Also on December 1, Japan, on the other side of the ocean, after another interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan in November, the Nikkei 225 index still maintained an upward posture in the shock, and broke through the 40,000 mark in the afternoon of this day

By the end of the afternoon local time, the Nikkei 225 index was finally fixed at 40,039 points.

As Japan cheered about the record-breaking moment, a piece of Wall Street gossip quickly began to spread.

It is said that, according to very reliable sources, Cersei Capital, which has been attracting the attention of the financial community in recent months, has actually secretly withdrawn from the Japanese market.

All of the portfolios of financial securities held by Cersei Capital Sub-Funds 1 to 5 in relation to the Japanese market were packaged and sold by Simon Westeros to a Japanese consortium. Therefore, many hedge funds that followed Cersei Capital's operations around the Japanese market during this period were not actually following Simon Westeros, but following the Japanese government!

In the past few months, at least tens of billions of dollars of money have been following Cersei Capital to chase the Japanese stock market in the financial markets. Therefore, everyone understands what this will mean if the rumors are true.

The news was released after the Japanese stock market closed on Friday, and it was still Friday morning here in North America because of the time difference.

The Lehman Brothers team had planned to let the rumours ferment the following weekend so that there would be enough panic before the market opened next Monday. However, the news spread far faster than Lehman Brothers imagined, just one day, not only Wall Street, but to be precise, everyone who should know and who should not know.

The first thing that came to mind when the local media in North America heard the news was to contact the relevant people of Cersei Capital to confirm the authenticity of the news.

Immediately, many media discovered that Simon Westeros was not in North America, and even James Raybould, the president of Westeros, was far away in Europe, and Janet Johnston, another important figure in Cersei Capital, could not be contacted. Attempts to reach out to Daenerys Entertainment executives on the West Coast also failed to get any helpful response.

In contrast to the media, some investment bank executives and even top government officials have tried to reach Simon Westeros, but have also failed to reach Simon himself. James Raybould, who can be contacted, is also an ominous cliché, which is undoubtedly a very obvious acquiescence.

So, while the news spread faster than the Lehman Brothers team expected, there was one thing they really didn't miscalculate.

Panic began to spread.

The goal of Cersei Capital is too obvious, there are too many insiders, and there are all kinds of connections that are difficult to hide during the period, Simon did not think that this matter could be concealed forever from the beginning, and the Japanese obviously did not expect so, and the most important clause of the agreement reached by the two sides was actually that after the Japanese stock market turned, Simon was not involved in shorting the Japanese stock market.

Athens, Greece.

Because it was too cold in London at this time, Simon and Janet only lived there for three days, and the woman couldn't stand it, so the two flew together to Athens, the capital of Greece, on the Mediterranean Sea.

When news came from North America about the leak of Cersei Capital 1-5, Simon and Janet had just returned from Johnston's private island in the Aegean Sea, resting in their mansion in a wealthy mountain area north of Athens, and planning to leave for Finland next Monday.

Westeros' acquisition team has negotiated the final contract details with Nokia, and the two sides will sign next Monday.

Because he had expected this day, Simon was not surprised, and when he had planned to remain silent as planned, at noon on Sunday Athens time, the surprise visit of Haruo Maekawa, the former president of the Bank of Japan, whom he met in Melbourne at the end of June, interrupted Simon's leisurely stay.

Haruo Maekawa and his entourage of four people, in addition to himself, Yoko Kosugi, the 'gift' that Simon has always refused, still follows, and the reason for the introduction is the translator of Maekawa and others, and the other two are Haruo Maekawa's assistants.

After a brief greeting from everyone, Simon led Maekawa and his party to the terrace in the backyard of the mansion.

The 6-acre mansion is also built on a hillside, with a purpose-built terrace overlooking the city of Athens, but it's too far from the sea to see the sea level. However, since it can be a wealthy area, the view is naturally excellent.

Haruo Maekawa didn't have the interest to enjoy the beautiful scenery, Simon, Janet, Maekawa and Yoko Kosugi sat down at the round table, waiting for the maid to serve coffee, and Haruo Maekawa, who was obviously tired, cheered up and smiled: "Congratulations first, Simon, that "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" game, it seems to be selling well during this time." ”

Simon took a sip of his coffee, smiled and nodded, "Thank you." ”

"I found out in advance before I came, Yamauchi's royalty system for Nintendo over the years is really a bit excessive, since Daenerys Entertainment intends to enter the field of video games, and has achieved such excellent results, I think Nintendo should give Blizzard Studios a special place overseas in addition to companies such as Capcom and Konami. ”

Nintendo's royalty system simply means that the content of game manufacturers is censored, and a royalty equivalent to the license fee is drawn from each game cartridge.

In addition, Nintendo also has a monopoly on the production of game cartridges, which further compresses the profit margins of game manufacturers.

Because six game companies such as Capcom and Konami were the first to become Nintendo's game content suppliers, after the rise of Nintendo, these six companies were granted a preferential policy, simply put, Capcom and other companies deliberately produced game cartridges on their own, and the royalties they needed to pay were much lower than ordinary game manufacturers who could not enjoy special offers.

Daenerys Entertainment released the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" video game last month, the cartridge costs $60, counting the cassette production cost and royalty, Nintendo has to take $20, minus the profits of channel providers and other aspects, Daenerys Entertainment can only get about 30% of the gross profit from each cassette cartridge.

In comparison, companies such as Capcom and Konami can achieve 50% gross profit per box of game cartridges because of their preferential policies.

Nancy had expected the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game to make $100 million in profits for the company in the next year, but that number could increase by at least 50% if Nintendo received a special offer.

Simon couldn't help but be a little surprised that Haruko Maekawa was making such a huge bargaining chip with almost no foreshadowing, and he didn't suspect that Haruo Maekawa was making empty promises. Although Nintendo's president, Yamauchi, is strong, Japanese companies are basically under the control of various consortia, and Nintendo is no exception.

If the top management of the Japanese consortium puts pressure, no matter how strong Yamauchi is, he can only obediently comply.

Nintendo can maintain its heyday for at least another five years, and such a special spot could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for Daenerys Entertainment.

However, Simon's face did not show too much emotion, and he did not immediately accept Haruo Maekawa's promise, but said: "Actually, I still very much approve of Nintendo's royalty system." ”

Haruko Maekawa heard Simon say this, realized that he was acting too eagerly, and said in the tone of the young man in front of him: "This surprises me a little, Simon, there have been people criticizing Yamauchi's decision in recent years. Last year, two other concession manufacturers broke with Nintendo because of this. ”

Simon said: "If there were no constraints, many business sectors would boom and decay rapidly, just like the Atari collapse in the past." Nintendo's system is a kind of constraint on the market, which can make the video game field move towards a sustainable and healthy development state. In all, there is nothing wrong with Nintendo's system, and those manufacturers who break with Nintendo will be the same if they have the opportunity to become the rule-makers. ”

Haruo Maekawa nodded and asked with a smile, "Simon, what about you?"

"Of course I'm the same," Simon said, "and anyone has the ambition to become a rule-maker, but most people don't have that strength." ”

Haruo Maekawa suddenly asked, "Simon, do you want to defeat Nintendo?"

Simon shook his head with a smile and said, "Daenerys Entertainment will not set foot in the console field, we will focus on the development of game content." However, both Atari and Nintendo have proven to be lucrative in the console space, an industry that is destined to welcome a lot of new players, and Nintendo's sluggishness in the new generation of consoles is notoriously low, with Sega's 32-bit console being launched for almost a year now, and Nintendo's SFC continues to stall. Therefore, it is destined to decay, and this decay is only because of its own lack of progress, not because of the royalty system. ”

Simon said this, but Apple was in his mind.

In the previous life, Apple's sales of APP software was actually an imitation of Nintendo's royalty system.

On the other hand, compared to Nintendo's lack of progress, Apple has always been able to surpass the Android field, which is also destined to be difficult for the Android camp to compete with Apple.

"I'll relay your words to Yamauchi," Haruo Maekawa nodded, took a sip of the coffee in front of him, and began to get down to business: "Simon, I'm here this time in the hope that you can make some public statements. ”

Simon nodded, waiting for Haruo Maekawa to continue.

Haruo Maekawa said: "We have found out, and the news came from Lehman Brothers, a subsidiary of American Express. The situation in North America and Asia has been terrible in the last two days, and we hope that you will publicly make statements about the Japanese economy in some media. ”

Simon said: "What about Cersei Capital's No. 1 to No. 5 sub-funds?"

"This is also an important point, and we want you to tell the media that you sold the portfolio of Cersei Capital 1 to 5 in June, but then the Japanese stock market did not decline for half a year, which is enough to show that the Japanese economy is more dynamic than many people predicted. ”

Simon didn't care about Haruo Maekawa's unknowingly advancing the time for Cersei Capital No. 1 to No. 5 sub-funds to change hands to June, strictly speaking, this is probably true, the two sides did confirm the deal at the end of June: "Actually, Maekawa, you should understand that my current statement is of little significance. Now that Lehman Brothers has released the news, he must have built up a large number of short positions, and perhaps, many financial institutions have already done so in advance. ”

"But there are also more long capitals that have not left the market," Haruo Maekawa continued: "Simon, as long as you take a stand, those funds that still maintain a long state will definitely make a force." We will also experience maintaining market stability. ”

Simon said: "Maekawa, you should know that there is indeed a very serious bubble in the Japanese economy, and a turn in the Japanese stock market is inevitable. ”

Haruo Maekawa nodded, "I understand, Simon, all we're doing now is hoping that this turn will be gentler and give us more time to relax." ”

Simon Mo weighed the coffee cup in his hand.

The Japanese stock market broke through 40,000 points, which has obviously peaked, and it is impossible to continue to rise, and the decline is inevitable.

In my memory, it took four months for the Japanese stock market to fall from a high of more than 38,000 points to 28,000 points, which was indeed quite modest, and also showed that the Japanese government's rescue measures at that time were very effective.

Now, if he does nothing, with the panic that is now accumulating in the market, even if the Japanese stock market has a limit on the rise and fall and does not have a Black Monday like in North America in 1987, it is likely that it will be a crash-like streak after the opening of the market next week.

Once this happens, some hedge funds that were 'misguided' by Cersei Capital in the early stage are likely to lose a lot, and Simon will inevitably be blamed at that time.

On the other hand, if Simon now shows some bullish inclination on the Japanese market, delays the decline in the Japanese stock market, and gives the hedge funds time to flee, it is actually redeeming the target he may be targeted. Now that the Japanese stock market is certain to go down, there is nothing wrong with him doing this just to let those bears make money later.

With such a decision, Simon raised his head again and looked at Haruko Maekawa and said, "So, what should I do?"

Haruo Maekawa beckoned to the two assistants who were not far away to come over, took out a document from the handbag they brought and handed it over, saying, "We have prepared some materials, you can take a look at them first." In addition, we have already spoken to various media outlets in Japan and North America, and as long as the manuscript is confirmed, it will be in the headlines of many newspapers and magazines early tomorrow morning. Other than that. If you're willing to be interviewed on TV, that's even better. ”

Simon picked up the materials and looked at them, shook his head when he heard the words, and said, "Forget the interview, I don't really want to appear on TV." ”

"Then, as long as you can express your position in the newspaper," Haruo Maekawa was not reluctant, and took the initiative to say: "In addition, all the press releases we have completed will be handed over to you in advance to ensure that there will be no unexpected disagreements between the two of us." ”

Simon nodded.

At the same time, I also understand that the Japanese are so cautious, in fact, they are also worried that he will suddenly regret and not admit it. ‘