Is EUIII better than EUII?

[Xiahou]

Yes, that's all I play. Its really aggravating when I sit there to myself wondering how on earth Austria funds a super-gigantic army, full time infrastructure upgrades, has tons of spare cash, AND has zero inflation. Lo and behold(and I've checked this out a multitude of times in different games to make sure it wasn't a one time fluke), when I try and load up the game as Austria/other major powers, they are printing enough cash to create .3 inflation per year, yet their total is still zero.

So did you turn off Lucky Nations when you started the campaign?
"Lucky Nations" is literally an AI cheat for certain nations depending on their historical strength or even just their proximity to you- it grants the AI nation all kinds of bonuses. Turning it off disables those cheats.