| Brentaal_Trade_News | Date: Friday, 16 Mar 2012, 9:53 PM | Message # 1 |
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Decius Shares Up on Acquisition of WESTAR
Decius Industries, the Deralia-based weapons parts manufacturer, saw a boost to its share price in today's trading with the news that it had acquired the weapons manufacturer WESTAR. Trade News analyst Lars Tanfelt explained that the acquisition represents an ambitious move by Decius into the arms market. "Consumers may be pleased to see a drop in the price of WESTAR products if Decius Industries synergizes its production of weapons with its production of components for those weapons," Tanfelt said.
WESTAR is considered a respectable arms manufacturer, but one that makes most of its money on old (or "classic") designs—it hasn't released a new weapon to commercial success since the WESTAR-M5 blaster rifle, which saw heavy use in the Clone Wars. Whether Decius intends to rehabilitate WESTAR, however, or simply have a steady source of income to rely upon, remains to be seen. As of today's close, the market was optimistic.
Senate "Concerned" About "Shady" Drone Designs
A staff member to the Imperial Senate's Defense Committee told the Trade News that the Committee is "concerned" about the proliferation of imitation drone starfighters by "shady" companies such as the minor Outer Rim-based designer Vigilance Technologies, since the rollout of Brentaal's revolutionary Arrowhead drone interceptor design has boosted the market's demand for drones. "What I'm concerned about is that shady companies are going to take advantage of the success of the Arrowhead and sell these knock-offs—which, in some cases, are tens times the lethality of the Arrowhead—to questionable regimes on the Outer Rim," said the source, a staff member to one of the senators on the Defense Committee.
"I'm not concerned about the Arrowhead," he added, "It was submitted to the Committee's scrutiny. But companies like Vigilance and its customers like Sluis Van—former Separatists—are having nothing to do with us. There's no oversight whatsoever, and that worries us." The source also told the Trade News that the Committee's chairman, Senator Oriel (Vjun), was interested in a proposal by Senator Cambrist (Brentaal) to require the Committee's approval of all drone designs.
"I ask that the Defense Committee treat the sale of these drone starfighters, and indeed all drone starfighters, with extra scrutiny," Senator Cambrist said in announcing Brentaal's Arrowhead design three weeks ago, confident that the Arrowhead would meet with the Committee's approval but that "if the Defense Committee doesn't approve of the sale of drone starfighters, they should not be sold."
"[D]rone or droid starfighters must not fall into the wrong hands," the Senator explained.
"That's what we're worried about," the Defense Committee source told the Trade News. "The Clone Wars couldn't have happened without the proliferation of droid starfighters in the private sector. If there's going to be a market for droid starfighters again, there must be strict oversight of it this time." Asked whether that would include retroactive review of drone sales—such as Vigilance's sale of imitation drone designs to Sluis Van—the source wouldn't rule it out. "Sluis Van has used droid starfighters before," the source said.
Government Criticized for "Duty to Die" Pamphlet
The government of Brentaal has come under criticism for a so-called "Duty to Die" pamphlet released by the Culture Department, which recommends that Humans on Brentaal older than 100 standard years "consider a graceful passing from this world," and makes arguments in favor of suicide. Though suicide clinics are common on Brentaal and many Core Worlds, the pamphlet has been criticized by some as "state-sponsored suicide," an accusation that the Culture Department denies.
"The pamphlet presents end-of-life options to concerned citizens," a spokesman for the Department told the Trade News. "It's not just about over-population. With modern medical science, we can live for 150 or more years, but sooner or later we're beset with infirmities, then indignities. It happens to all of us. The responsible thing to do—not just for society but for yourself and your loved ones—is to consider these end-of-life options. 'Give it some thought' is all the pamphlet says."
But many are unconvinced. "They're trying to guilt the eldery into self-rationing their medical care and saving the government money," a concerned reader wrote to the Trade News, noting that with a Human population of 57.2 billion, almost 4 billion of whom over the age of 100, the cost of care is considerable. An official of the ruling House Cambrist denied that there was any financial motivation, and stood by the content of the Culture Department pamphlet. "I'm not going to deny that population management is a priority of this government," the official told the Trade News.
The Culture Department has come under criticism in the past for a "Gender Management Plan" that attempts to set "healthy ratios of male and female Humans" by publishing pamphlets that encourage mothers to carry to term only those children of the favored gender, depending on demographics.
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