JEDI HoloNet

Indicators in the Galactic Stock Exchange are showing that despite passing the omnibus bill intended to shore up the Republic’s financial sector, the economy is descending into a firm downfall as the Republic’s GDP continues to recede. Projections indicate that the recession will not start to turn around until well into the first quarter of the next cycle.

Chancellor Rei continued to ask for patience from the people of the Republic while reassuring that the actions of the Senate have both already shown positive results and have also paved the way for further economic stimulus.

Following the passage of a comprehensive bill by our Senate, which was facilitated by Jedi mediators who assisted in formulating a response to our current predicament, while yet still working to afford the everyman their due, our Republic experienced a significant decrease in the intensity of the economic downturn. This was a stark contrast to the period when the D’Astan Legacy Bank declared bankruptcy.

The road to recovery is still long. We anticipate several months of economic hardship ahead. However, the initial stimulus package has proven effective, providing us with a roadmap for ongoing recovery from this unexpected threat to our economic stability. Without the Senate’s intervention, the economic fall would have been far more drastic, leaving us in a significantly different position than we are now.

Our Republic has weathered numerous crises in the past, emerging stronger each time. If the positive trends we’ve observed in recent rotations continue, we are well on our way to a rapid recovery. We will endure. Thank you.

Elsewhere in the last rotations since the collapse of the D’Astan Legacy Bank, unemployment has jumped up from a meager 3% to nearly 9% with projections for the final quarter ranging from 11-13%, the highest that rate has been at since the Vohai Civil War. Meanwhile, the Republic Senate has authorized an ambassador to be sent to an international conference for the Thanium Worlds sector on Leanna as local tensions in the sector rise with the specter of an ultranationalist faction on the planet Stenos maneuvering to take control of the Emperorship while the health of Emperor Hautrn continues to decline. Diplomat Senator Heron Bablon from the Dimean Sector said this outside the Senate Building,

Quan Regal: What is your stance on deploying an ambassador to a sector embroiled in an internal conflict, especially when the Republic’s economy is reeling from the severe impact of the D’Astan Sector’s bank collapse?

Senator Bablon: I am aware that my War Hawk party colleagues were adamant about sending this ambassador. The only reason we are dispatching anyone is because a self-appointed paramilitary group, acting as the Thanium Sector’s law enforcement, managed to persuade our Jedi allies to champion their cause to us. It seems imprudent to divert attention to a crisis that doesn’t concern us directly, especially when we are grappling with a significant surge in unemployment and a resurgent homelessness crisis domestically.

Quan Regal: Isn’t it accurate to say that part of this issue stems from the Republic Senate’s decision over the past century to lessen its surveillance of a quarantine around the planet Stenos, and the current crisis is a reaction to a perceived threat from that planet, which the Republic pledged to safeguard?

Senator Bablon: Our Republic is not the same government that made those agreements back in, say, 40ABY? The Yuuzhan Vong, the establishment of the Galactic Alliance, the succession war against the Commonwealth, the Imperium… Our government has undergone so many profound changes, both literally and figuratively, that it is unreasonable to expect us to uphold the commitments of an old Republic that has been assimilated and subsequently fragmented from larger multinational alliance networks and governments.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee has approved a one-time compensation for individuals who held personal savings accounts in the D’Astan Legacy Bank, up to a limit of 1.5 million credits. This measure is aimed at ensuring that families who may have lost their jobs due to the economic downturn still have access to funds until they can secure new employment. This is a significant step towards mitigating the financial impact of the crisis on ordinary citizens.

Reporting from Coruscant, this is Quan Regal of the Associated Presses.