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Normally, The Rub tries to steer clear of financial observations. However, this time, we'll make an exception; Lucien has been evaluating the monetary market as of late...and he likes what he sees. Somewhat.

The Situation Overview

As Hireshmont and the RBSA have pointed out on several occasions...the value of the ZAR has gone down the shitter, thanks in large part to the Theocrats' robbery and whatnot. Thus, since the government and the RBSA can no longer control the value of our money, the ZAR has dropped roughly 40%-50% in value. However, in the same time period that it took for the ZAR to lose all that value, the price of local goods has remained roughly the same, or at the very least they have not inflated along the same lines as our currency (discounting the fact that our market is incredibly volatile anyway).

On the whole, I really think we should be thanking the Theocratic dirtbags...

What are you on about?

What I'm saying is, from an uncharacteristically capitalist standpoint, thanks to the recent downswing in the value of the ZAR, now is the perfect time to own a business in eSouth Africa, especially if said business already has export licenses. Here, allow me to make an example:

Let us say you own a Q2 grain company here in eSouth Africa, and that in order for you to pay your employee salaries and net a small insurance profit, you have too sell your grain for about 2.4 ZAR a piece. Not bad, but not good either, as the company is barely keeping its head above water.

Let us say, for the sake of making a more profound point, that the aforementioned company has an export license to...Norway. Now, eNorway has one of, if not the strongest currencies in the eWorld. By comparisson, eSouth Africa has one of, if not the weakest of the surviving nations. The exchange rate between the currencies, going from NOK to Gold to ZAR (the usual way of exchanging money), is currently 3.699 ZAR to every NOK...when one shows it like that,our currency situation looks all the more dismal.

But take a look at this...our hypothetical Q2 grain company, which must sell its product for 2.4 ZAR at home to stay afloat, must sell its grain on the Norwegian market for 0.65 NOK to break even...which would then run for 1.3 NOK, considering Norway's 99% import tax on grain. Taking into consideration the fact that the cheapest Q2 grain in Norway usually runs between 1.8 to 2 NOK, and how much more ZAR our little hypothetical company could make selling there, I'd say its luck is about to change. It can now increase its salaries, or provide free gifts and food, or sell its product at move for much, much less.

Because, you see, the theocrats theft has created a vacuum of sorts on the monetary market, there are so many people looking to sell ZAR now, and so few looking to buy, that, thanks to the laws of supply and demand, the amount of ZAR one can buy for every gold spent remains high...and that's not factoring in whether one chooses to take the slower and more profitable "i'll sell the currency instead of buying it" path...

That's all fine and dandy, but what about your average Joe?

Ah yes, we mustn't forget about him. The benefits are that much greater, thanks to the fact that eRepublik awards free gold to anyone who gets a "medal".

Work 30 days in a row? Here's five gold.

Get 5 strength? Here's five gold.

Happen to get elected to congress/presidency...1 Gold is about 141 ZAR. Get five of those, and you have yourself a new house (were there any on the market, of course). I think you get the picture, ya? The marketplace is your oyster, if there is only something to buy...

The Downside?

There are many downsides, enough to make one contemplate whether or not our situation is really as much of a boon as I've made it sound, but there really are two main, glaring, obvious ones.

Like I said, "if only there were something to buy." One of the biggest problems of having such a weak currency is the fact that it is so much more profitable for companies to sell abroad; in a market such as ours, where even essential goods are hard enough to come by, if so many businesses suddenly decide to start selling overseas in order to make some easy money and don't sell in our domestic market, we could very easily see ourselves in some deep trouble, especially considering the fact that the foreign companies we would then entrust to deliver our goods would need to sell their products for such inflated prices to match our currency and ensure they're not suddenly running at a loss. The monetary market cuts both ways like that. Therefore, I really must urge our general managers to not forget about your domestic market if you choose to sell overseas; after all, it'll do no good to have all that money if your workers' wellness and productivity suffers as a result.

Second, and equally depressing, is the fact that any new companies or companies that used to sell exclusively domestic before the fall of the ZAR are now at a loss; remember, just as how much ZAR we get for every gold we spend increased, so did the amount of ZAR it took to buy back that gold. Thus, with export and business licenses running at 20 gold, and 160+ ZAR to purchase one gold, it's become impossibly expensive to A) start a new company, or 😎 purchase an export license for an existing company so as to take advantage of this period in our money market. The marlet will, hopefully, right itself again, so like Hireshmont said, don't buy gold unless you have to. Unfortunately, by then, this opportunity will have passed you by.

What's Yer Point?

My point being, if you need ZAR, now's the time to get it. If you need Gold, you're out of luck. If you have the export license, now's the time to flood the marketplaces of those Theocratic bastards that stole our money, selling our goods at unimaginably cheap prices and stealing the business, money, and business from their homelands in swift and sweet economic revenge.

Just don't forget your own home market in the process...

Lucien Morjuet.