Chapter 4166

The Minister of Propaganda and the Minister of Finance had a war of words. One side emphasized that to get good propaganda results, one must be willing to spend money; the other side emphasized that it is impossible to give such a high propaganda budget, otherwise the financial situation will definitely become very bad.

Finally, Strange made a decision: "Increase the propaganda budget of the propaganda department, give as much as they want. But I must see the results, understand?"

The Minister of Propaganda nodded vigorously and said: "I will definitely not let you down. Within three days, the propaganda of environmental protection work will spread throughout the universe, and everyone will know about this, and even be able to say our environmental protection policy."

Strange nodded with satisfaction. The Minister of Finance looked at him and stopped talking. After the morning meeting ended, when Strange returned to his office, the Minister of Finance followed him behind him.

"Sorcerer Supreme, please forgive me for being blunt, although I am not from a financial background, I can at least read reports. The financial situation of the Interstellar Council is very pessimistic..."

"Knock knock!"

"Please come in!"

Schiller walked in with another stack of reports. Seeing the Minister of Finance, he was a bit surprised, then said: "Oh, Mr. Minister, I was just about to go find you. Have you seen the Interstellar News Network?"

"Dr. Schiller, I have heard of your name for a long time." The Minister stood up, somewhat awkwardly reaching out to shake hands with Schiller. Their race's etiquette is not shaking hands, but he saw on the interstellar internet that humans shake hands when they meet for the first time. And Schiller also walked up, shook his hand, and said: "I didn't expect to see a Leta star person here. How is your emperor? How is the princess?"

"Her Highness the Princess is much better, thanks to your guidance. She finally abandoned that damn bastard. The day they announced their breakup, the entire Leta star was sensational. It's a pity you don't want to publish your name, but the Leta royal family speaks highly of you..."

Strange recalled that Schiller seemed to have mentioned to him that during the time he went to the universe before, he provided psychological counseling for many socialites of advanced civilizations. I suppose this Leta star princess is one of them.

"Let's skip the small talk," Schiller put the documents on the table and said, "I went to consult the Interstellar News Network, the price of the headline banner scrolling, estimated to be around 6 million general coins."

Strange gasped. Interstellar general coins are very valuable. If you use Earth as an analogy, the currency value is roughly equivalent to the Euro, or even higher, because this is the currency of the three major empires. 6 million general coins is a very astonishing astronomical figure.

The Minister of Finance sighed somewhat distressedly and said: "Our quarterly financial budget is about 80 million, and he used 6 million at once, and he has to continue to use it later. In this way, the financial deficit will be very terrifying."

"Sorcerer Supreme, that Minister of Propaganda is doing it on purpose. He is a person of the three major empires. He wants to use this method to hollow out our financial budget. It's a pity that he completed the work you assigned to him, and he can achieve good results. We really don't have any reason to cut the budget."

Strange had already seen that this Minister of Finance really didn't understand financial work. Except for sighing, it seemed he had no other way, so he looked at Schiller.

Schiller was very surprised and said: "6 million is already a lot?"

The Minister of Finance thought he didn't understand the currency value of general coins, so he said: "Yes, 6 million is a large sum of money. And choosing the scrolling banner of the Interstellar News Network is very uneconomical. That website has always asked for a high price."

"That is to say, the Interstellar News Network's asking price is not a problem?"

"Yes, this is indeed their real quote, otherwise I wouldn't have approved the budget." The Minister of Finance nodded.

"That is to say, scrolling for 10 days is 60 million, and scrolling for 100 days is 600 million?"

"If it is a long-term contract, there may be some discounts, but the price will not be much different. This website is very black, relying on being the largest news website to ask for prices. However, their backer is also the three major empires, and no one can move them."

"Then isn't the budget also allocated by the three major empires?"

"Yes, this is equivalent to them taking money out of their left pocket and putting it into their right pocket. Only we who work underneath have to face the pressure of financial deficit. They don't care at all, and I suspect they are deliberately asking for high prices to impose financial pressure on us, so as to prevent the implementation of environmental protection work. After all, if we continue to promote it according to this trend, we will soon have no money."

"Then what about New Ring Video?"

"Oh, that's a video website. There are many anchors releasing various videos on it, some recording life, some game videos, and travel videos, etc., which have always been very popular. The anchors there ask for even higher prices. They ask for hundreds of thousands for a few advertisement words at every turn. I'm really afraid he will send me a budget list of tens of millions later."

"Sign it for him," Schiller said.

"What?"

"No matter how much budget list he sends over later, you must pretend to sign it very easily."

"Then do we really want to allocate funds to him?"

"Allocate, give him as much money as he wants."

"But, but, we don't have much cash."

"Isn't there a general budget? Isn't there military expenditure?"

The Minister of Finance was directly shocked and said: "Military expenditure?! But that is the three major empires..."

"Appropriate it," Schiller said decisively, "Whether it is cash for general budget, military expenditure, or money for living expenses, give it all to him."

"Oh, I understand," the Minister of Finance reacted and said, "As long as this is done, the Ministry of Armed Forces will definitely go to find trouble with him."

Strange couldn't watch it anymore and said: "You said it yourself, the Minister of Propaganda and the Minister of Armed Forces are both people of the three major empires. They won't find trouble with each other. The Minister of Armed Forces will come to find you. He will come to question you why you approved the budget randomly."

Now the Minister of Finance was extremely nervous. He took out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat and stammered: "Then I can't... Sorcerer Supreme, it's not that I don't want to, but the Ministry of Armed Forces has an army. The Minister of Armed Forces only needs to lead a patrol army to turn around the Leta star, which will definitely cause panic..."

"I can guarantee that Leta star is fine," Schiller said, "Even if you don't believe me, you have to believe the Sorcerer Supreme, he will protect your mother star."

The Minister of Finance looked at Strange again. Strange glanced at Schiller and had to nod: "Yes, I won't let him do that, don't worry."

The Minister of Finance breathed a sigh of relief, but still said: "But I don't understand why we want to do this."

"You said it yourself, money is taken from their left pocket to their right pocket. Anyway, it is their money on the left and right. It is not bad to put it back into their pocket. But we can take this opportunity to fill a big pit."

The Minister of Finance was still a bit confused. Schiller handed the document in his hand to him and said: "Do the accounts according to this."

The Minister of Finance picked it up and looked at it. He gasped and said: "Is this really okay? Won't this be too exaggerated?"

"Just do it."

The Minister of Finance left swaying. Strange didn't see the information, so he said: "You let him do fake accounts? Can he do it clearly?"

"I have already done it for him, he just needs to sign it," Schiller said.

"Who do you want to pit again? Minister of Propaganda?"

"I am not pitting them, I am helping them," Schiller smiled and said.

A calm morning passed, but after the lunch break, the Supreme Intelligence came again, but this time he came specifically to find Schiller.

"Dr. Schiller, regarding what you said last time, about being able to save the Council's financial deficit..."

"Don't worry, Mr. Secretary-General, I am working on it," Schiller said without raising his head, "There should be results tonight, just wait and see."

The Supreme Intelligence was a bit uneasy. The key is that he didn't see what Schiller was doing, but Schiller was so confident, which means something he didn't know happened.

Schiller pointed to the chair in front of him. After the Supreme Intelligence sat down in front of him, he thought about it and said: "The source of the financial deficit is very complex. The key is that in the past hundreds of years, we have conducted thousands of emergency appropriations, all of which were issued in the form of loans. Interest plus late fees rolled into what it is today."

Schiller knew that the Supreme Intelligence seemed to be trying to explain, but he didn't need to explain. Schiller was too familiar with this set.

The financial appropriation of the Interstellar Council is paid by the three major empires, but the three major empires collect taxes, and the civilizations under their jurisdiction have to pay them money. When they collect taxes, they collect their own, and then take out some each quarter to maintain the operation of the Interstellar Council.

And if the budget is not enough, for example, some emergency events occurred this year that need to be solved by the Interstellar Council, these all cost money. Before the next quarter's funds arrive, the money is spent, but things have to be solved, then emergency appropriation will be carried out.

It's just that emergency appropriation is not giving money, but borrowing money. The three major empires lend money to the Interstellar Council, which has to calculate interest and needs to be repaid on time. Once it cannot be repaid, there will be late fees.

Since the establishment of the Interstellar Council, I don't know how many emergency appropriations have been carried out, constantly accumulating, eventually leading to a trillion-dollar deficit.

There must be many people who think this system is very ridiculous, because the Interstellar Council itself was built by the three major empires to stabilize their rule, which is equivalent to the knife in the hands of the three major empires. When this knife goes to cut vegetables, it actually has to pay for itself, that is, ask the three major empires to borrow money again to complete its own duties.

What is even more outrageous is that the three major empires actually lend it. Originally, the funds of the Interstellar Council come from the three major empires, and the repayment is also using funds, which is equivalent to borrowing money from oneself, and then using one's own money to repay one's own money, which sounds very absurd and unnecessary.

Many people will feel that since taxes have been collected, maintaining cosmic peace is a responsibility, but in fact it is not. It is better to say it is protection money than tax. Whether the three major empires maintain cosmic order or not, this money has to be paid. If you can't pay it, you have to pay materials, otherwise it is impossible to survive at all.

So the three major empires don't worry about accusations of corruption of tax fees. If you pay this money to me, it is mine. Maintaining cosmic peace is friendship, not reason. Making this system to maintain cosmic order is essentially because they also want to rest and recuperate. But in general, the three major empires don't need to pay attention to interstellar observation. They can do whatever they want.

Since this is the case, why spend so much effort to make some loan systems, and now they are very eager to balance the accounts? There must be a reason for it. In essence, the three major empires are using their own future money.

Normally, maintaining the Interstellar Council shouldn't cost a lot of money, and many things shouldn't be handled by the Interstellar Council. But it may be because of trouble, or to improve the status of the Interstellar Council, so all things are handled by the Interstellar Council. Then the budget set before may not be enough, so more money must be invested.

But in fact, these things don't need to be handled by the Interstellar Council, and this money doesn't need to be spent. To cover this up with a fig leaf, it is said that this money was borrowed by the Interstellar Council.

That is to say, now give money to the Interstellar Council, and then repay the money when the next quarter's budget comes down, which is equivalent to a savings. But it is clear that the Interstellar Council has never repaid it, and it is borrowing more and more, which has become a typical bad debt.