| Akatosh Vivec (Fearless Blue) | Friday, October 31, 2008 - 06:59 am 
I realise that Simcountry is *not* a replica of earth, though it does follow economic, political, and military principles.
However, I noticed that with respect to the economic premise of the World Bank, it is fundamentally flawed.
The premise of the WB is to be the "lender of last resort", or, in other words, the lender that provides money to those who cannot attain it from another player's offered loan.
However, there are two other institutions that I do not see present in the game world: The International Monetary Fund, or the IMF, and the World Trade Organisation.
The IMF is the official lender of last resort to nations, whenever a nation needs a loan, the IMF loans it, so I'm not sure how the 'world bank' came to be (or if that is simply the name granted to the "IMF" of Simcountry...if this could be clarified, great).
Let's assume that the "World Bank" in simcountry is the same thing as the IMF in "RL". In RL the IMF has a balance sheet, and has a limited reserve to lend -- even if it seems as if it doesn't. I believe, therefore, that the World Bank in Simcountry should have its own page of information regarding loans offered, financial situation, etc. If the "World Bank" doesn't receive enough income to balance the debt, I think that it should stop giving out loans completely, this would allow the "world" to mimic real recession cycles.
Furthermore, loans are a *risk*. If they default, who *backs the value up*? Insurance agencies, actually. (AIG, etc). I believe that it would be far more realistic if an international insurance agency was established that promised to recoup any losses *if* the borrower (enterprise, nation, or corporation) cannot pay back that debt. Because as it stands... no institution exists that supplies that role.
The WTO is essentially the idea of an international organization in each game world that each player nation would have a choice as to whether to 'allow it' or to disallow it -- access to their nation, etc. Globalisation, therefore, should be another aspect of the game that could be introduced.
One last comment on financial institutions in general. I have always been interested as to how "money" is generated in this game. I believe that if each nation had a "central bank", and used the fractional reserve system to generate short term interest rates (sort of like the federal fund rate) or the LIBOR, then the concept of CASH value could be introduced -- the value of "money" then could increase or decrease. But that hinges on each nation having a separate currency, which I read from a poll is being looked into. So that's a way to implement it: Central Banks with a fractional reserve system & short term lending rates.
But these are all thoughts. Think of them as you will. |
| Angus88 (Little Upsilon) | Sunday, November 2, 2008 - 06:16 am
If you want more complexity, there is a game called geo political simulator. Its VERY complex and has IMF, WTO, world bank, and many more economic and political co-operation organizations. If you want a browser game to be a realistic geo political simulator, then its not going to happen. But what you want already exists... just in another game. |
