PIRACY CAUSES EEZO PRICE LIFT

(CDR, Thessia.)

The price of Element Zero skyrocketed today by 11.5% percent following this months report by the Citadel Emergency Trade Commission. The report states that the eezo lost to piracy and raids on Thessia accounts for more than 1.75% of all eezo traded across Citadel space this year. Many construction projects have been halted as a result, putting further pressure on the various Citadel affiliated governments to respond to the crisis. No comments from the council has yet been made, sparking further panic amongst investors.

Elkoss combine spokesman Plintho Tol had these comments: "It's very simple, without eezo a project simply stops." "It's used in everything from manufacturing processes to vessel mobility and right now there simply isn't enough of it coming in." "Even if there is a lot to be salvaged from the reaper wars it simply isn't enough to support the regular reconstruction, not to mention all the resources that are going into repairing the relay and communication systems."

Elkoss combine has been one of the primary players in the construction effort with more than 5500 projects currently in progress across citadel space.

There are no estimates of the current value of the stolen eezo beyond putting it around the trillion range. A large portion of it has found it's way to the terminus system where prices fluctuate greatly.

Didn't we have a similar situation on Earth back in the 21st century during one of the various resource crises? Whether fuel was legitimately strained or not the companies kept raising prices and the industry was essentially untouchable. Let's not rule out the possibility of this being planned but don't assume that's what it is either.

The majority of eezo mining interests aren't controlled by a single cartel.

It wouldn't surprise me that someone with a lot of Element Zero stock suddenly sold it all right before the piracy attacks stop. It's a much more dangerous galaxy out there with much slacker enforcement of laws due to the war.

What I really want to know is how the hell are these pirates able to move THAT much eezo through the relay network, considering the restrictions on relay travel.

I mean, You'd think they'd have to go past atleast a patrol of ships in order to access the relay...

That's what smuggling is for. The pirates probably sell their goods to smugglers, who process it into a form that can be easily slipped by customs. Hell, given that it's eezo, they're probably building it into the "cargo ships" themselves. Ships that go out the Thessian Relay have oversized eezo cores; when they return, their cores are normal sized again.

Consumer products are another popular option for eezo smuggling; buy a huge number of regular products (auto-massage units, for example), slip small amounts of eezo into them, rebrand them as high-scale eezo-powered auto-massage units, customs won't look twice. Extract the eezo on the other side, and you've got a profit.

Not to mention that the asari naval and customs authorities simply isn't up to the task of overseeing the massive trade increase after the war.

I tell ya! If these pirate scum gets near Nartin they're in for a whacking!

Pirates steal eezo making the supply drop and prices rise. What a shocker!

I see three options (with the possibility of combining them) as to why we might be seeing this price increase. 1) The pirates are underselling legitimate suppliers to normal eezo buyers and this price measurement is only talking about eezo on the legitimate market. If this price is somehow also covering the black market then the total amount of eezo available hasn't dropped so the net result should not be an increase.

2) Pirates aren't selling on the normal legitimate markets. This option works whether the commission is measuring both white and black market eezo or not. The supply of eezo available is the same, but the demand has effectively been expanded to people who for whatever reason weren't able to get access to the regular eezo markets.

3) Mines getting hit by pirates are having to shut down production because they can't make any money. If you make a bunch of something only to see it get stolen you're going to stop making it. I don't suppose anyone has production numbers for eezo around?

The explanation we can know is bunk is the one that says the production companies are simply jacking up prices out of greed. If it was the case that they could simply jack up prices and still sell all the eezo they would have done it already. If you say they'd be worried about governments reacting badly to that and doing something like nationalizing the mines then we wouldn't see sharp and sudden price increases, but gradual ones overtime that wouldn't piss off the public.

What's the point of this? Friendly neighborhood financial advice! Don't be fooled by the price increases, that's a sign of problems in the industry and the minute your shipments get hit by pirates your investment loses value. So don't invest in eezo miners. Do however invest in anti-piracy protections. The bigger this problem gets the more that'll be worth.

Yes! I knew those UMG stocks would pay off, heh.

fucking pirates

can tell you first hand they are horrible.

only time i've ever had a person's brains splattered on me was because of them and i really don't wanna have that again

the stains never came out

ps before some smart-ass comes in, not all of us are war-hardened badasses who've "seen it all"

You know that feelin' when you wanna go mix some nitroglycerine? Yeah thats the kind o' feelin' that I'm having now.

Heh. That explains the news I heard about the Wreck getting a major resupply of eezo. Someone's rolling in plenty of credits right now.

That's absurd, we managed to keep the eezo flowing during the reaper invasion! Surely we could manage a few pirates? That inflation is bad for all business. For the first time Slaves4Us is obligated to up its price, and many colonies can't afford us anymore, which means they can't afford any construction team anymore.