Oregon (and I think San Fran) just implemented a "Shipping policy" (
Oregon LCO Effects - Second post) and I think it's exactly the kind of thing which should be spread through out the game. I'm pretty sure that other Chapters have similar ideas (Traverse City has an "economics package" of some sort) but I'm not familiar with them.
These kinds of systems are fun and offer a way to draw a little bit of coin out of the system, but it's only part of a functional solution. Don't get me wrong, I like these systems, I just think they're too small. What the Alliance really needs to control its economic-monster is a Regional or National trade structure of some sort. Otherwise, we're heading the same way as industrialized China: a downtrodden lower class; cash-rich but asset poor, swelling middle class; small upper class who controls/collects the majority of designer items. The base problem is the Alliance economy is designed for a small group of players who turnover money at a standard rate; with the huge population and the staggering hoards, the savings far outweighs the spending and we get the lopsided balance between the "haves" and the "have-nots" which makes everyone so grumpy.
