Chapter 416 Economic Shockwaves
Colossal changes were happening one after another. The world was still dealing with the aftermath of the drug cartel takedowns and mass arrests, and just as they thought everything would be fine once another organization rose up to replace the cartels, a new shock shook them. And while Americans were still dealing with the increased prices for things like heroin, cocaine, and so on, the US dollar, which in itself was already on the edge of the cliff following the recent American surrender, received a final push and finally crashed.
Without the backing of the military forces of the US, the big three credit-rating agencies—Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings—quickly downgraded America’s creditworthiness from AA+ to AAA, almost as if it had been planned long before but remained unimplemented due to fear of reprisals. That triggered a massive, unrecoverable fluctuation in the currency market and the dollar began crashing. The dollar crashing sent another round of shockwaves through the already teetering global economy, and it was only prevented from becoming an unrecoverable worldwide collapse by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which implemented emergency measures to stabilize the market for the second time in a short few years. After all, it had also been forced to step in during the recent financial spat between the Morgans and Rothschilds.
But this time it was different. No matter how thorough the planning and preparation for a devastating market crash like the one they were currently suffering was, they had always had the backing of the big three global financial investment giants to fall back on. But with the erosion of governance and lack of faith in the US Congress after their disastrous decision to declare war on Eden; the rising general government deficit that had skyrocketed from a modest 2.8% to a staggering 6.6%, with indications that it would continue to rise to a precedent setting 10%; the constant government shutdowns over the debt ceiling issue; and a slowing economy; and a host of other reasons, the measures that could be implemented by the SEC and the Fed were akin to trying to put out a forest fire by pissing on it. It wouldn’t really do anything and they would only stink up the place by trying.
Luckily, however, the USD collapse was mirrored by an equivalent meteoric rise in the Eden New Dollar (END). Introduced days after the UN had implemented historically strict sanctions on Eden, the END had been considered a worthless currency on the global foreign exchange ever since its inception. But now it was frantically climbing, almost at a 1:1 rate with the USD’s decline. nove.lb(1n
Soon, the US dollar would be replaced by the Eden New Dollar as the premiere reserve currency for international trading.
The END continued its meteoric rise until it even alarmed Plutus, the AI behind Plutus Ventures, Aron’s venture capital and hedge fund.
[Sir, we need to limit the upward trend of the END or our export market will collapse,] he said.
“Oh?”
[Yes. The increase in value of the END will cause the import/export companies we deal with to be on the verge of collapse soon. It won’t be too long before they begin having to default on their contracts as Edenian and Esparian companies have announced that they would only accept payment in Eden New Dollars. If that trend continues, we’ll be forced to hyperinflate the END to bring it back down to tolerable levels in the foreign exchange market.]
Aron thought for a moment, then ordered, “Send a message to the companies in question in my name telling them to renegotiate lower rates for now. I’ll personally reimburse the difference, as we can’t afford a global economic collapse right now.”
[Yes, sir.] Plutus vanished, and moments later, every Edenian and Esparian import/export company received notification of a priority message on their GAIA OS accounts.
Luckily, Aron and the Central Bank of Eden and Esparia owned 60% of the total END in circulation, so while it would cost him trillions of END, the loss would be temporary and would recover on its own after the market stabilized.
In the meantime, the citizens of Eden and Esparia were thrilled at their increased purchasing power, and Alexander declared a nationwide week-long holiday for them to go out and spend, encouraging the global economy to recover from another angle; injecting END into the world to slow the damage caused to the economy by the nosediving US dollar. The involvement of the citizens, combined with timely action on the part of Aron’s companies, had finally staved off the oncoming global economic depression and the market would soon enter a period of recovery, during which the END would officially take over from the USD as the global reserve currency.
......
December 25th, New York City.
An entire fleet of helicopters had been arriving over the course of the day from Camp David, where they had picked up a stream of presidents and their high-level diplomatic staffs. After arriving at their destination, they were assigned an Aegis security detail and sent to the Mandarin Oriental, which had been fully booked for the following week, during which they would hold a discussion on the new world constitution.
Every leader had come in person, with none of them refusing the invitation. They knew that, if they were to refuse to participate in the summit, they would soon be revisiting the white room, a place that none of them ever wanted to see again.
A huge crowd formed an impromptu parade audience as the citizens of New York City lined up on the side of the streets the entire way from the airports to the hotel, waving flags of their ancestral countries and cheering at the top of their lungs.
The last to arrive was the Edenian delegation. Aron, Rina, and Alexander had landed at JFK International Airport in Eden One, then boarded a peculiar-looking helicopter, which headed directly toward the hotel rather than relying on an Aegis escort by car.
“This upcoming summit will surely be quite a shock, and not just to the attendees,” Alexander said as he gazed at the crowded streets through the window of the silent helicopter.
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