[Missing logo]
The World Economy
The World Economy
By mid 2005, the United Nations, or what remained of it- had begun addressing a problem that few authorities had the resources to confront during the aftermath of the Seven Hour War: the state of Global economy.
The Portal Storm Crisis had already devastated the world's financial infrastructure between 2001 and 2004. Banks had been abandoned or destroyed, national mints had ceased production, communication networks had collapsed and countless financial records had simply ceased to exist. By the end of 2004, much of the infrastructure required to support the world's individual currencies was either destroyed, inaccessible or generally scattered across territories that no longer recognized their former national borders.
For many surviving and relocated populations, the value of money itself had become uncertain in an ever changing constant.
The world currencies still existed physically, both in paper and on surviving digital systems. They continued to circulate between civilians, businesses and even local authorities left behind, however, without a functioning government behind it all and without the needed banks, financial institutions capable of supporting them- the value varied drastically from region to region. One currency recognized in one Urban Centre could be entirely worthless less than only a few hundred miles away.
Its not to say the old economies disappeared overnight, but they had simply become impossible to reasonably maintain.
In response, the UN administration established the Union Bureau of Credit, placing under direct international authority and assigning it the responsibility for rebuilding a functional but global financial system. They did not intend to create a new currency right away.
Instead, the UBC first seeked to identify surviving infrastructure, take control of all remaining currency reserves and records, and where possible, determine whether any portion of the old world economy could realistically be restored. Over time however, the scale of the problem had become increasingly hard to ignore... the old world currencies had all relied and been designed around the existence of nations which simply no longer functioned under Combine rule. Restoring them would mean rebuilding an system around borders rendered obsolete.
The Combine initially viewed the continued human reliance upon currency as an unnecessary complication and holdover of the past. Much of Earth's financial system had operated through fiat currencies whose value existed primarily because humanity collectively agreed that it did. From the perspective of the occupation forces; thing like labor, resource production and factory production could and should all theoretically be allocated without the need of funds. To them life could be made to work for free.
Though the Combine eventually understood that Human behavior proved otherwise.
The surviving population continued to associate labor with compensation and compensation with personal value, independence and their personal security. Attempts to simply distribute resources through central allocation produced inconsistent results and offered little incentive for civilians to undertake work beyond basic survival and forced labor camps.
Money, despite its inefficiencies, provided something the Combine quickly recognized as a useful sociological tool: a measurable method of assigning value to labor and making Humanity believe their work under their new Benefactors was "valuable" to them.
Rather than eliminating the concept, the Combine allowed the United Nations and the newly established UBC to develop a replacement. By mid-2006, following more than a year of reconstruction and discussion, the Credit was formally introduced.
Unlike the currencies of the old world, the new Credit was designed as a Globalized system. Its value was recognized throughout Earth's Urban Centres, Sectors, and Regions, allowing both citizens, businesses and administrative bodies alike to operate without the complications created by outdated national currency.
The new Credit had no officially removed the need to convert currency when crossing from Sector to Sector, avoided the need to rebuild wealth after being erroneously or suddenly moved without warning and allowed all individuals no matter where they were get paid equally for their work.
In a sense, the Credit followed the Citizen everywhere... and increasingly so did the UBC.
Following the introduction of this new system, the UBC rapidly expanded and adjusted its purpose. It no longer needed to find a goal and instead maintain the new Global economy. While they did not exist in all Urban Centres, a large majority of Urban Centres by late 2007 now contained a branch office of the UBC. As an organization, the UBC held all a citizens employment records, wages, business transactions and even their data profiles- a interconnected system which would be nothing short of bordering full surveillance of each citizens finances.
What began as an attempt to restore economic stability across the world, gradually developed into something considerably more useful to the occupation and its administration.
For the first time in history, a single organization could monitor the movement of resources across the whole planet. Labor could be measured from all Regions, wages could be standardized and shortages could be spotted long before they became widespread. The cooperation of the respective Civil Workers Union branches and the Interim Global Administration made tracking all the more easier.
it brought both stability... but came at the cost of full dependence on the system.
The Union Bureau of Credit
WIP