End of the road for the Regional Mark

With only one nation that uses only the RM yet to confirm its ditching, the RM is set to go extinct.

On August 17th 2022, the RM Currency Union saw a major setback when 3 of its 5 users abandoned the currency. The RM was in crisis. But now, that crisis has been blown out of the water by the impending collapse of the currency.

The RM was saved in 2022 by nations swiftly deciding to rejoin. However, this time around, the RM is beyond saving as the government is swiftly repealing the legislation that allows its existence.

The road to get to a regional currency was a long one. It took 4 polls to confirm that the region wanted a unified currency, to decide its name and implement the legislation.

Now, it appears that the RM has reached the end of the road, as nations swiftly drop the currency.

So, what went wrong for the RM?

Firstly, its mainstream usage was restricted. While it was legal in most nations, some nations such as Patec and Oranjehaven, chose to retain their own currency. This meant that there were 3 distinct groups in the region:

• Those that only used the RM- Meercovo, Niater, Brunholl, FRS

• Those that used the RM and their own currency- Patec, Oranjehaven

• Those that didn't use the RM at all- Terebostadan

These groupings inhibited the intended effect of the RM in promoting trade. While some nations were on board with the idea, others were less so and preferred to use their own currency.

And this showed the RM's weakness- the Patecian Takken and Oranjehavian Crown were both stronger currencies than the RM, which allowed Patec and Oranjehaven to earn more for their exports and imports than the RM nations.

Now, with the impending collapse of the RM, all its users are set for a recession this coming year, while non-users are likely to escape recession or have a small setback. The damage done by this repealing will likely be very high on the user nations.

The government has yet to announce how it will act, but it is likely to use the Orange Tax funds from last year, which were not invested into any nation, to soften the blow.

The government currently has 3.3 trillion marks in reserve, from the tax collected last year. With an additional 3.4 trillion this year, by the end of 2024, the government will have 6.7 trillion marks to invest.

This means that the regional government has a lot of economic weight and support to throw around to prevent recession or soften the impacts.

Some are questioning what currency the regional government will adopt as its currency- some sources say that the government could shift to the Dollar quickly, or adopt a strong regional currency.

However, the government will need to accept a degree of responsibility for the recession fears, as the collapse of the RM, caused by government action, will only make this worse.

With fears that the regional economy could shrink by 3% this year, the government will likely have to act quickly with its massive funds to keep the economies of some nations afloat.