Economic Climate

In Autumn the globalized economy has failed to fully develop, as the two major "Barter Powers" of the ISU and the Babylonian Hyper State no longer exist. Today limited lines of free trade run through City-States that maintain next to no social or economic regulations, and only extend through heavilly armed convoys manned by the most militant of Merchants. These rare individuals without ties to nation or cultures know unparalleled freedom, while those who rely upon them realize that they are treacherous at best and totally hostile at worst. The Pentad Powers are identified as the world leaders for many reasons, but the greatest reason may be their ability to control their economic climate and influence those others. Each of the five has a different role, but all provide an economic enviroment that lies parilously close to collapse.

Imperial Economic World
The Imperialist system is elegant in its simplicity, yet capable to feeding one of the largest economic entities still in existance. Since travel became easy, and industry a staple of the Imperials, they have saught to exploit the labor and resources of captive economies. Using their superior arms, the Imperialsts have managed to carve a sizeable amount of resources out of the world and into their coffers. The most important products to the Imperial nation is cotton upon which their mighty textile industry relies upon, the gold that holds value to their currency, and the uranium that fuels their nuclear reactors.

The Imperials have enjoyed an extended period of rapid economic growth, completely with odds at the rest of the world. This golden age has garnered strong resentment towards the imperials, a sediment spawned by accusations of war-profiteering and exploitation. Even within the circle of well established "core nations" there are lasting feelings of distrust and resentment that reflect their conflicted past.

Past trends show that the Imperial economics proceeds on a pattern of boom and bust. Making it difficult to establish any baseline for their GDP, one season Imperial companies may be headed for record output, while the next they could become stangnant entities that hardly go beyond breaking even. For this reason the yearly output of the Imperialist economy is unpredictable. However a recent trend has shown that the basic foundations of their economic policies has begun to falter, with yearly profits slowly draining in the face of rising transportation costs and other yet unknown factors.

At the lowest point of the Imperial chain of economics, the common worker works hard and receives sufficent benefits to ensure health. Those who labor in Provincial lands may slowly rise through the ranks and gain greater pay, beginning as a commoner and becoming a socalled Industrial Baron is rare but not impossible in Imperial lands. On the other hand, Colonial workers exist to provide cheap labor and goods to their masters; and rarely advance in their economic standing. Perhaps one lucky individual has the right ideas to be picked up as a mediator to exploit your peers, or another to become an overseer of a new factory or plantation; but these situations are uncommon at best, and impossible at worst.

== Confederate Economic World ==

Anthony Hecht was admittedly a terrible economist, something he verified whenever someone asked for his guidence on such matters. Little of the modern Confederate economic policy reflects their Imperial origins, today a system of total automation and computerized destribution. The reasoning behind this overly complicated system is to preserve a policy of "total economic efficency", in which products are provided in a manner that maximises their potential to be consumed. As there is no real internal measurement of monitary values, all products are provided to individuals on a quota/contextual basis; this due to the fact that almost all products are produced locally or by another Centralist power. The items that are considered vital to the Confederate economy are silicon, copper, and hydrogen; the first two being used in their cutting edge electronics and the final being their primary source of fuel.

As the Confederacy is a very isolated power, foreign investors and accountants are unable to properly investigate the economic capacity and growth of the Centralist states. However, those on the inside understand that they are in a position to overtake the entire world's industrial capasity -including the of the late Babylon- within 20 years. Hoping to take the world by surprise, the Confederacy is currently in a state of isolation to hide this alarming fact.

Being an individual within the Confederate economic system can be hellish, with most factories being designed to run constantly. In Jericho all vitial facilities have been continuously since 69.54, with only six hours lost to catestrophic power failure, sabotage, and one major raid by Imperial special forces. Beyond the constant work, the average Centralist citizen may utilize infrastructure that is unheard of elsewhere; under and above ground systems of rails allow rapid travel across the nation, while government sanctioned cars may be aquired to use the many roads that the Centralists maintain. While lacking any personal liberties, the common Centralist has a level of mobility that rivals royalty in other lands.