Witchypoo, good point, well made and it was not my intention to mis-represent anything.
In this instance I DID have coins to repay some of the debt if it had been necessary but, as a fairly new player, they are in short supply in my - only - empire (reg due March 2012). My point was that the strategic stock within the affected countries was the problem. I couldn't access the stock and therefore could not sell it. I won't try to explain how the countries went into debt here as it something of a puzzle, suffice to say it was sudden and unexpected.
I do not dispute that there is a case for limited access to countries in heavy debt but I do question the need to totally block access to the country by the player. To do this takes away the ability to make the decision on how to recover the debt. I am also disappointed that the limit is so low before access is blocked.
By stating that access to a country is blocked I mean just that. When attempting to select the country from "my countries" page the player is confronted by the message:
Your country has more than 3.00T SC$ of negative cash.
Please transfer cash to your country.
and bounced straight back to the country selection. I repeat my question, if ALL my countries are blocked (and I have no coins!), how would I repay the debt? Perhaps it is not possible to have ALL countries blocked, I don't know. Is anyone willing to test this? ;)
I believe there are many options that could be implemented instead, including limited access to sell stock or convert negative cash into loans to name just two.