The Federal Republic of Osterhalten is a massive, socially progressive nation, ruled by Wilbur DeVoss with a fair hand, and remarkable for its smutty television, multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic population of 1.616 billion Osterhaltians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Dreamcliff. The average income tax rate is 72.7%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Osterhaltenian economy, worth 97.2 trillion dollars a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is led by the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Uranium Mining, and Book Publishing. Average income is 60,134 dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Hostage-takers offer loyalty scheme points for prompt payment, the voyages of obsolete star-trekking satellites on deliberate escape orbits are only just beginning, bad punctuation has come to a full stop, and half-submerged and flooded seaside hotels are technically still next to the beach. Crime is totally unknown. Osterhalten's national animal is the reindeer, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Osterhalten is ranked 276,498^th in the world and 76^th in Esportiva for Largest Cheese Export Sector, scoring -9.63 on the Mozzarella Productivity Index.