweare they're eRep's version of Bond traders - the most effing conservatively-minded economic types out there. Note that there is minimal difference now between the USD (currently at 0.014) and PHP (0.015). This is important for today's discussion of market prices below:

Current Marketplace Snapshot - High Volume Industries



Alright, friends and readers (assuming that just because you're reading this doesn't mean you LIKE me). Those of you selling goods and raw materials in the ePhilippines are starting to piss me off. Do you not read my paper? Has nothing I've been writing about over the past couple of weeks sunk in? There is no economic reason for your asses to be pricing shit this high on our market. People will simply use a moving ticket and buy in another country. Get your prices in line with those in the USA and stop trying to gouge ePH citizens, mmmmkay? Yeah. And I'm going to need you to work overtime this weekend.


I've been thinking about this and individual markets tracking will be coming tomorrow. I just have to get the damn charts automated first...




Today's Feature - Yet Another Econ Module Change

In addition to today's music WTF moment in real life I had another in eRep. Turns out you now produce the SAME QUANTITY of finished goods regardless of the quality level of the manufacturing company. Got that? No? OK, here's an example based on my production: I produced 105 Q1 food this morning at one of my companies. I also produced 105 Q5 food at another company. The end result is the same. The production formula simply is multiplied by the Quality level of the company in which you're working.

Prior to today I produced 105 Q1 food and 21 Q5 food at those respective companies. All I've done is produce more finished goods and consume more raw materials. It is important to note one thing, however:

the basic production per unit has not changed

That's right, it still costs 6 grain to make a Q1 food, 30 to make a Q5, 60 iron to make Q1 weapon and 300 to make a Q5 weapon. The fundamental cost PER UNIT has not increased in anyway and has actually decresed slightly for higher Quality units.

What does this mean for prices? In the long term, it should mean very little as the fundamental 1/5 Principle is still in effect. For those not aware of PigInZen's Economic Principles, this particular one simply points out that the production cost for Q1 goods is roughly 1/5 of that for Q5 goods. This means that as a general rule of thumb if you're paying more than 5 times the cost for a Q1 good you're overpaying.

A quick table to illustrate the production costs PER UNIT after today's econ module change.



This is why I'm so damn annoyed with company owners exploiting scarcity in the ePH. We're in a global marketplace now, I could just fly to the eUSA and purchase my damn RMs needed there and cut my production costs by 1/2 for food and by 2/3 for weapons. Note that the 1/5 Principle is now slightly modified as the 10 health cost is the same across all categories but the RM costs are proportional. This means that it will take MORE capital to produce a Q1 good than a Q5 good. Ergo, the higher the quality level of a good the lower in Q1 terms (i.e., price divided by quality level) it should be.

Some Conclusions

1. Self-sufficiency has not changed. It still remains four grain companies and two Q1 food companies.

2. Higher Quality Food MAY NOT be worth the capital investment needed to upgrade. Your RM consumption will be heavy. Of course, you could always work less... Since I can produce 1050 health per day at my food company I would only need to work once every 3.3 days to be able to feed myself...

3. One-click feeding gives no advantage to higher quality level food. You can now fight down to 20 health and upon clicking the Eat Food button will be restored up to 80 health (if you have it left to regain and have food in your inventory). This means that the Q5 demand generated by those looking to reduce the feeding clicks is no longer there.

4. Weapons are a different story, demand is generated by damage desired. This only creates a higher incentive and return on investment for Q5 weapons since the production levels are now so damn high. I can foresee the Weapons category falling far below the 1/5 principle where the price for Q5 weapons is much less than the multiple of Q1 weapons that it has been.

Stay dirty, piglets.




Small But Mighty

The ePhilippines can never match the total damage of a large country like the eUSA but rather can exceed her in per capita damage. It's like being Manny Pacquiao to the eUSA's Muhammad Ali. Both kick ass. But Manny Pacquiao is this generation's BAMF. Let's make the ePhilippines this eRep generation's BAMF.