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Offline Nova

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« on: November 26, 2017, 09:40:10 PM »
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Offline Libby

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Re: The Defense Journal
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2018, 10:48:28 PM »

2018/07/31,



NEW LUXURY RESORT PLANNED

Following an announcement in Dartfordian Broadcasting that QKNB may be closing the Lodjain resort developer Duchess Ekaterina Stasiuk has announced a bid for what is likely to be a very ambitious project. The mother-in-law to the King of Royal Seleucid has already made a fortune from developing three luxury resorts in Lodja and is due to open one in Royal Seleucid in the next 12 months, however she is already eyeing up her next move. "We would, if QKNB falls through, be in a position to offer Dartfordia an interesting and profitable oppurtunity. I have around $350million burning a hole in my pocket to build the next Stasiuk Resort. We would if permitted take the land and the infastructure and turn the dockyards into a marina for some of the worlds largest megayachts. Next the various accomodation blocks would be either demolished or converted into other uses. There is plenty of space for cafe's, bars, restaurants, maybe even a theme park. Once we get the 5 star hotels built, the casino and spa we would invite Dartfordian businesses to come and set up. I am sure their hospitality industry would welcome the chance to serve some of the richest people on Mundus and the project could potentially create thousands of jobs and attract people from across Mundus to Dartfordia. I am sure local Dartfordians would prefer to see beautiful luxury yachts arriving than nuclear equipped submarines of death."

Last year the Duchess of Potaki is rumoured to have made around $28million profit from her resort business after the various investments made in Seleucid and building two new casinos. She owns 54% of Stasiuk Resorts with her 1st husband Mykola Bogdanov owning 15% while her 2nd husband Grigori Kozlov owns 10%, giving the family 79% of the business. There are also rumours that the Duchess may also look at creating a luxury hotel in Paracambi in the coming years taking advantage of what she has described as "some of the most stunning beaches in the world at some of the lowest prices."

Offline Markus

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Tamora: OPEN's weakest link
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2018, 06:56:23 PM »

2018/08/15

Tamora: OPEN's weakest link


Not much time has passed since OPEN was founded and we already see signs indicating that one of its founding members, Tamora, has a hard time implementing its obligations assumed at OPEN.

In the Emirate of Seleucid, the other founding member of OPEN, compliance with the quotas productions seems easy as the ruling royal family is also the main share holder in some of the largest oil companies and the government has the bureaucratic apparatus to impose the quotas. The ultra conservative Empire of Tamora is a whole different story. Much of the resources of the country as well as all of their extraction are in private hands, with dozens of family owned companies (colloquially called "corporate nobles") owning much of the market and being in a constant competition with each other as well as companies aboard. So the Tamoran government will now have to impose quotas on them as well as limit their ability to adjust prices. That in it of itself would not be that big of a challenge in any regular Mundus country. However, because of their peculiar religion, Tamora is still missing most of the features of a modern state and lacks the bureaucratic apparatus for regulating and controlling businesses that most countries have, for example : in Tamora people pay no income tax, there's no such thing as corporate tax, there are no regulations of the labor market, no antitrust laws, there's no institution, federal or otherwise, even remotely similar to the ministry of economy or industry etc. Tamoran businesses, unless very large or dealing with foreign countries, don't even have a compliance department since there's no need for one in the very little government regulation environment they operate in. And here is problem number one: their businesses aren't used to government telling them how to operate, let alone how much to sell and at what price. When the news came through of OPEN being founded, there was almost unanimity in the business world of Tamora that such restrictions are unTamoran. No corporate noble said anything public in support or positive about OPEN which in the very formal Tamora means there was serious disagreement with the organization.

But the issues facing Tamora do not stop there. The country, despite what many assume, has a federal system where the Emperor handles mostly defense  with all responsibilities retained by the kingdoms. And here comes the next problem. The Emperor has issued a decree instructing the kingdoms to implement the quotas and price limitations. Of the six kingdoms, only two have oil and gas worth mentioning: West Seleucid and Attica, with the latter having the lion's share of the market. So the royals of the two kingdoms will have to come to an agreement on how to allocate the quotas. It's not hard to imagine the immense pressure the corporate nobles from each kingdom will put on their royals to ask for a bigger share. The negotiations between the two kingdoms have already been extremely heated with little progress made so far.

But that's not all, as mentioned before, much or the oil and gas resources are in Attica, which is the most problematic kingdom of Tamora. There have been rumors that the Queen of Attica will try to use point eight of the treaty ("members agree to establish internationally approved safety practices") to impose a covert ban on oil and gas companies from using any form of slave labor. While it's unlikely that she will be able to resist pressure from Manist imams to not pass such a ban, it does show the problems OPEN has created for Tamora at all levels government.

And last but not least, there's the problem of enforcement of fines and penalties for non compliance with the quotas and price limitations required by OPEN. As you probably know, in Tamora there's no limited liability for shareholders of companies, so when a company goes bankrupt the owners are liable with their assets. And if the owners can't pay their obligations they end up in slavery as we have recently seen with Karapetyan family. As i said before, oil and gas is in private hands and while a couple of dozen families own most of the oil and gas industry, they don't own all of it. The other minor players are mostly Manist religious organizations that have small operations across the two kingdoms (West Seleucid and Attica). Anyone that knows even a little about how things work in Tamora, knows that the Tamoran kings will be very weary of fining religious organization for non compliance with something so inconsequential as not lowering production or selling outside the required price limitations and there's no chance they'll ever seize their assets or enslave them because they did not comply. Religious organizations in Tamora (especially Manist ones) are very influential as they own and operate most of the educational institutions and a large part of the media in Tamora. The only one that would have the power to go against them is the Emperor himself but the thought of the Emperor, an orthodox Manist himself, and the Manist temples not working together, let alone him punishing them for not respecting something so benign as quotas, is unfathomable.

So does that mean Tamora will not be able to comply with OPEN's requirements? As long OPEN does not ask Tamora to lower its production levels, I have little doubt it will be able to comply. But sources say the main reason why the Tamoran Emperor has joined OPEN is to keep prices high which, at times, will require to lower production. The same sources also say that OPEN is a means for him to achieve leverage against foreign powers that have sanctioned Tamora so far. So when OPEN does eventually decide to lower production (with the Tamoran Emperor voting in favor no doubt) we will see how long can Tamora comply before cracks begin to appear.

Offline Markus

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Re: The Defense Journal
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2018, 09:33:41 PM »

2018/09/16


Why Zimalia matters to Tamora




The Free Mundus has published a series of articles regarding the Tamoran involvement in Zimalia. Though the article focused on human rights issues, we would focus here on the economic aspects. It is obvious from the article that Tamora has put a lot of effort in their operations in Zimalia. As Tamora is much poorer than the average Mundus country, the investments and aid poured in by Tamora might not seem that impressive but for Tamora is notable effort. So one can't help but wonder why would Tamora get involved in Zimalia? The two countries are far away geographically , their culture and people couldn't be more different and they certainly don't share cultural ties.

If we want to understand the economic reasons ( as that's the purpose of this journal) then we have to look at the Tamoran economy. It's a developing one, which allows for few imports because of crippling tariffs and has large industry that caters mostly to its internal market (which is captive to them because of the tariffs), has huge resource reserves which it exports along with some cheap products which are competitive on the international market only because of their prices. So when the embargoes and sanctions started hammering Tamora making its stagnant economy to go into a recession, the Tamorans no doubt were desperate to find other markets for their products so they can hope to see a rapid recovery instead of a prolonged recession.

If we look at Zimalia, we see that it has an impressive 180 million pop with a GDP per capita of around 10k, roughly the same as Tamora. While that doesn't mean the two countries have the same level of development it does mean that Zimalia is a huge market for Tamora. Furthermore, not only is Zimalia rich in resources which Tamorans have know how in extracting but it's also hard for a business to get in the country. That is because while it doesn't have the same crippling tariffs as Tamora, Zimalia remains extremely hostile to businesses because of rampart corruption, lack of infrastructure or skilled labor and huge issues with AIDS etc. It is an economy which few countries ( or private actors ) have paid attention to and it's a place where Tamoran businesses, once they overcome the hurdles, can encounter little competition. Furthermore, it is a market that's not so sophisticated or demanding. It's hard to imagine Rokkenjimans or Morelanders for example ever buying the Tamoran cheap, low end cars but Zimalians find them just right.

The Free Mundus articles has hinted that Tamora has began the process  of "convincing" the legislative body of Zimalia to drop the tariffs for Tamoran goods. I have no doubt that Tamora will double down on its efforts towards that goal.
It can be argued that the sanctions imposed on Tamora have pushed it to get involved in Zimalia,  now it remains to be seen if the Tamoran venture there proves successful or if the unpredictable Zimalian President, for whatever reason, decides to pull the plug on the whole operation.