Kalistani Major History

[Doc]

Prince Consort discusses efforts to build TMU, Military modernization
"International Agreement takes time," says Martin-Ananto
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
August 8, 5479


Prince Consort Victor Martin, before delivering Keynote event in Kaliburg

With Dame Diane Smith returned recently from Gaduridos having witnessed the peace accord and a trade delegation from Xsampa arriving shortly to discuss long term trade relationships, the Prince Consort was tasked to speak on the developing Terran Monetary Unit. The Prince Consort, speaking on behalf of Her Imperial Majesty, The Empress, was dispatched to give updates on the progress of development of the TMU, a currency device which could change the face of international currency markets.

"We are at an unprecedented moment in history," said Prince Consort Victor to TV-1's "Hoy" news magazine. "The Terran Monetary Unit, which is being designed in Kaliburg along with delegations from Beiteynu, Narikiton, Lodamun, Deltaria, Tukarali, and Dundorf, is, as we all know, a potential candidate for a new standard of international currency exchange and transfer. It will make trade more efficient, will allow nations to effectively trade on parity with one another, and will set a standard as to the actual value of local currencies around the world. Her Imperial Majesty's Finance Minister, Mr. Marcuse, has created a proposal that we think is workable. but of course, designing something this is not an easy task. There has to be buy in internationally, and we need to make sure everyone's questions and concerns are addressed. International Agreement, as the conferences in Gaduridos and Indrala demonstrate, takes time."

The Prince Consort was in town to speak at an event for the Kaliburg Conference. The topic of his speech was "The Terran Monetary unit will ease transaction costs to international trade", and it was delivered before a packed auditorium filled with mostly Kalistani economists, along with foreign guests being hosted at Kaliburg Polytechnic. During the discussion, the Prince Consort noted that the Empress is open to trade in currency, but just wanted to make sure that no nation was able to gain an advantage over any other nation in the exchanges. "As a Brethrenist, Nicolette believes that you should let your word be your word. When your standard is a country's local currency itself, that country automatically gets the benefits of full convertibility, to the determent of every other country. Long ago, the world order determined that Lodamun would be that currency. I am sure that has led to as many problems in Lodamun as it has elsewhere, because they also lose a certain amount of control over their own currency. Nicolette hopes that Lodamun gains the same tools to manage their currency supply that Kalistan has enjoyed this entire time."

It is no secret that Kalistan has long railed against the Lodamization of international currency exchanges. Ultimately, the complaint has always been that establishing the LOD as the single globally convertible currency made no sense, because that is both a tremendous advantage and burden that is placed on Lodamun, when really, it could be anyone. But Kalistan has long argued against it being anyone at all, and instead has long lobbied for the creation for an extrenally valued Terran Monetary Unit which is free of any one nation's policies, or of random events that occur in that nation. "The TMU will allow planners in Lodamun and around the world to manage monetary policy against an internationally accepted and independent standard which is immune to changes in the world climate. The change may affect a currency locally still, but the standard itself will remain, well, a standard, so the goal posts don't keep moving around and Lodamun can more accurate measure the real value of their currency the way Kalistan can, as we already have adopted the TMU as our standard for exchange and international trade." Prince Consort Victor noted that like many systems and institutions, the monetary system is due for an upgrade. "The Empress has told me on numerous occasions that it feels like the global monetary system was designed by someone who had just enough information about monetary systems and exchanges to build a system which allowed us to do the equivalent of speaking words, but didn't give us any ability to communicate ideas with those words. From the weird voter behavior to our currency system, it seems like the designers knew code, but not theory. Hopefully this conference and other conferences, bring some theory to our systems, at long last."

The Prince Consort spoke about the TMU for a little over a half hour, and then answered questions from the crowd, ranging to finer details of the TMU and how it will affect given local economies, to what its like raising two small children. The Empress reportedly watched the lecture from the Imperial Palace in Eveari, where she was meeting with the Chancellor about the Domestic Agenda.