Post by John Marston on May 2, 2021 14:47:42 GMT
Chapter 5 - Checkmate!
To stem the revival and growth of our country, economic growth is very important. The living standards has to rise. Per Capita income has decreased by 5% since 1945. Strikes are being waged again, across the country, rekindling fears of a coup d'état, which happened just a few months back. Something must be done quickly and the need of the hour is a quick action to prevent the economy from going down further. It was an emergency.
We knew that EUSSR's companies, though independent outwardly, were indirectly controlled by the state. But, there is a catch to this. These companies are completely independent of their masters when operating in other countries. A report was compiled, which shows that out of the 64 major domains of the economy, 21 of them had a Soviet company as the largest, 11 of them British, 5 of Canada, 1 of China, 10 of Japan and the remaining 14 are of the US. That's a measly 14! In our own backyard!
EUSSR has to be dealt swiftly now. Reports have come of passing a law in EUSSR that the Communist Party of USSR was planning to control the foreign arm of their companies too.
An emergency meeting was convened on December 17th, 1947 to discuss the matter. Hence a plan was chalked out - to cut 15% of defense budget, 12% of space program budget, 5% from all the other sectors for 3 months. The main intention? To buy these companies. On 14th January, 1948, after amassing the money to buy all the foreign arms of these companies as 300 million $.
The representatives of these companies were flabbergasted as they were invited to the meeting on the pretext of an increase in tax of their products. When the above proposal was made known to them, 10 of the companies, among the 21 agreed (an enquiry later revealed that they were facing lot of losses), 6 of them said that they needed more time to discuss and 5 of them flatly disagreed. We even promised them protection from EUSSR's agents, who will sure to assassinate them, once they learnt of this. 1 more joined. The situation - 11,5,5. An ultimatum was put forward to the remaining of them. Hand over your company or you will be forced to do so. The price initially was 300 million $, was raised to 350 million $ for them. 2 companies picked up the bait. The situation, at the end of the meeting at 4:00 PM, was 13,4,4.
"Mr. Vice President! What have you done!? You left them alone? Some of them can be..." said one of my aide.
"Pro - EUSSR yes I know", I interrupted. "I sent my agents to sabotage their communication lines of these 8 companies to EUSSR and my agents are spying them. If they do attempt, again, in any other way, to establish communication to EUSSR again, until they sell their companies, they will be arrested on charges of spying on us, sending our secrets to EUSSR", I said.
"Then", he says, "we must wait and watch", in a cold voice.
And this was happened exactly. Two days later, Vasilyevich Vladimir and Ivan Ostapenko, owners of VV steel works and Ivan chemicals were arrested and of course, it was a false charge.
"People of this glorious land! We have been cheated by VV steel works and Ivan chemicals, whose owners - Vasilyevich Vladimir and Ivan Ostapenko were EUSSR backed agents and their companies, though officially owned by these individuals, were under the control from Moscow. We have unearthed solid evidence (of course fabricated) and caught them red handedly reporting confidential information to the Kremlin. Such people are a threat to any nation and from now on, their companies will be owned by the USA..." - an extract of the press conference after the incident happened.
This was a major step forward for the revival of the economy, but our relationship with EUSSR was further degraded, which resulted in increased tensions. The remaining companies, sensing the peril they are in, handed over the companies to us. This makes our position 35/64 and 36 later when the sole Chinese company, thinking he was to be purged next (though it was never intended) and sold his company to us. 3 companies of Britain, 2 of Japan and 2 of Canada were sold to us and it was much bigger profit than expected.
So that gives us control 43 of the companies. It did caused a furor among the people of EUSSR and Stalin labelled the US as "The economic purger". Anyhow, the job was either by hook or by crook and most importantly, without much damage. Many of the companies were handed over to the large US companies and that improved their conditions drastically.
To check the rising inflation levels, we sold our assets and infused cash wherever required. More supplies were brought into reduce demand and prices, which ultimately paid off. The companies acquired from other countries was a boon. It created more employment opportunities, increased wages for employees, led to a rise in living standards. Their output became 180% of the production made during WWII, however adequate measures were taken to maintain the production-demand balance. Cash started filling the US treasury again. All the enemies at home were checkmated. The situation at home was secure and for the work done, I was elected the president of the US.
And...after much of hard work, campaigns, highs and lows and internal strife within the party, within the government, within the country, I was, elected to lead my country. But there isn't anytime left for jubilant celebrations - the Soviets and their communism has gotten all over us...
