Economics: A Primer

As you may know, not all currencies are created equal. Depending on what a currency is backed by, and what others are willing to accept on the currency exchange market, a currency's value can fluctuate wildly. Governments and particularly powerful corporations may offer currency backed in good faith by their financial strength, for example. Corporations can issue currency in the form of stock, where units of stock are effectively worth their current value on the stock market.

To maintain some semblance of sanity, GURPS measures all transactions in $, regardless of the actual currency being used. For those times when the actual currency matters, $1 is considered equivalent to one ECU, or Economic Currency Unit. There are three major world currencies in 2155 that are nominally close to being stable and worth $1 per unit at all times: the neodollar, used in the United States and to a lesser extent around the world; the Eurotolar, used by primarily by European Union countries; and the nuyen, used primarily by Asian countries. Most other nations accept at least one of these currencies in addition to their own, although there may be 'currency exchange fees' dealt out to foreigners on holiday (make a Merchant roll; 2d-2 - the amount succeeded by or plus the amount failed by; outright refusal to exchange on a critical failure). Any of these currencies used in general is referred to as ecus.

The Conversion Factor (CF) for a currency measures how much of that currency it takes to equal $1.

To convert a figure in ecus into another currency, multiply the figure in ecus by the CF for the currency. For example, the Swiss franc has a CF of 2.1. $1 equals 2.1 Swiss francs. An item that costs $100 costs 210 Swiss francs.

To convert a figure in a particular currency into ecus, divide it by the CF. For example, if a fancy personal computer crafted by the techno-gnomes of Lucerne costs 3,200 Swiss francs, and the CF for Switzerland is 2.1, it costs 3,200 divided by 2.1, or $1,524.

As mentioned above, the three ECU currencies, the neodollar, eurotaler and nuyen, all have a CF of 1.00. But not all ecus are created equal, and they have different rates of flux. We'll get to flux in a minute.

Conversion Factors aren't essential. They are included for background color. In game terms, all that matters is the real value of the transaction in ecus. But when a fixer has to lug a barrel of Serbian balkis (1,200 balkis = $1) to a meet in Krusevac, it makes life a little more interesting.

So now that you know a bit more about the value of money, here's a list of countries and major corporations and their effective conversion rate and flux rate. Flux rate will be explained more in a moment, but in short, the higher the number (and the closer to A the letter), the 'stronger' the currency is overall, and the more likely it is to appreciate in value over time (or at least not lose value.)

Flux classes and numbers are assigned using the following criteria.

A: Ecus. Strongest firstworld economies. Major corporate superpowers.

B: Average firstworld economies. Large international corporations.

C: Weak firstworld economies. Strongest lastworld economies. Moderate international corporations.

D: Average lastworld economies. Small international corporations.

E: Weak lastworld economies. Single-country corporations.

16: Very stable currency (dynamic economy, strong balance of trade).

14: Stable currency (growth economy,good balance of trade).

12: Unstable currency (stagnant economy, poor balance of trade).

10: Inflationary currency (economic down-turn, recession).

8 : Trash currency (depressed economy).

Whenever an individual is being paid, or when he buys something, the GM should roll 3d against the flux number for the currency he is using. For example, if a character is paying in U.S. dollars, the roll is against 16, the flux number for that currency. Treat the flux number like a skill for purposes of calculating critical successes or failures. If the roll simply succeeds, then money changes hands at face value. Any other result changes the amount of money involved. The exact amount depends on the currency's flux class.

On a critical success, stable currency is subject to positive flux. The player character gets a percentage of cash in his favor. If someone pays him, he gets more money than usual. If he spends money, then the price of whatever he buys is reduced.

Unstable currency, with a flux class of C or worse, doesn't benefit from positive flux. If the roll fails, that's negative flux, and the exchange rate gets worse for this transaction. The exact percentage depends on the number of points by which the roll failed. If the person is receiving money, the amount is reduced by the percentage. If he is paying someone else, his cost goes up by the same percentage. On a critical failure, add 1d-1 to the margin of failure. That is, if a critical failure misses the flux number by 4, roll ld-1 and add the result to 4 to measure the actual effect of the negative flux. For example, the player rolls an 18 against a currency with a flux value of 16C. This normally would reduce the money's value by 2 x 3%, or 6% (see Flux Class chart, below). But since 18 is a critical failure, he rolls ld-1, adds the result to the 2 points by which the first roll missed, and multiplies that by 3% for a total of up to 21%. Currency transactions can be a royal pain.

A: Positive flux: (2d-2)x5%. Negative flux: 1% per point by which the roll was missed.

B: Positive flux: (1d-l)x5%. Negative flux: 2% per point.

C: Positive flux: Has no effect. Negative flux: 3% per point.

D: Positive flux: Has no effect. Negative flux: 5% per point.

E: Positive flux: Has no effect. Negative flux: 7% per point.

So, you're haggling over a deal and the flux roll comes up lousy. What can you do about it? After all, if the world monetary exchanges are as fickle as we've just described,you couldmaybe go out for a cup of coffee, come back in half an hour, and get a whole new deal,right?

Nice try.

There are two situations to consider here. In the first, and simplest, case, the operator has already agreed to the deal. Backing out is, at the least, going to give him a street rep as a weasel (either temporarily or as an out-and-out Reputation disadvantage). If he pulls it on the wrong people, he may just get killed. If he has agreed to take payment in Turkish liras, he can't change his mind when the lira takes a nosedive, and demand East African kenyattas instead. In general, this happens when the person is getting paid. The flux rolls are made when his employer pays him, whether it is a regular salary from the Jobs Table, or a one-time transaction after some irregular piece of skullduggery for a corporation's “Competitive Research” office. Of course, once he's paid, he's free to sit on the payment and wait for a better exchange rate to roll around, as long as he doesn't have any bills to pay or groceries to buy in the meantime.

When the citizen is paying someone else for goods or services and finds himself on the short end of bad flux, he has more options. He can “walk around the block,” that is, hold off closing the deal, waiting for a more favorable exchange rate.The length of time he'll have to wait before making a new roll depends on the flux class of the currency he's dealing in.

A: 24hours.

B: 2 days.

C: 4 days.

D: 1 week.

E: 2 weeks.

Some purchases are time-sensitive. If you are buying bullets in the middle of a firefight, that's certainly a seller's market. Pay the man, for heaven's sake!

If the deal involved any fancy searching to finda buyer or seller - for example, if a netrunner is negotiating to buy black-market hightech to upgrade his cyberdeck - then walking aroundtheblockmeans that the source of the merchandise will dispose of it elsewhere. The buyer will have to locate a new source of the material.

A person can also play musical money,offering a different currency to avoid a loss due to negative flux.

For example, Heavy Ajax is paying off two mercenaries for a bit of professional violence earlier in the week. The price agreed on was $1,000, in any reasonably hard currency (flux class A or B). Ajax taps into a crow that carries its balance in Israeli shekels, which have a flux of 14B. The dice roll is 17, which is a critical failure. Ajax is loath to fork over extra cash to these wired-up street ops, so he dips into his slush fund, a packet of neodollars stashed in a Seattle variable fund. Neodollars are rated 16A, top-of-the-line in terms of credit. This time, Ajax rolls a 12 and forks over 1,000 neodollars. This may be ill-advised, of course. Neodollars are as hard as currency gets, whereas shekels are less stable; but cashflow is cashflow.

A prudent adventurer or financier will maintain his funds in several accounts, spread over a sampling of several dependable currencies.

Kurse (pronounced“koor-suh”), in Russian, German and a couple of other languages, means “currency exchange rate.” In street lingo, it's pronounced the same as “curse.” If a GM wants to keep players anxious about their savings, this is a sadistically useful tool.

The GM can make a flux roll for any currencies he wants at the beginning of a playing session. Any flux results are in force for the rest of the session. To be really nasty, he can carry flux over from one adventure to the next. Say he rolls against Canadian dollars one evening, and the dollar plunges 3%. Next week, he rolls and gets negative flux on the dollar again, dropping it another 6%. The dollar is now down 9%!

When carrying over negative flux this way, a positive flux roll restores the currency to its face value. That is, it cancels all long-term negative flux in play as the currency restabilizes.

And to top it off, players can still roll for flux on individual transactions as well, using the kurse as the basic rate. Say the dollar is down 9%. If a player gets another 3% of negative flux on a transaction, he is down 12% for that sale.

Another nasty thing to do with the kurse is devaluing currency. Normally, adventurers don't actually suffer reductions in their total savings when hit with negative flux. It only applies to the amount of money they gain or lose on a given transaction. Even when carrying around negative flux, it doesn't affect their bank balance, just the purchasing power of their money. Not so with devaluation!

On a kurse roll of 18, the GM can decide to devalue the currency, using any negative flux. Team members then have to reduce their holdings in that currency by the amount of negative flux. They can't hold on to the money and wait for times to get better.

Devaluing a currency cancels out any negative flux that has built up against it. For example, at the beginning of a session,the GM rolls for the kurse on Nepalese rupees. Previous kurse rolls have already put 6% negative flux against the dollar. He rolls an 18, and knocks the poor, abused rupee down by an additional 14%, for a total of 20%. He also announces that the Nepalese government is adjusting the free-floating value of its existing currency; this is most unfortunate for those who were recently paid by Nepalese corporate interests, as they must adjust the value of their assets downward by 20%. If a citizen had $10,000 in dollars in the bank, his account is reduced to $8,000.

As a rule, trivial transactions, less than $100, should not require flux rolls. However, the GM may decide to call for a flux roll for small purchases once in a while, just to keep players from getting entirely comfortable. Nothing like having a smartcab announce, “That will be 10 Neodollars, 8 Class-A Keiretsu Marks, or 12 U.S. dollars… adjustment… 13.50 U.S. dol… adjustment… 14.75 U.S. dollars, please.” Anyone paying in “fold,” real hardcopy cash, can skip flux rolls. That applies to money printed by a government, scrip certificates from a major korp, or any kind of non-electronic currency. However, if a character converts fold into cred (deposits hardcopy currency for transfer to an electronic account), he should check the flux at that time.

Table of Tech Levels and Control Ratings

Tech Level(TL): Indicates the average Tech Level for the country. This does not mean the technology available to every inhabitant, but rather the median point. Wealthy and powerful members of society may have access to more advanced technology; poor members of society will be limited to significantly lower technology.

Control Ratings: Ratings are assigned for three areas. The General CR (Gen.) measures the presence of law enforcement, strictness of laws, and the overall level of government regulation. TheWeaponsCR(Wpns.)specifically governstheLegalityofweapons. The Technology (Tech.) CR measures the Legality of cyberwear and cyberdecks, as well as governmentregu-lationof industry, medical resources, power sources,and other high-tech features of life.

WealthLevel(W):Acitizenofaver-ageStatus(Level0)willliveattheWealth Levelindicated. D: Dead Broke P: Poor S: Struggling A: Average C: Comfortable

PaymentPlans

A person's willingness to pay debts in valuta,andtoacceptdengiaspartialpay-menttohimself,canbeacriticalfactorin negotiationsaboutpayment.

Mostpaymentforcriminalorhard-to-getgoodsorservicesisamixofhardand softcurrencies.Standardpaymentsaredi-videdintofourequalblocks.Oneblockwill beinclass-Bvaluta,twowillbeclass-C dengi,andthefourthwillbeclass-D dengi.

Eachblockcanbenegotiatedonceand onceonly.The appropriateskillsareMerchant(foranysituation)orStreetwise(for criminalgoodsorservices) .Fast-Talkmay besuitable,ifthedealhastogodownina hurry,andtheplayercanconvincetheGM thathehasaplausibleline.

RollaQuickContestbetweenbuyerand selle r(thepersontobepaid)foreachblock tobenegotiated.

Thesellercantrytoupgradetheflux classofablock,butthismayreducehis effectiveskillfortheQuickContest.

Upgradingclass-Dtoclass-C… .-0 Upgradingclass-Dtoclass-B… .-2 Upgradingclass-Dtoclass-A….-6 Upgradingclass-Ctoclass-B… .-0 Upgradingclass-Ctoclass-A… .-4 Upgradingclass-Btoclass-A….-2

Theseller can also negotiate for a block in folding cash without any negative modifiers to his skill roll.

Ifthesellerwins,hegetshisway.Ifthe buyerwins,hemay either downgradethe blockonefluxclass,orreduceitsrealvalue by10% .

Forexample,YinSladeneedstohirea netrunner.Heoffers$10,00 0toJumping Jack:$2,500inclass-Bdeutschmark, $5,00 0i nclass- CU.S.dollars,and$2,50 0 inclass-DQudbecoisfrancs.(Vinisthe buyer;Jackistheseller. ) JacktriestogetVintoimprovetheoffer. TheyrollaQuickContestoverthedeutsch-markblock.Jackisat-2onhisskillroll, sinc eheistryingtogetVintoupgradeto eurotalers,aclass-Acurrency.Vinwinsand Jackisbeatendowntotaking$2,250in marks.

Jackswitchestoanargumentoverthe Quebecoismoney.Hewantstobepaidin fold.JackwinsthisQuickContest. Jacktriesnegotiatingonthe$5,00 0in U.Scurrency,rollingonceforthewhole fivegrand,toupgradeittoSwedishkrona,a class-Bcurrency.Jackwins.

Atthispoint,allfourblockshavebeen negotiated.Sothefinaldealis$2,50 0in Quebecoisfrancs,paidinfold,therestin electroniccred:$5,000inkrona,$2,25 0in deutschmarks.

Ifthisistoocomplicatedforyourtastes , astandardMerchantcontestcanberolled. Thewinnergetstoraiseorlowertheoverall priceby10 %orraisealltheblocksone class:oneclass-A,twoclass-B,oneclass-C.

ECONOMICS

Dyadooshkausedtosaythat“moneymakestheworldgo'round.”Todaythat goes“valutagivesabreetvaEdge”(moneygivesarazoritsEdge). Doublepuntalk,paryeni.Allusbreetvasonthestreetknowwherewegetour Edge,neh?Whenafixersignsyouupforahotjob,makesureit'shardvalutahe's slottin'intoyourcard,notthelocalsloppy-softdengi.Credorfold,machtsnichts aslongasitturnsintoecusniceandclean.

CredandFold

Mostoftheworld'smoneyiscred,electroniccurrency.Credistrackedbythe interlockedaccountingcomputersoftheworld'sbanks,risingandfallingbythe millisecondintheunstableeconomyoftheone-and-twenty.Legitcitizenscan accesstheirfundsthroughtheirIDcardsornice,traceablebankaccountsthatkeep trackofeverycentasitmovesfromonepersontoanother.Codedaccountsand crows(escrows)letfolksmovecredwithoutsustainingtheirritationoflegal identities.

Atinytrickleofmoneyisfold,foldingmoney,hardcopycash,realbills.The firstworldgovernmentskeeptryingtoswitchtoacashlesssociety ,andeventhe mosttightlycontrolledonesfindthattheycan'tdoit.Toomanyimportantpeople needmoneythatcan'tbetracedthroughtheNet.Nonetrunnereverbacktracked toitssourceaplasticsackstuffedwithsmallbills.

Inthefirstworld,about95%ofthemoneysupplyiselectroniccred.Awell-behavedshaikujincangohiswholelifelongandneverseeascrapoffold.That other5%-trillionsofecus-flowsthroughtheguttersofthestreetsandinthe quietestofficesofthespacescrapers,oilingthesecretmachinerythatmakessoci-etyrun. Inthelastworld,foldismuchmorecommon.Tchort,therearestillplaces wherethefolkswouldn'tknowacredcardifyoufedittothem!Peoplecanuse credinlastworldcities,eveninsomeofthebiggertowns.Butoutintheboonies, youusetheloca lfoldorstarttalkingbarter.

ValutaandDengi

Valutaishardmoney,eithercredorfold.Currencybackedbythestrongest firstworldeconomiesorthetopkorpsisthebestkindofvaluta. Everythingelseisdengi:softcurrency,changinginvaluedaily,usuallyforthe worse.Somedengiisn'tbad.Youcangetpaidinitoneweekandstillaffordthe rentthenext.Mostofitistrashcash;acceptitatyourownrisk.

Ecus Ecus,“EconomicCommunityUnits,”arethehardestvalutathereis.When-everafigureintheserulesispreceededwitha“$,”itreferstotheamountin ecus.

Worldeconomics(andthepricesinthisbook)arebasedonan“ideal”ecu, withabaselinevaluepeggedtointernationaltradebalances,grossnationalprod-ucts,moneysupplyandathousandothervariables. Therearerealecus-theinternationaltradingcurrencyofthethreefirstworld tradingcommunities.IntheAmericas,it'stheneodollar.Thisisthemaineco-nomicindicatorintheAmericas.Drivenbythegrowingeconomicfrictionbe-tweentheU.S.andtherestofthehemisphere,theChilentinanpesoshowssigns ofbecomingthebasisofapurelySouthAmericanecu.Thiswouldhaveadrastic effectontradebalancesandinternationaldebtforbothcontinents.TheAmerican

powersareverycautiousaboutradicallyalteringtheirfinancialstructure,forfear ofdisturbingeconomicstability.

TheUnitedEuropeanecuistheeurotaler.PeggedprimarilytotheGerman deutschmark,itissupportedbythemarketvaluesoftheotherstrongEuropean currencies.Nationalistmovementsinkeycountriesdefeatedattemptsbytheearly architectsofEuropeanconfederationtoeliminatenationalcurrenciesandreplace themwithasinglecurrency.Someofthesmallercountrieshaveadoptedthe eurotalerastheironlycurrency,butthemajorpowersretainloca lmoneyaswell. EurotalersareeagerlyacceptedeverywhereinEurope,anditisthefavoredhard currencyinnorthernAfricaandtheMiddleEast.

Thehardestvalutaintheworldistherubyen,theecusupportedbythejoint economiesofRussiaandJapan.TheeconomiesoftheCISandlargeportionsof thePacificRimaretiedtotherubyen.

Ecusarenominallyatpar.Thatis,oneecuequals$1.00 ,whetheritisa rubyen,aneodollaroraeurotaler.However,evenecuscanvaryfromthisidea l value.

CurrencyFluctuation

ThefinancialsituationontheEdgeisanythingbutsteady .PCsshouldnever becompletelycomfortableaboutthesafetyoftheirbankrolls.Thekeytoplaying gameswiththemoneysupplyisfluctuationbetweenonecurrency(theonethe personhas)andanother(theoneheneedstogetwhathewants).

Unlesscharacterstrytomakeakillingbytradingincurrencies,thisusually involvesmeasuringthestabilityofmoneycomparedtothe“ideal”ecu.Whenever anadventurertakesmoneyinorpaysitout,theGMcanchecktoseeifthestate oftheworld'seconomyhelpsorhurtshim.

Thescorethatcontrolsthisiscalledflux.

Flux

Fluxmeasuresthedegreebywhichacurrencycanvaryfromitsfacevalue. Valutahasaverylowrateofflux;whenitdoesfluctuate,itoftenincreasesin value.That'swhyit'svaluta.

Dengihasaveryhighrateofflux,anditoftendecreasesinvalue. Fluxismeasuredbytworatings:afluxnumberandaletter,thefluxclass. Highfluxnumbersareconsideredgood-thatis,currencieswithahighnumber aremorestable.FluxclassesareratedAthroughE.An“A”or“B “indicatesvery stablevaluta.A”C, ”“D,”or“E “indicatesdengi.Class-Edengiisparticularly unstablecurrency,subjecttowildinflation-“trashdengi,”instreetjargon.

Thefluxnumberandfluxclasscomeintoplaywhenevermoneychanges hands.Anytimeanoperatorisinvolvedinasignificantfinancialtransaction,the GMcanrequiretheplayertomakeafluxroll.

Credinth eNet

CredcanbestoredintheNetinseveraldifferentforms.Eachhasadvantages anddisadvantages.

PersonalAccounts

Legitimatecitizens-folkswithestablishedidentitiesandcredcardsor citcardstoprovewhotheyare-usepersonal,orbank,accounts.Themoneyina personalaccountbelongstoyou,andonlyyoucanauthorizeawithdrawal,using properIDtoverifythattheorderislegal .IfyouloseyourID,itcan'tbeusedto lootyourbankaccountunlessthethiefhasthenecessaryresourcestoovercome thesafetychecksthatverifyidentity(se ep.36). Ifyourmoneyisstolenfromapersonalaccountinspiteofthesechecks,and youcanprovethatitwasstolen,thebankhastorefundtheloss,underthelawin everytechnologically-developedcountryonEarth. Sowhat'ssobadaboutpersonalaccounts?Well,ifyoudon'thavealegal identity,youcan'tuseone.ThosewiththeZeroedadvantage(p.C21)can'thave apersonalaccountunlesstheyti eittoaTemporaryIdentity.Andanyfunds allocatedtoaTemporaryIdentityareconfiscatedwhenthefakeIDisdiscovered (seep.C20). Taxrecordsareautomaticallyregisteredwhenmoneyisdepositedtoaper-sonalaccount.Inmanycases,taxesareautomaticallydeductedfromdeposits whentheincomeissubjecttotax:paymentfromemployment,investmentincome, paymentforfreelancework,royalties,etc. Anytransactionpaidwithcredfromapersonalaccountcanbetracedbackto thataccount,andsototheidentityoftheaccount'sowner.ATraceprogram(see p.C92)candothis.Keepinmindthatprogramslikethisareillega lforprivate individuals,notforbanks(andthekorpsthatownthem)orgovernmentagencies.

BlindAcounts

Blindaccountsarenotregisteredtoagivenindividual,butaretheequivalent ofthenumberedaccountsofferedbytheSwissforcenturies.Anyonewiththe propercodecanaccesstheaccount. Separatecodesareusedfordepositsandwithdrawals.Onecansafelygive depositcodestootherpeople,tomakepaymentsdirectlyintotheaccount.With-drawalcodesarekeptverysecret. BlindaccountsareavailableinanycountrywithaControlRatingof3orless (althoughtheSwissarestillatthetop) .IfaTraceprogramisfedthedepositcode forablindaccount,itcantraceallmoniespaidintoitbacktotheirsource.ATrace programthatisgiventhewithdrawalcodecantraceallwithdrawalstotheir recipients.Remember,though,thatbanksdonotwanttheirtransactionstraced, andtheirsystemswillbeloadedwithnastydefensivesoftware.Andifthesoft-wareisn'tenough,theycanalwayssendazeromanouttofindthehacker. Blindaccountschargea1%servicefeeonalldeposits.

Crows

A crow, shortfor “escrow account,” is similar to a blind account. However, a crow is established with a one-time deposit. It cannot be added to. All records indicating the source of these funds are erased from the Net. The bank that maintains the crow backs it with its ownfunds. Acrowonlyhasawithdrawalcode.Itispossibletotracewithdrawalsfromit, butnottheoriginaldeposit. Lockedcrowsareevenmoresecure,inonesense,thoughvulnerableinan-other.Alockedcrowiskeyedtoone,andonlyone,highlycomplexpasscode algorithmthatisstoredinaspecialcredcard,a”crowcard.”Thecrowcardisa dedicatedmicrocomputerrunningauniqueComplexity2identity-controlpro-gram.Thewithdrawalcodeisprogrammedintoaresin-sealed,destruct-coded chiponboardthecredcard.Thecard'sIDprogramcorrespondstoachip-based programinstalledinthebank'scomputer. Therecognitionofwithdrawalordersishandledbythesechipsworkingin tandemthroughtheNet.Thisredundant,hardware-basedsecuritymakesitvirtu-allyimpossibletofakethewithdrawalcodeforalockedcrow.Youmusthavethe cardtogetthemoney. Lockedcrowsarelikefoldinthisregard.Ifyoulos ethecrowcard,orit's destroyed,that'sit.Youlosethemoney.Ifsomeonestealsit,heownsthemoney. ATraceprogramcanonlytracewithdrawalsfromalocke dcrowifithas accesstothecrowcardthatcontrolsit,sothatitcanidentifyitselftothebank's computerproperly. Thereisaservicefeeof5%oftheamountdepositedwhenacrowiscreated. Inaddition,thecrowcardcosts$200. Foranextra$2,000,acrowcardcanbekeyedtoanindividual'sthumbprint. Thismakesthemoneyeffectivelyrobber-proof,butalsomakesitnontransferable, exceptthroughwithdrawal.