"How is that possible?!"
Dawn City, conference room of The Alliance's Ministry of Internal Affairs building.
Seated at the conference table, President Melvin stared at the box filled with black-and-white chips, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
The moment the celebration ended, he had eagerly sought out The Alliance's administrator to discuss the principal and interest on the ten million chips owed from the 510 million debt.
As president of Boulder City Bank, every loan The Alliance had received had come through him. He had assigned his sharpest accountants to watch every expenditure in The Alliance's accounts, and even kept tabs on Lister, Ditwei, and the other "insiders" closely connected to The Alliance. No one understood The Alliance's "financial situation" better than he did.
They absolutely could not have come up with the ten million chips in principal and interest due by the end of the year!
How could an organization that relied on borrowing to develop possibly have cash left over? Not to mention the massive trade deficit staring them in the face—the country bumpkins in the northern suburbs had been operating at a loss for an entire year!
In truth, this was a rotten house riddled with holes from debt and trade deficits. They had mortgaged far too much of their future to win the war against the Legion. Melvin had counted on precisely that, which was why he had sat across from Chu Guang with such confidence.
At present, shrinking the balance sheet to repay debt was practically The Alliance's only way out. If they did not bring their debt down to a reasonable level, they could only wait for bankruptcy!
Melvin did not think these muscle-brained fellows understood much about economics, but neither would he stand by and watch this house, built with such