PLEX: Intervention

Watching through the EVE Economy lecture at Fanfest I found it interesting that the invisible hand wasn't so invisible. So first lets take a look at what was happening and then piece together what CCP did to intervene on the PLEX market.

The Problem:
The PLEX market took a huge jump back in early fall last year. This not only concerned the player base but also CCP as you look closer at the graph you see volume started to drop. So as Dr. Eyjo, Eve's Chief Economist, was concerned and decided to take action. I would like to point out here CCP took action because volume dropped not because of the price increase. What if the volume stayed the same or rose and prices continued to rise would CCP take action then?

The Reason:
A change late in the summer to factional warfare created an increase in isk and LP. Not isk being created but isk you were able to earn.

The Fix:

EVE Central Bank may, or may not, take actions to intervene with the PLEX market if its stability is severely threatened.
- Important to note that it does not mean that there is a specific target for PLEX prices or money supply in the future

CCP by Dr. Eyjo request decided to take action. The facet from faction warfare was fixed but the markets still had problems.

The How:
CCP took 2000 PLEXs and injected it into the market. Where did these PLEXs come from? From permanently banned accounts. So in effect they didn't just create PLEXs out of thin air. Dr. Eyjo stated that CCP tries to keep a stock pile on hand just in case a situation like this occurs.

The Result:
The PLEX market stabilized and as the faction warfare fix went in to effect the price slowly dropped back down to previous levels from the summer before and volume rose back to previous levels.

Conclusion:
The market was not inflated. It was a problem with the game mechanics. Interesting turn of events if I do say so myself.