Akasha takes a glance at the rising prices of credits that people are trying to sell on the streets and shakes her head. Looking in her pocket and seeing not even enough for one she sighs.

I can't remember a time that my mother ever said inflation had gotten so bad. Is it simply inflation or a sheer greed for money? I recall my great great grandmother speaking of these things only costing a mere $75,000.00 which even for some is a lot of money. Seeing as most have to scrounge for food.

Yet I see now these credits have sky rocketed to over $400,000.00. I'm simply trying to grasp a realistic reason as to why one would ask so much for these small things that allow us the access to jails or perhaps an occasional homeless bum.

I know that some might not see an issue with this, but do others that walk these streets with me not see an issue with the inflation of these prices?

Akasha walks away from the nearest vendor simply shaking her head.

Perhaps I should boycott this? Would that even help if others were to join this cause?

Are you willing to join me in this?

She shrugs as she lights a smoke and sits down on the curb, wondering who will stand with her in this cause.

She chuckles to herself...

My dear, this world revolves around those lovely little credits. As the demand goes up so does the price. It's a booming industry in these parts. I doubt very many will join you in your boycott. Inflation sucks, but it is the Depression, I expect things to be pricey.

Ahh the age old supply and demand. I would venture to say that as the cost dropped a bit that perhaps the demand might increase. Causing those buying and selling to make more even if the profit isn't as much per unit sold, because they would be selling more units.

Thats just my thought on this venture of a topic, but I believe the laws of economics might prove this. She scratches her head wondering if she might be wrong.

Marston listens to the young lady and nods his head...

It is a good idea you have there... If people continue to buy these credits for extortionate prices, obviously the sellers will continue to sell them making the maximum profit they can get away with. I wouldn't call it greedy, I'd call it good business sense.

To combat this all you need to do is trust that the demand for money is greater than the demand for credits and that eventually the sellers will be forced to drop their prices. However, I think what you will find is that some people will lack the willpower or intelligence, and continue to buy at these prices, negating the efforts of those that do see sense...

Good luck, I've been boycotting for many months...

With the economy booming and the members of our society being able to live longer, rank up and make a bank, it's only natural that the price per credit is going up. Usually the price goes down to 300k or lower in the event of a war, when a large number of people that make up our society end up in the obits, thus creating a shortage of cash on the streets. Give people time to develop and settle, enough security to invest in Corrupt Agents, Drug Fronts and more drug units and the prices slowly but steadily go back up. Im even going to make a bold and somewhat educated guess, in another few months the price is likely to reach 500k/pop.

Ive got a theory. Perhaps someone thats credit rich could go to the marketplace and buy out all the "cash for credit" offers, which theoretically would "restart" the price offerings for them, perhaps back down to the average high 200's, which inturn would lower the spread which might inturn reduce the cost for credits for cash.

Its probably wrong though, because noone in their right mind would restart the offerings for credits with their cash low enough for people to make a 100% profit from buying cash with their credits and using that cash to buy credits on the marketplace..... or something. Ive gotten myself all confused now.

If you really wanna fix it either start a nationwide war with massive loss of life, reducing in alot of people needing cash, with not many people able to supply it to them, OR you could sell all your credits to those offering cash for them, and then use that cash to buy all the credits people are selling for cash thus causing there to be no credit prices to be based upon for others to offer, thus they might start offering them at low prices again.... or something.

The funny thing about the whole thing is that theres no more money in the economy than there normally is on average so the reasons for these high prices must be greed rather than supply and demand.

Michelotto shrugs and waits to hear other peoples opinions on the matter.

Ok well as of the time of me saying this, if you could come up with 251 credits you could buy out all the cash available for credits. Using that cash, PLUS coming up with 17 mil from somewhere else you could buy up all the credits for 112 mil approximately. However youd then be 12 credits short, and selling those again for the historical average of 300k, youd only make 72 mil of your money back.

So I ask you: will you do something about this credit crisis or will you wait and let the markets correct themselves?

Michelotto perks up again

One more thing. At what point do people think that others will consider hiring a corrupt agent be too expensive in terms of risk (the outlay of credits with the possibility of dying before you get a high enough return to pay for the original credits) vs the reward (at an average credit price of 450k, this means only a 25% return on investment, compared the historical average of 100% or so)? Food for thought.

Michelotto sits down on a nearby bench and pulls a copy of financial monthly and tries to hide his raging hardon.

This may seem like a far out idea man, but just go about your day without them. At first it seems very difficult, but you learn to soon adjust to things. You can accomplish alot, and save hordes of cash as well.

I thought this was a simple law of supply and demand. Not sure why the fuss about all this. The fact that you are so frustrated because you can't buy a credit just goes to show how useful they are and that they ARE in fact worth that much.

Don't forget that almost every credit out there was generated by the kind of currency not all of us are willing to invest in here (RL money), so to be honest, even though I will pay whatever price the market says, I think that credits are worth even more than 400k. They are worth just about as much as these people can get from them. After all, without the people buying the credits from the source, this world would collapse and cease to exist as we know it.

I think that supply and demand is a perfect system. Of course, I'm no economist and I don't understand half of why certain currencies are worth what they are compared to the dollar, etc.

Technical hears Akasha's worthy idea and begins to wonder how best to make her thoughts work. He grab a piece of paper and started writing down some figures keeping it real secret. If you didn't know Technical was a credit seller and every once in a while he would completely remove all the listings wanting to purchase credits clean off the marketplace.

Akasha as I am indeed a credit seller you may find it odd that you have my support. Something has to change so here is my thinking. People wanting to sell the credits have no need for the over abundance they have so they desperately have to get rid of them for whatever price the market allows. But the players wanting the credits control the price that the credit is worth. Trust me when I have sold credits I don't give a damn about what people are trying to sell credits for. I just click on the marketplace and sell to all the people wanting to purchase them.

Technical gathers his thoughts for what he is about to say. Taking a deep breath he goes on.

I refuse to sell any credits until the marketplace credit price drops significantly. The power is within the buyers and to make this price go down you all need to stick together. Hell you would have never thought someone trying to sell credits would be on your side would you?

He took a step back to see all the faces. Leaving his expression in serious mode.

DavidR the demand has always been there but you don't realise it isn't demand making the prices go up. Its impatience. Guess what, the supply just lost a supplier until further notice. Contact me when the credit prices lower.

Technical starts walking home.

Anthony listens to Technical closely. "Damn", he thinks, lamenting the loss of another seller in this crazy economy. Redux does some quick numbers and decides to try and help out with this important issue.

Technical, in an effort to bring you back the market I have decided to declare myself a non seller of credits. Any credits I buy I will use for my own ends only and they will be spent only by me sir. In order to further this agenda I set a more reasonable price for the credits. You will see my offer of 1 million dollars for 5 credits posted in the market place, feel free to fullfill the order with confidence knowing I will not turn around and profit off them. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Anthony feels good, really the best he's felt since getting his face all scarred up down the street.

Akasha listens to everyone and ponders everything for a moment. Taking a small drag off her smoke she stands back up and shakes her head.

I am truly surprised by the out pouring of those that are in support of this. I fear though that if people quit selling it will only cause those that will continue to sell to monopolize the markets even more causing the prices to go up.

What I believe might possibly be a solution is for those that are buying to not buy over a certain amount forcing those that are still selling at a higher price to drop them or not sell them. This will prevent people from taking advantage of those that will be and are willing to sell at a lower price by buying up the cheaper credits and then turning around and selling them for a higher price. Thus defeating what we are all trying to do.

Akasha looks at the $300,000.00 printed on her bank account statement and nods.

Like people said before me. I believe the more people coming into the game and the more people moving up in rank will increase the amount of credits being used. The more credits being used means less credits on the marketplace. The less credits the more the credits are worth. All just opinon but its what i believe.

Keenos walks into the debate, calculator and notepad in hand after a morning of ECON1

The marketplace is a living, breathing mechanism. It is alive and the price of credits often highlight the state of the worlds economy. At the moment, the world is rich. The economy is booming. Life is good. We are not in recession. This is surely a good thing right? The market only tends to drop after a world disaster, such as a war. In peace times, like we have now, things will boom. For me, there are advantages and disadvantages of a strong and weak economy:

STRONG ECONOMY
Cheaper to get bodyguards - At 400k a credit, you only need 190(ish) to become IWP. At 300k a credit, it will cost 250 of the bad boys to IWP.

WEAK ECONOMY
CA's become more profitable - However, as CA's become more profitable, more money is then filtered into this world, thus pushing the marketplace up
MIA's become cheaper
Jails become cheaper

Both the strong & weak economy will play off against each other. The stronger the economy, the more people who will buy Bodyguards, therefore removing money from the world, and eventually weakening the economy. The weaker the economy, the more CA's make, the more jails people do, etc, etc, causing a quicker rate of gaining  more units and therefore creating a strong economy eventually.

The problem we seem to have at the moment is we have an extremely strong economy, yet no one seems to be taken advantage. So maybe it is time for the leaders to go out, use their millions, and buy some of there members some bodyguards?

I class strong and weak economy as around the following:

Weak - CDs under 300k - Poor to BG up, good to bribe CA's
Average - CDs around 350-370k - Everything is fair and equal in the garden
Strong - CDs over 400k - Brilliant time to BG up, not a brilliant time to be shooting your CA

At the present moment in time, we have little to not chance of saying a weak economy. And it will take an investment of over $150million to crash the market to it just to be average...

On a side note, we do not help each other. I see listing a full $10,000 higher then the next listing sometimes going up. This artificially inflates the market, and enough people then follow in, the market then in real terms rises by that $10,000, just due to a bad listing. So think before you list.

It is clear, when the economy is strong, it is good to be defensive, when it is weak, it is good to be aggressive. Just take advantage of whichever economy we have at any point and adjust your thinking to suit that economy

Technical addresses AnthonyRedux's response. Noticing that support has been shown, Technical decided to buy his marketplace listing.

I thank you for your support I will give you 5 credits for $1,000,000.

Showing everyone the note he received from his accountant.

Success! You have traded $1,000,000 cash for 5.00 credits.

I for one will be supporting a boycott. Hopefully this will bring down the prices to a reasonable level.

I TheBaron will support the Boycott and any members of the Mafia life style that also support it.

How many members of the Mafia Society Boycotting this would it take to successfully bring down the prices of the Credits?

Technical looks at the marketplace and back at the people trying to sell the credits. When the people trying to get there credits sold in the marketplace realize the demand is being met and the people in it for just the pure business aren't being sold.

So far the prices are dropping and I believe the demands are getting met so it really is just a matter of time.

Technical gives a nice big grin. He could see that in the future the prices seem to be dropping. The illusion that the marketplace is flooded with people wanting credits are doing it sorely for the good of the business and he knew it. Looking at his watch he noted the time and kept a pen ready to write down some more numbers.

Keep up the fight we will get those prices dropped!

Technical keeps looking at the marketplace to study it more.