At five in the afternoon, Latveria's ruler appeared before the cameras in a suit right on schedule and delivered a speech about the disaster. He spoke of the difficulties faced during this visit and the current state of Cuba as he had seen it. From economic and military perspectives, he described the hardships Cuba had endured in its past development and the difficulties it would face in the future, while drawing parallels between the plight of the Yugoslav Federation and Cuba. The Emperor stressed that Yugoslavia, like Cuba, firmly opposed neoliberal exploitation of poor nations. He emphasized both the Yugoslav Federation's and his own vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, as well as the scientific cooperation to come between the two sides.
It was a standard diplomatic statement. Other than reaffirming the Yugoslav Federation's position and its trade cooperation with Cuba, it contained little new content. Even so, think tanks at most international relations research institutions saw the bloodshed and looming war hidden behind the speech.
As the chief architect of the Yugoslav Federation, the Emperor could not possibly have failed to understand the power of finance. Fiscal problems had destroyed ancient dynasties, let alone the dollar now, crazily inflated through massive leverage, financial derivatives, and digital games. Even then, finance was already a highly effective weapon, and now its power had grown beyond imagination. Every action taken after the founding of the Yugoslav Federation had been meant to wield this invisible weapon. The plan had taken shape between a thatched mountain cottage in Latveria, with a goat standing on its roof, and several bottles of superb brandy.
The Emperor's speech envisioned a marketplace excluding the dollar and the vast financial empire spawned by its unchecked proliferation. Joining this marketplace meant riding the wave of