Economic Crisis of the 4000s

The Economic Crisis of the 4000s was a prolonged depression that struck most of the Cosmic Alliance in the 4000s, exacerbated by the combined crises of the Rise of Astral Jilm. Its initial causes are complex but can mostly be chalked up to severe economic mismanagement and corruption by the Blues and their oligarchic benefactors. Its results were devastating; galactic trade collapsed, aggravated by a poorly thought out emergency tax on internal trade that was intended to shore up the galactic coffers. They instead torpedoed trade and sent the economy from recession to depression, the worst in all of history up to that point. Government programs were stretched to breaking point and starvation, something not even conceivable on many core worlds, struck at the wheels of a once unstoppable locomotive. With the government unable to perform many basic functions it was left to people like Sufferthorn to provide aid, and as such many worlds turned into essentially anarcho-capitalist havens. Crime skyrocketed and quality of life diminished for as many as twenty thousand worlds.
With new economic reform the crisis began to subside by the 4500s or so, but this was cut short by the Thaw.If what came before was a collapse, this was a black hole. There was basically no galactic economy during the Intergalactic Jilm War and Cosmic Civil War, and the deaths from the combined effects are so high as to be incalculable. Economic recovery would only come with the post war years, and with Sufferthorn's guidance would built to be even stronger than before.
Category:Major Events