MILES: Good morning! I'm Miles, this is my guest host for the day, EFPR's junior economics correspondent Pyre Elemental.
PYRE: Hello.
MILES: Let's get a Jump Start on the weekend.
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MILES: Military joint exercises begin today between Empirical armed forces and the Werepublic's national army this week and their People's Militia the following. We discuss what this means with one of EFPR's international correspondent, Sandra Materplatin.
PYRE: Later, we bring you market crashes in the Greater Plains and the Divine Republic and what concerns and effects you might feel at home.
MILES: Then our feature story, innovations in automated fast food technology get fielded to test restaurants in several territories. What does this mean for the job market?
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MILES: Today, we're joined by EFPR's international correspondent in the Werepublic, Sandra Materplatin. Sandra, I understand the word military exercise but what's really going on? And why's it happening twice?
SANDRA: Excellent questions Michaels. Citizens in the Eastern Panhandle might have seen lines of armored auto-wagons and light siege machines rolling, single file, down the highway late into the night. This crew is special, carrying, not foot soldiers, but archmages, logistics officers, grand paladins, and mechanics!
MILES: Not the typical mission!
SANDRA: But not the first! These occur every other decade or so, or every five years for each country the Empire participates in exercises with. These exercises used to be about drilling in coordinated formations, then in coordinating armies. Now, leadership from both countries meet to discuss defensive plans for every situation.
MILES: In this case, what is included in "every situation"?
SANDRA: Well, Michaels, it's a lot more than you might expect! Not only are we talking about invasions from any direction, this also covers natural disasters. How do we get aid to the Werepublic on a federal level and a local level? This is why this program spans two weeks. The first has our people here in the capital while next week distributes the support staff to each city state, to then work with the individual chapters of the People's Militia.
MILES: Sandra Materplatin out of the Werepublic. Thank you Sandra!
SANDRA: Thanks, Michaels.
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MILES: Now, Pyre, tell us about what's going on in the international market? I believe you're here with something our listeners should know.
PYRE: I think so. I do want to preface this, Miles, this is still too early to say anything for sure. We're only seeing the problem now, but even our most senior economists don't know exactly where this could land.
MILES: Of course. It could be an iceberg, or-
PYRE: Or it could mean absolutely nothing to the Empire's economy in the least. We're a big country with an active economy and a strong credit should even the worst happen.
MILES: So enough apocalyptic visions, what's going on?
PYRE: As mentioned at the top of the show, two national economies have crashed in the last week. First the Greater Plains. It's big... bigger than the Empire, depending on the season... but it's almost an eighth as dense in population.
MILES: and the other, the Divine Republic.
PYRE: Which is both small and not very active on the global stage. Its import market is up there with large nations, but exports next to nothing.
MILES: What are the prophecies saying about this?
PYRE: Both experts and prophets agree that this comes down to a few critical decisions mostly up to the Emperor at this point but I'll just tell you the one Empirical scholars are favoring: while it exposes our nation to a certain amount of risk, bailing out both countries would not create undue strain on our vaults but would go a long way to fixing our relationship with them.
MILES: Some would ask what we might get out of putting Empirical coins toward saving another country, what would be the response to that?
PYRE: In the short term, yes. The kickbacks would be small and specific, such as rare academic opportunities in the Divine Republic or a removal of ferries on Empirical imports to the Greater Plains.
MILES: That's not nothing!
PYRE: Certainly, but even with sending our brightest to train with the majority Angelic nation, we wouldn't see results in ten or more years. No, it's long term. The long game of diplomacy that has made this country what it is.
MILES: It's a foot in the door, but it's also... possibly simply an apology.
PYRE: Of course, and while every Emperor since the Demon Emperor has made their personal apology circuits...
MILES: Money goes a long way.
PYRE: It sure does, Michaels.
MILES: Thank you, Pirate Elemental.
[Both share a laugh, which fades out.
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MILES: Our short final piece of the week is all about what you eat.
PYRE: And about how innovations in the tech industry have created concerns for the average worker.
MILES: Specifically, we're talking about an automated fryer technology from Gobboritories Inc. The North Palisade-based company installed one in the largest city of each territory to put them to the test.
PYRE: Built on the steel and conveyor belt style that Gobboritories is known for, it is claimed to be able to safely and autonomously fry dozens of orders at once. What are workers saying? We go to Capitol street reporter Marvin Marvin, interviewing workers for more.
WORKER 1: Intimidated? Hardly. Have you seen it work? Or not work, more like.
WORKER 2: A bit. It's scary to work by. What if it blows up?
WORKER 3: Its going to be the next thing in technology and worker freedom. I will finally get to spend time time at home with the ones I love while this machine takes care of everything. I was not paid to say this.
WORKER 4: It still needs me to load it, take stuff out into bags, it barely gets things right, honestly even if they went forward it would need me to fix it every ten minutes. I'm good.
WORKER 5: Daniel said what? How would that work? Does he think they'll still pay-
MILES: For the rest of the interview, Marvin has a spellcast with more... lightly edited work.
PYRE: It's apparent, however, that we're not looking at the end of days here, but as the product is refined, workers may notice fewer real coworkers.
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MILES: Lastly, here's a few things to help you get a jump on your week/end ahead.
PYRE: A new spell is being released this weekend to the major wand brand Applewood that creates the perfect illusion of your pet, but experts fear exploits may help hexers farm Aethercoins.
MILES: Mountain hider finally comes to a stop, marking one of the longest active periods in three years. Feel free to move about alone once more, but as always, keep a radio tuned to the nearest Watcher station for updates.
PYRE: And next episode, we bring you an update on the flooding crisis in the Gr'pgria, a piece we covered a few weeks back. This time, how new challenges face the swamp-bound nation with spellcast host Arpi Maliir.
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MILES: Thanks to EFPR's executive producer, Malik First of His Line, editors Portia Marti' and Xip, with technical support by the Lov'vovk brothers. Our theme was composed by Drip the Inspired. This is EFPR's Jump Start.
PYRE: Jump Start is sponsored in part by contributions of listeners like you. You can show your support by casting the EFPR app, available on most devices, and by joining EFPR Next.
MILES: Thanks again to guest host Pyre Elemental from EFPR's economics desk. Thanks for coming!
PYRE: Thank you Miles.
MILES: Have a good weekend everyone.