Location: For Galnet; Alternatively for the 10 PowerPlay headquarters.
Length: 2,069
Date: For immediate publication
Title: Economic Analysis of PowerPlay Cycle 27
Submitting Commander: Vectron
Source:
My own written analysis, and
my own data analysis based on the raw data provided by Zac..
Body:
This cycle I decided to try to put an actual credit cost onto PowerPlay. The credit values are primarily estimates, but they do give a good impression of the economic situation in PowerPlay.
Default Ecosystem
This is a measure of the strength of the political ecosystem that each power has put together.
The AOS Score is a proprietary scoring system devised by the Alliance Office of Statistics, and it gives an objective score for the overall political strength of each power. The lower the score, the more influential the politician is in their respective spheres.
The AOS Balance is a proprietary scoring system devised by the Alliance Office of Statistics, and it gives an estimate of the economic value of each politician’s ecosystem as a number of credits (rounded to nearest million).
Lobbying and Opposition Power
This is a measure of the strength of each politician’s lobbying groups, and it tells us how many effective and disastrous lobbying campaign they are currently managing, as well as the estimated combined value of these campaign.
We also include an overview of how much badwill and negative campaigning each politician’s political opponents managed to generate, as well as the estimated combined value of these campaigns.
Weekly Operating Expenditures
This is an estimate of the expenses each political campaign faces during the week. It is worth noting that only five of the current politicians will ever face expenditures in terms of expansions, as their supporters use violence to subdue opposition. This does not incur any direct expenditures on the political campaign, but they still reap the benefits.
Weekly Operating Budget
The budget is the sum of the estimated economic value of an ecosystem and the estimated economic value of the politician’s lobbying efforts, expenditures is from Weekly Operating Expenditures, and the end result is budget minus expenditures.
There is a similar table for each major power group (Alliance, Empire, Federation, Independents).
Edmund Mahon
The Alliance Prime Minister retook the title as the politician with the highest approval rating, at 91%.
The Prime Minister had the second strongest political ecosystem amongst the contenders and the most valuable, at an estimated 795 million credits. Combined with the most lobbying campaigns and the most effective lobbying campaigns by far with no disastrous consequences, valued at an astronomical 1.3 billion credits, Edmund Mahon and his political allies have shown themselves to be a political force of nature.
This likely explains why the Prime Minister was also the subject of the most influential smear campaigns in the week. The Prime Minister was faced with opposition amounting to 3,100 CC, and an estimated economic impact of 1.676 billion credits - the seconds largest this week.
All in all the Prime Minister started the week with the largest budget, 2.117 billion credits, and his campaigns accrued expenses of a total 2.788 billion (the 5th highest), amounting to a deficit of 671 million credits - the 3rd best result this week, only rivalled by far smaller players on the political map.
Zachary Hudson
The Federation President took a slight hit to his approval rating, but he is still the second most popular politician with an approval rating of 78%.
The President has the 4th strongest political ecosystem and the 3rd most valuable, at an estimated 535 million credits, however, the lobbying arm of the President’s political campaign has yet to show its face.
The President fielded relatively average political opposition, with the 4th highest political and economic impact, at 1,987 CC and an estimated economic impact of 1.445 billion credits.
All in all the President started the week with a budget of 535 million credits (4th highest), and accrued the 2nd largest expenditure at 8 billion credits, resulting in the 2nd largest deficit of the week at 7.4 billion credits.
Arissa Lavigny-Duval
The Empress remains a popular politician, this week recording a 75% approval rating, meaning that the three most popular and influential politicians are currently also the leaders of the three major superpowers.
The Empresses has the 4th weakest political ecosystem and the 3rd least valuable, valued at a deficit of 222 million credits. However, where the Federation President has no apparent lobbying arm, the Empress’ lobbying skills are quite impressive, second only to Alliance Prime Minister Edmund Mahon. Her political allies have managed to run a significant amount of effective political campaigns, with an estimated value of 661 million credits.
The Empress was subjected to relatively average political opposition, seeing the 5th highest political and economic impact, at 1,912 CC and an estimated value of 1.348 billion credits.
All in all the Empress started the week with a budget of 439 million credits (6th highest), but faced with the largest expenses this week of an astronomical 10 billion credits, she also fielded the week’s most disastrous result, with a deficit of 9.575 billion credits.
Felicia Winters
The Federation Shadow President continues to be a relatively popular politician, landing a 70% approval rating.
The Shadow President has the strongest political ecosystem, but only the 6th most valuable, estimated at 110 million credits. However, the Shadow President has the 3rd best set of lobbyists working for her, and their campaign work has an estimated value of 473 million credits.
The Shadow President continues to be the subject of heavy campaign opposition, and this week was no exception, resulting in the 2nd highest political impact (2,620 CC) and 3rd highest economic impact (1.541 billion credits).
All told the Shadow President started with the 3rd highest budget (583 million credits). Combined with the 4th highest expenditures, she ended the week with a deficit of 2.615 billion credits - the 3rd highest of the week.
Aisling Duval
The Imperial Princess rounds out the top politicians, but with a relatively low approval rating of 52%.
The Princess has the second weakest political ecosystem, and by far the least valuable, incurring a deficit of a staggering 642 million credits. Just like the Federation President, it seems that Aisling Duval has no lobbying arm to speak of.
The Princess still sees very little political opposition, and this week it only amounted to 757 CC worth of slander, with an estimated impact of 657 million credits.
Starting with the worst budget of the week (a 642 million credit deficit), the Princess’ political teams then accrued the 3rd largest set of expenditures (a staggering 6.229 billion credits). Surprisingly this only resulted in third largest deficit of the cycle, at 6.871 billion credits.
Li Yong-Rui
The CEO of Sirius Gov had a disappointing week with a relatively low approval rating of 42%.
The CEO runs the 3rd strongest political ecosystem, but it is only the 5th valuable ecosystem, at an estimated 117 million credits.
Li Yong-Rui’s lobbying department is relatively good, with 90% of their political campaigns being successful and only 10% being disasters, and the campaigns are currently valued at an estimated 286 million credits.
Last week’s financial markets delivered a relatively hard blow to Sirius Gov, resulting in 2,573 CC of goodwill disappearing (the 3rd largest loss) along with a sizable drop in the stock market, and all told this cost Sirius gov an estimated 1.693 billion credits in political influence (the largest loss this week).
Li Yong-Rui’s political allies started the week with a budget of 403 million credits (the 4th lowest) and then incurred the 6th largest set of expenses (2.620 billion credit) and ended the week with an end result in the middle of the pack (6th, valued at a 2.217 billion credit deficit).
Denton Patreus
The Junior Senator remains relatively unpopular, only managing a 40% approval rating.
Senator Patreus is currently running the 3rd weakest political ecosystem, and while it is only the 7th most valuable, it is still estimated to be worth 29 million credits.
Combined with what seems to be the 4th best set of lobbyists, running a clean track record and no disastrous political campaigns behind them, his lobbying activities are estimated to be worth 340 million credits.
At the same time there are relatively few negative campaigns run against the Junior Senator, but it would seem that the emergence of yet another Emperor’s Dawn cell had a negative impact worth 1,260 CC at an estimated cost of 910 million credits.
The Senator’s political staff went into action, spending a relatively small amount of money, incurring expenses totalling 1.428 billion credits.
All told the Senator from Eotienses started the week with the 3rd lowest budget (369 million credits) and emerged with the 4th best result at 1.059 billion credits.
Zemina Torval
The Senior Senator from Synteini remains an unpopular figure, scoring a rather dismal approval rating of 38%.
Despite this she still manages a reasonably strong political ecosystem (6th), but this remains the 3rd least valuable, incurring a running deficit of 329 million. Combined with an unfortunate political campaign, that is estimated to have cost her an additional 8 million credits, Senator Zemina Torval started the week with the 2nd worst budget, and had to pull 337 million credits from her personal coffers.
Despite her unpopularity, she maintains an iron grip on the media, and as a result she saw very little political opposition, totalling only 366 CC worth of negative press, estimated at a value of 295 million credits.
Add in the 4th lowest political expenditures (1.477 billion credits), and Senator Torval ended up with a financial result in the middle of the pack (5th) with an estimated deficit of 1.815 billion credits.
Archon Delaine
Somehow the Pirate Lord has managed to build an air of mystery around him, which has resulted in him being quite popular, managing an impressive approval rating (for a thieving, plundering, kidnapping warlord) of 34% amongst those systems that are primarily influenced by him. In other words - 34% of the subjugated populace prefer to be subjects to Archon Delaine to any other politician.
As a result, Archon Delaine’s political ecosystem is neither particularly strong or weak (5th), but it is the 2nd most valuable from a financial perspective (707 million credits).
It cannot come as a surprise that lobbying and finesse is not amongst the Pirate Lord’s strengths, but he seems to recognize this and doesn’t bother with such mundane things.
Archon Delaine faces several different kinds of political pressures, both in terms of propaganda spread across his systems and in terms of the physical threats posed by the Imperial Navy. However, neither of these have been particularly effective this week, resulting in a rather paltry 1,440 CC worth of influence (6th) and only 1.117 billion credits in direct losses (6th).
These setbacks were quickly countered by the Kumo Crew, who only had to spend 1.127 billion credits (9th) to set things back to the status quo.
All in all Archon Delaine remains an interesting political player, starting the week with the 2nd highest budget (707 million credits) and finishing the week with the best financial result (a 420 million credit deficit).
Pranav Antal
Pranav Antal, the self-proclaimed leader of Utopia, finds himself the least popular political figure this week, scoring an abysmal 29% approval rating.
This lack of popularity is reflected in his political ecosystem, which is the weakest amongst the galaxy’s current heavy hitters, but at least it has some financial value. It is currently rated at an estimated 382 million credits, making it the 4th most valuable.
Despite his unpopularity, Pranav Antal does manage to have successful political campaigns, but his campaigners are in desperate need of improvements. Currently only 62% of their campaigns have been successful with 38% of them having disastrous consequences for the Sim Guru’s already low popularity. As a result his political campaign is only better than those with no lobbying (President Hudson, Princess Duval and Archon Delaine) and Zemina Torval. All in all his lobbying efforts are rated at a miniscule 74 million credits.
However - if Zemina Torval holds an iron grip on the media, Pranav Antal has put the media into a black hole, and absolutely no bad publicity managed to seep through. As a result, Pranav Antal’s overseers only spent 1.063 billion credits (lowest this week) keeping his flock under control.
Given a starting budget of 456 million credits (5th), Antal ended up with the 2nd best result - a deficit of 607 million credits.
