Kalistan

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Kalistani President Orders Banks Reopened, Devalues Ruble
Reina-Rodriguez notes that Kalistan is not out of the woods yet
Kaliburg, Ananto
May 3, 4440


President of the Republic expresses confidence in the Ruble

The President of the Republic has ordered the Finance Minister to reopen the Banks, on a limited Basis. Starting May 20th, all branches of the Republican National Bank will open for 4 hours a day. Withdrawals will be limited to 5% of available balances per day, and checks may be cashed and deposited without limit. The reopening of the banks is coupled with a large devaluation of the Kalistani currency: In April, the Finance Minister released more than 300 Billion new Kalistani Rubles, to be exchanged for old ones at a 7.3:1 new to old basis. District Scrip was not accepted in exchange, but will be accepted at all Republican Banks in the form of deposit, where they will automatically be converted to new Rubles.

The Finance Ministry's plan is to flood the economy with cheaper Rubles to begin to stimulate imports, including capital imports, and will aim at encouraging local investors to get back into the game. Devaluation is also aimed at kickstarting Kalistani industries. As large investments from Telamon and New Endralon flood into the country, and old stocks are being snatched up at bargain basement prices, the devaluation of the currency will boost inflation and increase domestic demand, which should boost hiring.

The immediate inflationary shock to the system caused by the devaluation of the Ruble and the sudden liquidity in the monetary markets caused a small spike in Kalistani indices, but gains were wiped out in the sell-off which followed. Lower prices will mean in the near term more buying, and now that Kalistanis will have more access to cash, Kalistanis will begin investing. The temporary inflation caused by the flood of hard money in the economy will be offset later this year as increased taxes pull a lot of that currency back, but within a couple months, the Finance Minister expected to see an increase of hiring and investing.

The President stressed that Kalistan is still not out of the woods. "Its touch and go, and unfortunately, we are now expecting that it will be several years before Kalistan is fully recovered, but there are some promising signs to the increase in liquidity. As we flood the economy with cash, we expect to see easier spending. It will take a lot of time for these effects to trickle into the economy, and meanwhile, we will have to keep close watch on the economy. We are not out of the woods yet. But we have a heart beat."

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Limited Bank openings produce runs on local branches
Kalistani President orders them shuttered again
Eshar, Odufaray
June 1, 4440


Two days after it reopened, the Eshar Branch was closed again

The plan to open the banks to limited withdrawals was apparently popular. In fact, it was too popular. Within days of being reopened, most banks across Kalistan were shuttered once more as hard currency hungry Kalistanis rushed banks to withdraw as much currency as they possibly could. Riots broke out in most major cities around the banks, and one branch in Luxon Ananto was actually burned to the ground, and two people were killed. The violence led the President of the Republic to immediately close the banks again for one week.

"This is ridiculous," said Ashley Jade of Kaliburg. "The Government needs to keep these banks open and let us have our damn money. I need that money, probably more than most of the people here. I have bills to pay and I haven't had a job in seven months."

The President addressed the runs on the Bank over the weekend. "Here's how this is going to go: Under no circumstances will this Government allow the people to pull all that money out of the bank and horde it in their pillows. If your goal is to pull your money entirely out of the bank, it is going to take you a little while. Meanwhile, to prevent runs on the Bank, I have activated the Militia and they will be standing guard at the banks when they re-open on Wednesday of Next week, and only 5 customers at a time will be allowed in. We will make sure that everyone is served, but we are not going to have scenes like we saw last week."

The President was quick to add: "You money is safe inside the bank, as long as the criminally minded do not burn them down. You shall receive access to your entire deposit, denominated in the new Rubles. Your money isn't going anywhere. But for the love of Pete, only take out what you need to last for the week, so that we can ensure that others can do the same too. Relief is only a few months away. Have faith and hold tight."

The President's words did little to dissuade investors, who continues shorting Kalistani stocks in major International Markets. "This is not doing us any good: These foreign Markets are allowing short sales, and these speculators are driving our economy into the ground," said Economist Alice Bennots, who works for the Kaliburg thinktank The Donaldson Foundation. "More and more, we are hearing calls for the President to open up a Kalistani exchange that can be regulated. This would at least give the Government a little control over the free fall that our economy has been in for more than a year."

The one positive note for the Kalistani economy this month: Job losses seem to have hit bottom and appear to have turned a corner. In the first 12 months of the depression, the monthly average job loss in the public and private sectors was more than 2.7 million per month. But in April and May, job losses totaled 420,000, showing that FDI and the Government's monetary policies were beginning to pay off in terms of job creation and investment. More jobs mean there is more money in the hands of Kalistanis and less pressure on the Banks. When the Banks reopen in a week, runs are expected to be fewer and farther between, and if the hiring trend continues, we could see positive job growth in a few months.

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The Great Kalistani Recession: A retrospective
A Year later
Kaliburg, Ananto
September 17, 4441


President of the Republic Reina-Rodriguez discusses the State of the Kalistani Economy following the Great Kalistani Recession

The dust has settled, and all economists in Kalistan agree that Kalistan has put years of recession following the assassination of President Al-Khali in its rearview mirror. The Republic sat down with Al-Khali's replacement, President Reina-Rodriguez, who is beginning the last year of her first term as President.

[The Kalistani Republic's] D[amon] F[ierro]: Comrade President, welcome. We're happy to have you provide this interview.

M[aria] R[eina-Rodriguez]: Thank you. I don't get down here enough. I'm happy to finally get a chance to speak with you.

DF: The recession has been over, by economic definitions, for more than a year now. Can you give us a brief history of the downturn?

MR: Sure. Al-Khali's assassination was only tangentially related to the recession. It happened, we discovered, to coincide with certain currents in the Kalistani economy, which themselves coincided with political currents swirling around at the same time, to create a perfect storm. This is something that we haven't seen in Kalistan for quite sometime. The assassination, while we were attempting to negotiate trade deals in both Lourenne and Vanuku touched off a powderkeg of investor insecurity that led us first to the rabbit hole. And then the reaction of the Government, some missteps at important junctures, and the slowness of recovery all added up to a complete disaster.

DF: Why did investors get nervous following the death of the President?

MR: Internal crises, coupled with some decisions we had made to counter the influence of ephemeral Parties in Kalistan made them jittery. My appointment as Interim President made a lot of the liberals in our society quite spooked. And then the dissolution of the main opposition Party at about the same time, which was unapologetically a Party of the Right, caused a crisis of confidence on the hard Right, and well, most of those bastards held most of the investments. Our Ruble was rock solid, and decades of anti-growth policies of the Socialist Party left the Ruble critically strong and the economy teetering on zero percent growth. As we slipped into a period of deflationary prices, investment from foreign countries could have potentially kept the inflation rate on the positive side, but delays in those negotiations tipped the scales and people started selling.

DF: And when people started selling overseas how did this turn into a monetary crisis?

MR: Well, when the sell off began, people started getting laid off. And when people started getting laid off, they started drawing on their savings to buy things which were becoming fewer and fewer in the market. The Money was worth more, but there was less to buy. And meanwhile, more people were drawing on the social safety net, because they were out of work, and requiring more help from the government. The surplusses we built up for years and years were depleted in months, because tax revenues dropped sharply, and nothing was coming into to replace what we were putting out the door. To protect the reserve, we had to close the banks. I finally got the government to finally raise taxes and lay out more money for social services and for job creation, but because the tax bill was not passed at the same time as the spending bill, people saw this as incompetence, and continued to sell off. And we have to keep the banks closed.

DF: Eventually, foreign investors rushed in and began investing. What effect did this have?

MR: Of course: they waited until they could snatch up a bunch of Kalistani stock super cheap. So you will forgive me if I don't count foreign investors as saviors of the nation. We were lucky and found local investors to partner with the foreigners. And we started putting putting people back to work. Soon, money began trickling back into the treasury, and we were able to open the bank again., and we haven't closed it since August of last year. By the beginning of this year, we got the currency problems back under control, and purchased back the first batch of District scrip. The increased confidence in the Ruble, and soon, the New Ruble had fully replaced the old one. We opened new businesses across the Republic, divested the KALNAMOCO, and put a lot of people back to work. The last two quarters were positive for job creation. Though things are pretty anemic, economists predict that we will spend the next decade rebuilding from the economic storm that swept the country. Which means that there will be bad months, there will be a lot of months where we don't hit our targets and so forth. But I want to stress, the Republic is back in business.

DF: Any final words?

MR. Yes, we'll be opening a stock exchange and all Kalistani owned companies which are publicly traded will be listed there, rather than in foreign exchanges which the Government has no control over. I don't want to cast aspersions, but, it is better to keep commodities and securities trading at home.

DF: Very well. From The Republic, thank you.

MR: You're totally welcomed.

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Kalistani Microdivisions Opens in Sulari
Success could open door to hightech revolution
Sulari, Suldanor
December 18, 4441


Plant 1 of Kalistani Microdivisions opened for business in August

A growing demand for consumer electronics from other nations has led Kalistan to begin to take the initial steps toward producing its own. Utilizing cpu architecture researched and developed at Kaliburg Polytechnic University, the first Kalistani variants of popular microprocessors that find their way into cellphones, laptops, and other high tech consumer devices were developed during the recession by a joint venture with New Endralon. That company has since been liquidated, but investors there worked with another high tech firm in Sulari to begin mass producing chips. This new company, which opened its doors in August and is preparing to go public, as soon as the new Kalistani Stock Exchange opens next June, is known as Kalistani Microdivisions.

CEO of the operation Vivian Tashunke-Washte said: "We've been lucky in a lot of ways, that the infrastructure here was so heavily based in heavy industry. The recession basically wiped a lot of these factories out, but left the skeletons here. And so we have an intelligent workforce here, as well as a lot of buildings that we can purchase for expansion if we need it, plus the transportation and distribution infrastructure is already here for rail, sea and air."

Kalistani Microdivisions has recently paired with a small local battery producer and is working on cellular phone technology. "Right now, Kalistanis buy a lot of their cell phones from after market foreign distributors" Tashunke-Washte said. "It's way cheaper than buying them directly from the factories, especially those which come from countries who refuse for whatever reason to sell us things. So we are literally a nation of last gen, second hand cell phones. Our aim at KalMD is to replace that stuff with our own designs. We have the chips, and we certainly can acquire the capacity to make chips for the entire world's market here in the skeleton of the heavy factories. We can bring this town back to life. So why not also make our own electronics? Kalistani electronics for Kalistani Consumers. Now's the time. We can put this together."

Kalistani MD's Sulari factory is capable of producing multi-core chips and aims at acquiring a significant footprint in the Kalistani Market. "The early bird gets the worm," Tashunke-Washte said. "We are in an excellent place to grow and do well."

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New Developments allow Kalistan to Extract Lithium from Brine
"Wastewater" pools from Oil and Steel industry become gold mines for Kalistani Tech firms
High Bong, Neveras
May 7, 4442


What was deemed "waste" now is reclaimed as source of Lithium Salts

Kalistani chemical engineers have developed new techniques which will allow brine which was a wastewater product of pig iron production to be refined into a reliable source of lithium.

"Briney salars at the National Iron Refinery in High Bong has been tested to contain on average 2700 parts Lithium per million. This makes the lithium commercially recoverable." Dr. Frederick Gaston noted in a recent survey paper for the Geology department at Doceus Rex University in High Bong. "Centuries of reuse of the same water in the production process combined with natural evaporation has concentrated the various metals and other basic elements in the water, making it a highly toxic soup, but now, with new technological developments, also a potentially lucrative source of lithium. We can drain massive salt lakes that have formed in the immediate vicinity of the Iron Refinery operations into evaporators, and pull lithium out of the waters. We anticipate that at current demands, we can supply more than 65 years worth of lithium. The process will also allow us to extract magnesium, calcium, and potassium, as well as small amounts of precious and semi-precious metals like gold and zinc."

Extraction of the lithium from Brine solves one of the major bottlenecks in the growing high tech sector which is developing in Suldanor. "We were asked to search for lithium in Kalistan," Dr. Gaston stated. "My research team and I worked on the question, looking at mining surveys to see if there were any sources of spodumene in Kalistan. We have no surveys which suggest the existence of the lithium rich mineral, so my graduate assistant, Jessica Vanderson, suggested that Lithium might be located in brine. We tried sea water first, and while we can find tiny amounts of lithium in it, this led us to the salars in the Bong Valley. And Eureka, as the saying goes."

Brine evaporation and the use of modern membrane technology can also help engineers reuse the water from Oil extraction. Dr. Gaston further reported: "The unfortunate biproduct of oil drilling on land is this heavy, salty water which comes up with the oil. These are remnants of ancient seas. Luckily, we haven't extracted hardly any of the oil we have on land, since oil extraction in the Strait is much more profitable, so, the oilfield brine could also provide a long term source of lithium." Other potential sources, according to Gaston, are hectorite Clay deposits in Suldanor, though extraction will be significantly difficult and expensive than evaporation of the wastewater lakes in High Bong.

Several firms are currently launching pilot programs in High Bong to see how profitable lithium evaporation is. One company in particular, Yoshimi Salts, seems particularly well positioned to make the most out of the waste water lakes. This project, a joint venture between the Suldanor District Government and Sulari investors, was founded to sell sea salt to the Kalistani-Telemonese joint-venture natural grocer Greene's Grocers. Their success has allowed them to diversify and build a salar-evaporation plant, which has received favorable comments recently and an infusion of capital from KALNAFERCO. On the heels of the Gaston report, Yoshimi Salts rushed to the Bong Valley and set up their first commercial evaporators in February. Yoshimi Salts has yet to turn a profit on the Lithium operation, but they do have the infrastructure in place for take off, should they deem the operation a money maker. Three other companies are also planning on opening evaporation facilities in the region within the next six months.

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Kalistan Stock Exchange, AKA "Kalsie" launches
KALNAPECO and KALNAFERCO become first stocks listed and Ruble-Denominated
Kaliburg, Ananto
June 3, 4443


The Kalistan Stock Exchange opens on June 1, immediately lists KNP and KNF

One dream of Kalistani Nationalists came true this week as the Kalistan National Stock Exchange, (called the Kalsie in weeks leading up to the launch of the exchange) opened and listed KNP and KNF as their first two stocks. Most importantly, both stocks were denominated for the first time in their history in Kalistani Rubles.

Finance Minister Julie Westin spoke proudly as she opened the Stock Exchange. "Today, we will see our National Industries listed for the first time in Rubles. It is a moment of immense pride for us. It is only 3 years since we hit the depths of our economic panic. We have slowly recovered, economy wide since then. The National Industries were, in many ways insulated, but the private sector collapsed. Well, now: Look how far we've come, in three years. KNP and KNF are denominated in Rubles!"

With that, Westin opened the stock exchange, with the ticker listed all National industries, as well as KMD, the high tech firm from Sulari, and several joint ventures. Trading in the stocks was very light on the first day, but the day finished in positive territory, with the index of the Initial stocks up two-tenths of a percent. Being denominated in Rubles is a benefit to Kalistani firms, because the transaction costs from currency exchanges are saved. The Finance Minister noted that having a stock exchange in Kalistan means that the Government can order the suspension of trading to protect stock prices from foreign panics like the one which robbed Kalistan of years and years of economic prosperity. If the index drops more than 15% during a single trading day, the Kalistani Government will immediately cease trading for three days, to allow the immediate panic to pass, and allow rational minds to prevail.

Most major firms in Kalistan, especially the Joint Ventures formed over the last three years, remain privately traded, but CEOs of several Kalistani companies have announced plans to list on the Kalsie.

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Noted Kalistani Economist Issues four point program for Economic Development
John King's "System of Deep Understanding" promises to dramatically increase efficiency
Kaliburg, Ananto
November 17, 4442


Dr. John King vindicates theoretical Ethical Socialism and the Dual Economy

A former standard bearer of liberal economic theory in Kalistani Academics, Dr. John King of Kaliburg Polytechnic Institute, has changed his tune. He has recently released a provocative and stunningly elegant defense of the Dual Economy and the theory of Ethical Socialism.

King said, in his Keynote lecture at this year's Annual Meeting of the Society of Kalistani Economists:

"For Kalistan, there really can be no other system than the Dual Economy. A robust Private Sector, which manages consumer demands far better, as we see, than the Government can, and a solid public sector, to include a carefully controlled Ruble and shepherded investments, which supplies needs for the People are both intrinsic to the success of the state. The recent crisis in Kalistan which is really only just beginning to abate, and will take years, if not decades, to completely recover from, was caused by political turbulence, combined with almost no control over market forces that are subject to radical consumer and investor irrationality, especially overseas where investors neither understand, nor particularly appreciate the Dual Economy, but are chiefly concerned with the amoral quest for profit maximization. I admit my role in propping up the myth of complete market rationality and efficiency: I can no longer ignore the very basic and very obvious fact, as ironclad as the law of gravity, that market forces create political crises such as deflation, speculative bubbles, and vast joblessness, and tying the hands of the political sphere to address those crises is the sole cause of disasters of monumental proportions."

King was invited to speak to the conference as the Keynote Speaker following the publication, earlier this year, of his work, which most are still digesting, and which has taken the economic theory world by storm. The work, "Statistical Adjustment and the 4-Point Program for Efficient Development Under the Dual Economy" struck the academic world like a bolt of lightning, especially as King was the leading proponent of liberal economic theory in Kalistan over the last 50 years. The paper, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal The Indralan Journal of Economics: Macroeconomics and International Development was a short 17 pages long, and outlined King's elegant and parsimonious argument that any developing country could escape the cycle of perpetual development through statistical adjustment in private and public sectors, and that the Government needs to lead the way with a combination of pro-business policies (lower corporate taxes, capital liberalization that allow foreign investment to flow easily in and out of the countries) and pro-labor policies (a reasonable Universal Basic Income, strong labor union policies, and National Service to bottleneck the supply of labor to the Market.)

"The best example of this we see is in Kalistan, where the Government maintains what the ruling socialists refer to as the Dual Economy. That economic program allows the private sector to flourish, while ensuring that for-profit businesses are not responsible for provision of the basic necessities of human life. When you separate out need from economic activity, then the market functions more correctly. When you change the conditions under which labor and management negotiate with one another, to take away the power to starve from the business owners, you see labor and management come to an agreement that is mutually beneficial, and you give the worker a stake in the health and success of the company. In other words, the old Metzist cannard that workers and management have nothing in common is shown to be facetious and instrumentalist on its face. The goal is to give everyone an interest in seeing all do well, rather than pitting one class forever against another." - (King 4442, 543)

The meat of King's article came in his proposal of a four-point method for efficient planning in a Dual Economy, which he called the System of Deep Understanding", because they are based on thoroughly understanding the production process and all its components before even deciding to begin production. "The four steps of The System of Deep Understanding are:

1. Focus on Constant improvement. This can include growth of the plant, ensuring that workers keep their jobs, increase in efficiency of the worker, ensuring that workers can afford to buy the products they produce if they wish, and improvement of the conditions and safety of work.

2. Focus on decreasing costs. This does not mean that workers must be laid off or factories must close. Instead, it means getting rid of redundancies in the sector, getting rid of non-value added steps, and increasing the value of value-added steps in production. If you increase the value of the value-added steps relative to the value of the non-value added steps, you will increase the quality and efficiency of your production processes, and the previously wasted money will either be saved to the consumer, or will be used to grow the company and protect the workers' jobs. We know, from statistical analysis that there will always be some x percent of failure in any lot. Rather than obsessing on those failures, and treating the symptoms (the failure), we should focus on decreasing the rate of failure: on consistently doing better. Decreasing the rate of failure, whether it be in product manufacturing or in worker attrition, means we save money on rework and rejection.

3. Focus on leapfrog development and export oriented growth. Developing nations traditionally have trade deficits as wealthy nations rush to take advantage of cheap labor and raw materials in developing nations, and import in their wake expensive finished goods. What leapfrog development means is that the developing world needs to acknowledge that it will always lose to economies of scale, especially in cutting edge areas of development. So the developing nation will take the ubiquitous technologies of the developed world, the technology and processes that they are now dumping on the world as they attempt to deal with the crisis of the business cycle, and improve it. We should use our strengths to make those technologies better, and add value to them which we will then feed into our economy, rather than sending it to them.

4. Focus on use of weakness as strength. This builds on point 3. The Developing world is usually flush with potential which is not tapped. There are a million reasons why not, but in fact, they represent a source of strength for the developing world that the developed world cannot exploit without our say-so. We may have cheaper labor in the developing world. But this can be a strength to attract investment. We should do what we do well, and become the leaders of that thing, so we occupy a niche. It is possible to do several things well, to occupy several niches. But the most important point here is that we not compete with economies of scale. We work to compliment them, to bring consumers across the globe our own goods and services which are significant improvements, both in terms of quality and quantity, but also in price point over the previous generation of the same thing still being half heartedly produced by economies of scale. Producing old technology for them is an inefficiency. They incur and bear alone the opportunity cost. Producing the exact same thing for the developing world is an opportunities. Since the R&D has already been completed, we merely have to take it apart, find out how it works, reduce redundancies and non-value added steps, and build one of our own, much cheaper than it cost them to build theirs. They are then free to make new things, while we continue to improve on what they have already built. In this way, the profit for those older technologies is re-direfted toward the developing world, rather than being monopolisitcally held by Developed nations." - (King, 546-48)

This program, where public and private sectors work together to treat the economy as a Total Economy, will help developing countries escape the cycle of perpetual development, offering them a clear way out of the trap. King's work has been widely hailed in Kalistan since it was published, by socialist economists.

Liberals, however, who still represent the majority of economics faculty at Kalistan's institutions of higher learning, roundly rejected King and his hypotheses. Said leading liberal economist Timmons Algernon: "This is heresy. It almost feels like a betrayal for King to speak for the Dual Economy, when he so recently worked with us to dismantle it through atrophy. If you read his published statements, he cheered the collapse and the monetary crisis as proof of the failure of socialist economics and the Dual Economy. He was our standard bearer: He once said that society needs to be bent to demonstrate the assumptions of our economic models. Now, he goes to the other side." Much of the audience in attendance at the Keynote Speech walked out on Dr. King.

"I was wrong. Forget everything I ever wrote: Liberal Economics is a completely dead-end ideology, at least in middle economies like Kalistan's who wish to get out of the perpetual middling position they constantly find themselves in. Blind faith in Markets is a death sentence. But again: so is full planning. What we need is an economy which is flexible enough to allow consumers to obtain whatever they want from the Market, but protection from the sorting mechanisms of the markets which will always take wealth from the many and hand it over to the few. We need a strong public sector side by side, to ensure that the Four Steps are enforced. Doing otherwise should legitimately create an existential crisis for private sector investors. There can be no other way, unless there is a significant enough cushion to absorb market shocks, and for the vast majority of the population of Terra, that insulation simply does not, cannot exist, because the society is mitigating risk incorrectly."

Following the convention, a group of Liberal academics attempted to have King thrown out of the SKE. The petition made it to the floor of the Plenary session, but narrowly failed on a non-ideological vote of 43-47. Most of those who voted to keep King were Socialists, but they were joined by a dozen or so liberals, who spoke against the motion by decrying it as creeping fascism and "...a disgrace for professionals to even hint at such a thing."

"Liberal Economics works for some countries," said Dr. Sarah Matel of Neveras. "But King's argument is convincing, even for me, a dyed in the wool market liberal. At any rate, we can't just throw him out because we disagree with his findings or methods. Our concern is in what is good for the economy, while most of my colleagues seem intent simply on forcing their viewpoint down everyone's throat."

The conference ended with King's reputation cemented as one of the greats, and his membership still in tact. Meanwhile, three Liberals resigned from the professional organization in disgust.

References
King, John. 4442. "Statistical Adjustment and the 4-Point Program for Efficient Development Under the Dual Economy," in The Indralan Journal of Economics: Macroeconomics and International Development. Vol 141.1 (Spring): 452-469.

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Kalistani Socialists take another step toward a Single Party State
As ineffectual opposition vanishes, Socialists move to shrink Assembly and double terms
Kaliburg, Ananto
December 8, 4443


President of the Republic Reina-Rodriguez comments on Premier's decision to reduce seats and double terms

Today, Socialists in Kalistan broke with a centuries long support for the Normal Constitutional order in Kalistan by extending their efforts to ensure Socialist dominance in the Legislature in perpetuity. Critics see this as yet another move toward the establishment of a single Party state under Socialist Party rule. But compared to the outcry following the ephemeral parties act, this new move, attached as a rider to an early election bill which cuts the Assembly to 200 seats and lengthens legislative terms to 6 terms met with nearly no protests or demonstrations. Said Henry Griffin, of Vrassa City, "Well, if there was a Right wing Party in Kalistan worth anything, I might be tempted to vote for it, but as it is, there is none, and any that pop up always try to take it far to far to the Right, so I won't be voting for anyone. Not like it makes much difference, I suppose."

For her Part, the President was ambivalent on the measure. "Its not really my place to critique how the Legislative leaders are running things when they are socialists. If this is the way they want to do it, so be it. I supported strong measures against ephemeral Parties in Kalistan, and so if I see this as an extension of my work when I was the Premier, I suppose it is not too onerous."

Rightist opposition to the act was mute. "In the Assembly Rightists hold no seats, but the different factions of the Socialist Party seem alright by the Matter," said Abe Hashimoto, Premier of the Republic. "We have a lot to worry about like getting the Kalistani economy back on track, and don't have time to run elections where one Party only ever earns seats, or I should say, one Party who shows up to vote. It is a real waste of time to have show elections between one Party and nominal opponents who simply want to Camp their way through the Legislative process. So, we'll deal with them as we can, and then once we have the election and then look to formalize the matter after the early elections."

The act is expected to pass easily next August.

[Luis1p]

Manon-Maison Communications eyes investment in Kalistani Economy

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KalMD develops first generation of Kalistani Consumer electronics
"Model 1" to roll out early next year
Sulari, Suldanor
September 7, 4444


KalMD's "Model 1" has been prototyped and will begin mass production in January

The first generation of cellular phones to be produced in Kalistan will begin production in January and will reach the market by February. Early orders for the phone, called the "Model 1" by manufacturer Kalistani Micro Divisions are promising, said KalMD spokesman Jeffery Edwards. "There have been a decent number of early adopters for the technology who wish to invest in this program to kickstart the industry. We've received orders for 10,000 phones from large retailers who usually sell foreign after market technology and online distributors. If the early sales meet orders, we will see how the market sits and adjust."

The Model 1 features a battery life of 6 hours per charge, the ability to store music and pictures and the ability to text over Short Message Service (SMS). While it does not yet compete in terms of capability with even last generation foreign smart phones, the Model 1 is not intended to do that. "What we are launching is essentially a bare bones mobile phone which will allow us to continue funding research and development and bring out newer models sooner. We need to start selling products sooner rather than later, and the Model 1 is more like a toe in the water than a full fledged cannonball."

The Model 1 has been positively reviewed by several independent reviewers. Deanna Phillips, from Kaliburg's Tech Today said: "For what it is, it is better than comparable devices that other countries have been dumping in Kalistan for decades. It has a sleeker profile, it allows us to store and play music locally, and doesn't require an internet connection. In fact, you can't connect to the internet at all from this device, which some would see as a negative, but it will allow users to cut down on data fees that are associated with using outdated technology to connect to a modern internet. We don't have the greatest mobile tower infrastructure in Kalistan, so this lack of capability will save Kalistani consumers in the long run. Meanwhile, Kalistani's love their music, and having a mobile music player included upsets nobody."

The batteries in the Model 1 have come from a joint partnership between KalMD and the new startup KalTech, who got into producing batteries using lithium provided by Yoshimi Salts. Combined with KalMD's microprocessors and motherboards, the Model 1 becomes the first all Kalistani model cell phone. "We have the factory space to produce a million cell phones a year right now," said KalMD's Edwards. "A few bottlenecks might slow us down: for example, the lack of battery capacity. But we are working with KalTech to expand production, and hope to overcome that limitation by the time that demand increases if it does. Foreign capital might also be of some help if a deal with the Lourennaise company Manon-Maison goes through. Further specialization will likely help reduce redundancy in the market too. It is too soon to say right now, but smart and efficient investment will keep KalMD profitable and in a good position to supply the Market in the coming years."

The Model 1 will retail for 12,500 KRB, and while this price seems a bit steep for most casual users, Edwards insists that the all Kalistani Model 1 from KalMD represents a great step forward. "In addition, we have included a lifetime full repair and replace warranty on all Model 1's sold in Kalistan."