World Bank Debt Model Wrong

[Petrus]

Hello all,

This is a wonderful geme. I can't say enough good things about it-save one. The World Bank debt model is quite wrong.

When you get into financial trouble and the World Bank "re-schedules your debt," they do nothing of the sort. I wouldn't mind if they gave me a long term low interest loan. Instead the World Bank only makes matters worse. They cut pay (austerity measures I imagine) and you watch in horror as productivity drops. Peopel leave their jobs, the debt grows larger and the World Bank steps in again to cuts pay, and again, and again... Doctors make as much as farmers and the roof falls in. You might as well hit escape the first time it happens. There will be no recovery. Not very sporting.

Suggestions: Along with austerity measures, you could really get your debt restructured. This should include a long term low interest loan which you may or may not have to pay back. (Not paying a loan back should have drastic consequeces however).

As it stands now the program will not allow for deficit spending. Why not? It could come with a short term spike in inflation but it will allow you to solve the problems in the economy. As it stands now, when your economy gets into trouble, you can only sit there and watch it get worse. Not very real. (And besides, name one two bit, non-oil rich dictator that hasn't had trouble with inflation.)

[Toby]

Petrus,
'Ever get tired of EU' signature caught my eye!
That is the game I left to play this one...
As for your point,
yep, I think as some of the cash crops work on a 2-year cycle, so should the treasury.
Not least that if the tobacco crop takes 2 years to mature, you are actually paying the cigar factory workers on the 'idle' year.
The allowable deficit before the world bank steps in should be equal to the previous years profit. (I have noticed that mining also strangely seems to follow this pattern, albeit with higher and lower profits!
Phew, finished
Toby

[Petrus]

Agree. There should be a reason why non-agriculture economies should follow the agriculture sector of your encomomy.

[Coconut Kid]

Several bad assumptions. First, there is a lot of detail subsummed or beneath the scale of what appears in the game.

Toby's assumption about the tobacco crop causing an idle year for factory workers is wrong. There is not that much synchronization in the game world.

"As it stands now the program will not allow for deficit spending. Why not?" That's not true. What it does not allow is direct action by the player to spend money for construction, recruitment, decrees, etc. All the routine spending for maintenance and payroll goes on.

Rescheduling debt takes many forms. For minor Caribbean countries, long term low interest loans were rare. Taking over the custom houses (the government's only source of revenue) to rake off loan repayment before spending on government was most popular. Austerity was the name of the result.

The game design does a reasonable job of punishing the player for not keeping his budget balanced.