The meeting place of Nationalökonomische Kampfgruppe Salzburg was a small dark and dusty library chamber at the University, dominated by bookshelves and a large wall-screen. Gertrud Müller and Erich von Holzbrücke had an animated discussion with their virtual guest."What effects will the latest EU labor policy directive have on the processes of the labour market - and how can we use it?" Cabaal asked from the wall-screen.
"The analysises I have made with Erich and our agent Adam suggests that they will soon need to take over a greater responsibility from the national level in order to meet their own structural objectives of the latest framework program. Greece deviates dangerously from the decided convergence criteria. But these divergences are structural parts of the Greek labour market. Either they go down and micromanage or they let Greece diverge..." Gertrud said.
"... and we have seen that they cannot allow that." Erich pointed out.
"Will they continue with the work-brigade project?"
"My contacts in the subdirectorate for Area One say that they will go in for it and concentrate on the federal level.The problem is that they won't get enough people from the respective departments of labour."
"Which isn't very strange" Erich interjected "Mein Gott, if they can't put more people to work they will lose the subsidies to put more people to work."
"The usual stalemate"
"Exactly - 'we resolutely act for a solution that optimizes the needs of all involved parties' " Gertrud said, her voice dripping with irony.
"OK, Erich, what could we do about this?"
"You know that little cell in Tessaloniki?"
"Rave Revolution?"
"Yes. They have managed to reach out fairly well to the target group that runs the greatest risk - oops, silly me - fulfills the criteria for qualifying for this labor political measure. If the cell could get them more involved in the growing Greek black market, their willingness to go with the work-brigades would in the long run decrease."
"Now you assume that They will leave the choice freely up to the individual recipients."
"Cabaal, Cabaal - it shows that you're from Stockholm! You think far too much on a microeconomical level. But this isn't a question about a micro- or macroeconomical perspective. You have to think about the market processes that are generated in the strategically chosen sectors we already have positioned ourselves into."
IOU is an objective currency used only by the Concordat. It started to be used around 2013 when members of the Concordat often exchanged favors (I Owe You) instead of money to trade goods, information and services. It is actually a much older concept than that; it traces its roots back to the moneyless societies in the 20th century. These barter systems were often not very successful since it was difficult to value the worth of services and goods and, unfortunately, people that didn't have a grasp of basic economics administered most of those systems. Even the various digital currencies of the early 21st century often showed these shortcomings. In December 2013 the cryptoeconomy hacker Ho Chen presented the first implementation of digital IOUs, which proved to be a great success.
Today the IOU currency system is the Concordat's greatest strength. It is without question the world's most efficient and fastest growing economy. The IOU system enforces a tremendous loyalty among cells because bad performance or betrayal will also the rend the offending part destitute. Loyal and creative cells get rewarded in spades that are impossible to achieve outside the Concordat.
Fantastic, but what is it?
IOU is a digital currency that each cell mints, so the Blackburn Transhumanists' IOU and The New Savak's IOU are really two different currencies. but they are exchangeable among themselves on a 1:1 basis. The IOU is based on an objective value, a value that everyone in the economic system agrees upon. This is real money, not fiat currency (despicingly called playmoney in the Concordat after the old board game Monopoly).
But the most profitable robbery, paper money, enabled the government to decide for itself what its money was worth. Not limited any longer by the gold or silver value of currency, nor of bullion, the governments all over the world started to build up enormous organizations by paying people in freshly minted playmoney. But the playmoney aren't tradeable to anything real, they are just worth what the government says they are worth. If you go to the issuer (the government's central bank) and demand to receive your money's worth in gold, you'll be thrown out. Because if everybody would do so, the government would go bankrupt in a jiffy. No country in the world can back up the enormous amounts of currency they have released on the market! Read the previous sentence again! Perhaps now you understand why the world's economy seems so frail and tumultuous, we're all depending on an illusion of worth.
The governments forbid their citizens to use other currencies because they can trade in enormous objective values for subjective values. In other words, they screw you real good. You give them your work and your goods and they give you back what they decide to give you. But of course, printing money creates inflation. Simply put its when people are beginning to doubt that all these bills have a backup (which they don't) because there are so many of them.
The governments try to solve the problems that it creates by constantly devaluing or revaluing its playmoney, but this doesn't really solve the problem and often accentuates one symptom (like unemployment).
Wouldn't this lead to an enormous inflation when everybody issues so many IOU they can? Well, actually not. Each cell is regarded as a small corporation of its own, they can issue IOUs but only according to their credit rating. The credit rating is a calculation of all the goods and services the cell performs in the Concordat economy, It is a bit like a gigantic Moody's. The ratings are calculated on the Market by Interfacers all over the world sharing information. Even though, this operation is heavily guarded and dispersed; the credit system is the weak point of the Concordat since its cells could be traced from it. Not that it would be easy (imagine accountants and economists trying to trace all transactions that occur in your country) but it is possible. On the other hand, having an economy of your own is very profitable. The Concordat cells enjoy free global trade, no taxes, efficient allocation of funds, justice, economic stability and peace!
For instance, in the Concordat you can buy insurances that give you medical care of good quality (and with highly advanced technology available) not a place in a medical queue and you can trust the insurance cells' investment of your IOUs much better, no government is going to forfeit them (like they have done with insurance funds). And if you don't trust IOUs you can always exchange them for services from the issuer, one hour per IOU.
Secondly, no one can boss you around. They have to pay for themselves if they want you to do something. If they do something you don't like, interfacers can mediate an agreement so that you get compensation (suing wildly for fun and profit is a sure way to get into the blacklist and loose one's investors) and solve the conflict.
Thirdly, you don't want to fight with people that you can earn resources and information from. It is more efficient to trade with someone rather than steal from him. You're also assured of the loyalty of your trading partner. Because leaving the Concordat means that all your IOUs are worthless. Imagine yourself going completely broke! Not a single cent left in your pocket, that all your investments and insurances were completely void. Betrayal is financial suicide (besides all the other nasty things that may happen to you).
To find out a price of an item in InfoWar that isn't listed its an OK rule of thumb to divide its present value in dollars by three to get its IOU value. If the goods are illegal or have to be imported it is much more expensive. Multiply their price by two or three times to get the IOU cost. On the other hand these goods might not be available at all on the open market. Sometimes you can buy things that are available on the open market much more cheaply (no taxes, no tariffs, no extra mark-up, nanofacture, etc.) multiply the price by 0.9 down to 0.4 to reflect this.
The average new skilled Concordat member earns 1 IOU per hour. Skilled members make from 5 to 10 IOUs per hour, while members with rare or unusual skills make up to 50 or 100 IOU per hour or more. Supply and demand, of course. This should make that an average new skilled Concordat cell could issue between 10,000 and 15,000 IOUs per year. Skilled, experienced cells like Null Pointer roughly earn between 20,000 and 50,000 IOUs per year. Extremely wealthy and skilled cells (like Atoll or UII) up to 200,000 IOUs or more.
The Market system is distributed across SubNet, but there are several interfaces to it, ranging from the impressive main virtual to simple "sold/wanted" bulletin-boards and agent networks. Bill sends out a simple trade agent to find out who is currently selling MCs. The agent makes contact with a number of other trade agents, asking them if they have MCs for sale. The different agents evaluate the offer, and if it is suitable, the credibility of the buyer is high enough and it fits with their owners' directives they contact the owners. After a few hours the agent reports back to Bill, listing a number of cells interested in trade together with some background information. Bill and the cell go through it (prospects of various MC designs, reputation, contact addresses) and finally settle for the offer from Cautious & Conservative. They send a message to them to discuss the deal. Had it been a small matter, such as buying software or components, both sides would likely have traded only using agents with no need for discussion.
Bill and the C&C representative link together in a chat session, discussing the model he wants to buy, customization and the price. After settling that aspect, they turn to the transport question. C&C suggests that they use UPS (the Underground Parcel Service, a cell specializing in global transports); they have a package deal that provides cheaper transport for C&C customers anywhere in the world. Bill agrees, and they sign a digital contract. Bill sends over a number of IOUs to the C&C and UPS, automatically registering the transaction with the credit rating networks. Bill also tells UPS where to deliver the package (a suitable pickup point not too near the BTs headquarters).
At C&C, the representative asks one of the engineers to put together the customized MC, and then leave the package at a suitable pickup point. At no point does anybody involved learn the exact location or identity of the other. A person from the UPS picks it up, and then it is smuggled through the UPS network (in this case labeled as a deluxe coffee making machine) to the delivery point. There Bill and the others pick it up, the proud owners of a C&C Holiday MC II.
The greater a man's income, the greater has been his service to others.The whole IOU system stands and falls with the renown, respect, credibility, skill, brilliance and financial soundness of its members. This is a simple system for the Coordinator to keep track of the cell's Credibility and how it affects their IOU credit rating. Credibility is calculated for the whole cell, but note that it is quite possible for individual members to have Credibility ratings of their own. DNight has it, My Fair Lady has it, and Colonel Cantrell has it too. But those are very prominent figures that are able to back it up.
Murray Rothbard
It should be stressed that Credibility should be role-played: other cells want to do business with the characters because of it, their words have more power because of it, the Market allows them to issue more IOUs because of it, etc. It should never become just a "level" for the cell.
Credibility works like a sort of Very Hard skill that the cell shares. It starts at Non-Existent but can be raised by gaining Credibility Points (CP) during play. These CP are like EP that the cell can spend to increase their Credibility level. The characters' cell gains one CP when they have been instrumental to a Concordat operation (most likely a tough and important adventure). Extremely vital missions might give two CP.
Credibility is used to:
| Credibility | Max IOU | Examples | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terrible | A nearly unknown cell with no reputation at all, or a cell practically nobody likes. | 500 | |
| Poor | Either a very new cell, or a cell that has broken the Concord a few times. | 2,000 | Blackburn Transhumanists |
| Mediocre | A somewhat minor cell, still not quite trusted. | 5,000 | Trillicon Arms, Covers R' Us, AHKF |
| Fair | A cell that has proven itself to be a constructive part of the Concordat and follows the Concord well. | 20,000 | Null Pointer, PKP, Nucleus |
| Good | A cell with a solid reputation, known by practically everyone. | 50,000 | Hokusho Society, NMS Brussels, TU TV |
| Great | A respected and liked cell that has proven its ability to develop the Concordat further. | 200,000 | UPS, C-CIA, Cautious & Conservative |
| Superb | One of the major cells, providing essential or superior services. | 500,000 | Atoll, Seguridad Social, Ghosts, UII |
When a cell reaches Credibility: Superb, the cell's members will start to earn individual CP too, and be able to build up a personal Credibility.
How collectivist, you might think! Well, it's about security for their business partners and investors. If everyone in every cell could issue IOUs the risks would be even higher. Most individual members couldn't simply back up those IOUs. Personal Credibility is a privilege for those that show themselves to be good investments to other cells. It is also a sad fact that if one cell member is exposed and arrested it is quite rare for anyone in the cell to escape, most of the others are apprehended and eliminated too.
It is also possible for the cell to loose Credibility. Botching deals, and breaking the Concord without compensating the offended parties, will get you posted on the Black List. If the Coordinator deems that the cell has attracted the displeasure of a number of other cells they might loose one or more levels of Credibility. These levels can be bought back by gaining and spending CP.
Credcards look about the same as 20th century credit cards and are used in the same way. They are manufactured in durable plastic. They contain its owner's name, registration number (personal number, social security number etc. varies with country), digitized signature, digitized handprint, digitized photograph, basic physical description (when unenhanced by cosmetics, hair dyes, etc), basic medical facts (such as blood type or allergies), any licenses and permits (gun license, parking permits, driving license, etc), a record of employment status and current employer, bank account numbers which can be accessed by the credcard and those accounts' computer locations. In addition stuff like digital lunch coupons or frequent flyer points can be stored. The card of course also contain assorted encoding that establishes the legitimacy of the credcard.
Credcards are usually issued whenever a person opens any type of accounts with a financial institution. They can also be issued purely for identification purposes or as pass-keys. They always prominently feature the logo of the body that issued them. While credcards are usually issued in the form of an ongoing account, with credit against future salary allowed up to wages in amount (normally), credcards can also be issued for a specific amount of cash which has been deposited at an institution, in which case credit is obviously not allowed.
Having a credcard has almost become a necessity in most industrialized countries. In Third World countries they are mostly impossible to use. Using paper currency or coins in an industrialized country almost always brands you either unemployed, of low class, being a foreigner from an undeveloped country, or in the process of doing something illegal.
Of course, the credcards are an excellent way for the FOG to keep track of its citizens' transactions. Any use will leave a digital trail that can be followed by people with enough authorization, connections or skill. But what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Credcards are the main reason that digs have acquired more popularity and they are excellent places to hide IOU accounts. The credcards might be the downfall of the governments' play money.
Credcards that turn up missing are reported very quickly to those who issue them, at which point they become unusable - the institution which issued them transfers the funds involved to a new account number and issues the account holder a new credcard. After the old account is closed, any use of the old credcard is flagged by the system's usage program. A trace is automatically issued, and if the user's location can be locked down, a message is sent to the local authorities advising them of an attempted theft in process. Unfortunately, many police agencies are so overworked that they often cannot respond quickly enough to these messages, and if the thief succeeds with a Great Security and a Good Computer Programming roll he may evade the trace altogether or at least delay the trace enough to get away. If, however, the previous owner of a credcard is deceased, the loss of the credcard frequently goes unreported, or is at least delayed. Due to the ongoing correlation of various sources (employment records, residency listings, tax fillings, and other records) with those of all financial institutions, even credcards whose owners are deceased are rendered unusable after 30 days to a year. One nasty side effect of the credcard system is that credcard owners who are mugged for their cards often don't outlive the experience. One sensible precaution observed by anyone that is afraid to be mugged is to take along some currency, as muggers and gang members can often be bribed from fatally injuring a credcard carrier with the currency, which is more usable to them anyhow. Other sensible precautions include carrying a weapon, knowing how to use it, avoiding unmonitored alleys, and watching your back.
Falsifying a credcard is certainly possible. Several difficulties hamper illegal use of a credcard. Aside from the fact that it may be invalidated if its owner has reported it missing, an illegal credcard user has to deal with account number validation, the validation encoding on the card itself, and other typical validation methods associated with the card: registration numbers, handprints, and signatures. Fortunately for credcard recycling entrepreneurs, few credcard validation requests by a given system ask for all of these (checking the retina for each use of an ATM -- impossible). Most often only a code and occasionally a thumbprint or signature correlation are made, which makes it easier (but not simple) to forge a credacrd.
Credcard forgers have two ways of approaching the problem: either find out what is on the card (and in the computer systems associated with its use) and give the validation request what it wants (usually a code or a forged signature -- handprints are more difficult to forge), or change what's on the card to accommodate the new user. To either read or change the data on a credcard requires a Good Computer Programming and a Great Security roll, and access to a credcard reader. Alternatively, a new credcard may be forged if the right information is written on a credcard blank. The blanks and the read/write equipment are restricted, but not impossible to get; the real trick is to forge the official codes so the information appears authentic - since the card is read by computers it isn't enough to make it look authentic, it has to be identical. Forging lunch coupons is often quite easy, passkeys are intended to be hard to forge and bank signatures requires serious work, likely employing cryptographic or cracking methods that may take months.
| Costs of credcard equipment | |
|---|---|
| Service or item | Cost |
| Credcard reader | 100 IOU |
| Credcard blanks | 10 IOU / box of 50 |
| Reading out a credcard | 200 IOU |
| Stolen credcard (hot, hot) | 5-10 IOU |
| Stolen credcard (owner "guaranteed" deceased) | 100 IOU |
| Prechanged "guaranteed" credcard | 400-500 IOU |
| Forged credcard | 500- 1,500 IOU |
www.key.market.sub/FAQ/Market
The digital money carry a promise to invent a civilization of its own that will be as different from our modern society as the Aztec civilization was from the Vikings'!Digs, digibucks, e-cash, etc. Digital money has acquired many names in common parlance. But what are they? Many use them, especially we in the Concordat, without fully realizing their true meaning.
Jack Weatherford
The start of the digs was the deregulation of currency trade in the late '80s. Suddenly the governments' failures in economic policy were immediately visible on the currency market with a loss of value for their currency, not ten years later in a general depression of the whole economy. The governments had to consider economics for the first time in history, and many financial institutions (and ordinary citizens) started to doubt that the government had the best of the whole economy as a guideline for its policies.
The old credit cards were the first step. When they came in greater use, it was a quick step for the banks to offer the possibility to change the actual currency that was in the card. It became possible to, with the same card withdraw French francs, Italian lire or Danish crown from ATMs in the respective countries, even though your own bank account was in a German bank and in German marks. National currencies became interchangeable and became therefore less important, at least for the shrinking group in society that was interested in moving around in the world. The airlines system of bonus points was suddenly starting to look more and more like the currencies, that had an objective value, translatable to chocolate boxes or travels to Ibiza. The citizens and institutions that understood the new possibilities inherent to digs were able to quickly move their savings to better currencies, currencies backed up by more responsible and reliable governments or corporations, leaving most of the lemmings behind to bear the brunt of government mismanagement of the economy.
Like Bolivia in the '80s, Zaire, Sweden and Indonesia in the '90s, governments started to loose control of the currencies. Soon they would be forced to completely deregulate all currency, and they couldn't accept the loss of power. The three blocks decided to stop the globalization of digs, most of the various types of digs were based on one type of playmoney, and under the guise of stopping tax evasions they stopped all transactions out from the blocks. They also stopped all possibilities of development for the countries that were not inside the blocks; everyone with a minimum of intelligence in those countries would invest in block currencies. The regulation of the currency market hit the developing countries hard, no one wanted to (or could) invest in their unsafe currencies. In fact, most of the problems in Brazil, India and Africa are traceable to this regulation. They don't have an efficient way of trading, neither among themselves nor with the blocks, and of course the affluent quickly left those countries economically. The anti-globalization left was filled with joy, now the governments could use playmoney to fake economic credibility, at least inside the block, on the expenses of the undeveloped countries.
The most visible form of digs is of course the credcards that can be used to store currencies from inside the blocks but also "currencies" issued by other institutions like the airlines' bonus points, discounts from stores (the more you shop the more discount you get), and also IOUs. The other digs currencies are dangerous to the blocks' currencies, if people start loosing interest in American dollars they could change the to United Airlines bonus points, and least getting cheap flights for their work efforts.
But the IOUs are a bigger threat since they are international. It would be wrong to give Ho Chen all the credit for creating the IOU system, it is the logical end of a process that started with the realization that the government wasn't taking good care of your money. IOUs were created as an evolutionary process that still progresses. In fact, I doubt that we will use the present system for much longer. It will probably be changed for a system were different cell's IOUs aren't interchangeable on a 1:1 basis, allowing the currencies to be fully subjected to market fluctuations, giving the market processes free way. This will enable the Market to gain even more strength and versatility, more quickly giving capital to successful cells. The IOU is the child of the digs, and as such it is one of the most stable and reliable ones. One interesting idea could be to expand the possibility to trade with IOUs to other organizations outside the Concordat. It would certainly help up things in Africa if people could trade with a reliable currency.
A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking big money.The strongest markets in the world are not legal ones. This section covers the Concordat's Market institution and the regular Black Market. The system can be used for both, but remember contacts on the Black Market are more unreliable (they have no credibility to uphold), their goods are frequently more expensive than on the Market and they sell without offering any guarantees.
Everett M. Dirksen, attributed
The Market is not a specific place (even though it has a virtual representation on the SubNet); rather it is a system of contacts, specialized basement labs and workshops, and illegal and unregistered warehouses serving the needs of Concordat cells and others.
What can you buy on the Market then? Here are some examples:
Once you have located an appropriate contact, you may attempt to obtain what you seek. Look at the table below to get an idea of how available different goods or services generally are. To purchase, roll your Evaluation against the contact's. The price of the item will depend on the Relative degree of the Evaluation roll modified by the contact's effectiveness (the degree of the previous Underworld roll). The results of those degrees are then multiplied by 10%, subtracted from the price if it's a degree in your favor, added if it's a degree in the contact's favor. This reflects that prices on the Market seldom move a lot away from what the seller wants, since you often cannot find the item anywhere else. On the other hand, the seller is pushing the market, and since the buyer can always decline the deal, he doesn't want to charge a price that is too high. If you want to sell something on the Market you just reverse the whole process above.
Of course, the Coordinator can give modifiers to the sides' skills depending on circumstances.
Once the characters have become involved in the Market they will come to realize that anything can be had- for a price!
Example: Rutger wants to buy electronic equipment on the black market. He has Underworld: Fair and the Coordinator declares a Difficulty Level of Good. Rutger gets a Fair result (-1), it is a fairly normal contact (in reality, a small electronics firm). The particular equipment Rutger wants is rated as Great. Both he and the contact have to make Great Evaluation rolls. Rutger has Evaluation: Mediocre and the contact has Evaluation: Good. Rutger gets a result of Fair (-2) and the contact gets Good (-1). Total modifier: (-2)-(-1)= -1. The contact's effectiveness isn't that good, so it's another -1. This result of -2 is multiplied by 10%, so the price is about 20% higher than it "normally" would be.Some days later, Rutger wants to sell some computer programs. He rolls Credibility to find a buyer on the Market. He succeeds the Good Credibility roll with Great result (+1). The programs are rated Fair on the Evaluation. Rutger gets +2 and the buyer +1. With the contact's effectiveness it's a +2 degree, multiplied by 10%, and now Rutger gets paid 20% more.
AVAILABILITY OF GOODS AND SERVICES Item Difficulty Very common items and services Mediocre General items or services, level 1 info, stolen credcards Fair Surplus military equipment and weapons, "Guaranteed" stolen credcards Good Current military equipment and weapons, level 2 info, Specialized items & services, prechanged "guaranteed" Credcards Great Special purpose items, sota weapons, level 3 info, forged credcardsq Superb
