On September 14, 2008, at 8 a.m. US time, the tired Wall Street bankers returned to the New York Fed building!

When Andy received the summoning call, he was still sleeping with Ivana in his arms, and in order not to be deliberately targeted in the next feast, he could only reluctantly get up from the gentle countryside and rush to the Federal Reserve Building.

When he came to the conference room, the meeting had already started for half an hour, and there was nothing else to do in this meeting, it was to slaughter the big household!

Barclays has a plan to acquire Lehman, but it lacks $33 billion in non-performing asset financing, and more than a dozen giant crocodiles in the list are collectively raised!

"The plan to acquire Lehman has been approved by the board of directors of Barclays, and now it only has to wait for the approval of the FSA in five hours... ”

Andy looked at Paulson with a faint smile on his face, as well as the gloomy expressions on the faces of Lehman CEO Fulder, who seemed a little relieved, and the predators who were forced to raise funds.

"And what about Barclays' promise of a guarantee from the U.S. government or the Federal Reserve, will you agree?"

With a faint smile on the corner of his mouth, Andy leaned back in the boss's chair a little lazily, and asked very abruptly, looking at Paulson and Geithner in the chief position.

As his words fell, there was silence in the conference room, where there was still a little muttering, and Forde looked at Paulson and Geithner with pleading eyes, and the others also looked at them with their faces sunk into the water.

"The Fed will not bail out Lehman Brothers and provide financial security!" Geithner said with a blank expression.

Paulson's eyes narrowed slightly, his expression was indifferent, and he ignored Forder's expectant gaze, and said coldly: "I still say the same thing, don't expect the government to save you, you are the protagonist of the problem!" ”

After finishing speaking, he got up with Geithner and left the conference room, and the rest of the group of predators also looked at Forde, who was distracted and numb with different expressions, and stood up and left one by one.

When Andy walked past Fuld with an expressionless face, he reached out and patted him on the shoulder, and said in a clear voice: "Think of other ways, there is no guarantee, don't have too much hope for the British!"

"They need to find a scapegoat!" Forde didn't look back, didn't get up, just muttered a word in a hoarse voice, and then stopped talking, his elbows propped up on the conference table, his hands crossed over his face.

Andy shook his head, left the conference room with Al, left the Fed building without stopping, and got into the car, Andy said to Kenny, "Go to Lehman Headquarters Building!"

Alvitatre glanced at the big boss in surprise, but quickly thought of something, couldn't help but smile lightly, took out a folder from his briefcase and handed it to Andy and said: "Boss, this is the list of Lehman's high-quality assets compiled by the think tank, as well as our optional targets." ”

Andy nodded slightly, took the folder and opened it, and after a quick look, the content listed in the information made his expression more and more solemn.

Due to Lehman's widely recognized business capabilities, the company has a customer base that includes many world-renowned companies, such as Alcatel, AOL, Time Warner, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, NEC, PepsiCo, Shell, Sumitomo Bank, Wal-Mart... and other two or three hundred international multinational companies and the world's largest enterprises.

Truth be told, Lehman Brothers has a proven track record of leadership in the areas in which it operates, and was once one of the world's leading underwriters and dealers of equities and bonds.

At the same time, the company also serves as an important financial advisor to many multinational companies and governments around the world, and has many employees recognized by the industry as the best quality of international level.

"Lehman's North American core business, as well as its equity underwriting business and M&A advisory business, should be staring at a lot of people, and I'm afraid there will be a lot of competitors at that time!"

Andy closed the folder, frowned, and said with some concern, although what he said was only the two targets that the think tank listed for him to acquire the asset catalog, but he was the least sure that he could easily annex it, after all, there were too many forces staring at Lehman's fat.

"Yes, according to our analysis, there are two companies that are most eager for this part of the business, one is Barclays Bank of the United Kingdom, and the other is Nomura Securities of the foot basin, if we want to successfully win this part of the assets, we can only start first!"

Andy glanced at Al with a grim expression, groaned, nodded with a solemn expression, and then lowered the car window, pointed to the Lehman headquarters building on the side of the road and asked: "745 Seventh Avenue, a 32-story building with an area of about 1 million square feet, was purchased from Morgan Stanley for about $700 million in 2001.

Even with the current real estate market, a conservative estimate is at $1,000 per square foot, Al, you say that I package the acquisition of Lehman headquarters, major North American European operations, and two data centers, and Forder, in the mood of betrayal, resentment, self-destruction, will he agree to my request?"

Al pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, groaned and replied: "That needs to be added to the fire boss to completely detonate the negative emotions in Forder's heart, and in the case that he can't see the slightest future, in order to retaliate, he may agree." ”

"Hehe, I know that Lehman is up and down, and he still hopes for the help of Xiaofeishou, but they don't know that now Paulson has got the power he wants, and Xiaofeishou's influence on him has become dispensable, do you believe it, even if Xiaofeishou now orders Paulson to rescue Lehman, Paulson will refuse with various reasons. ”

Andy raised the window and said with a sneer, but Alvitatre remained silent.

Andy's words are not wrong at all, and now the influence of Xiaofei shoes has been reduced to the lowest point, after all, in the election year, Xiao Feishou, who is about to leave the White House, is also bent on stabilizing the mess, stabilizing the mess, and then throwing it to the next president, as long as the US economy does not collapse in his office.

At around 1 p.m. New York time, Geithner received a call from McCarthy, chairman of the UK's financial services authority, the UK's top financial supervisory authority.

"We are not sure that Barclays has sufficient capital to pay for Lehman's risk, and the law does not allow Barclays to endorse Lehman's transaction until the shareholder meeting votes... So, good luck. McCarthy rejected the merger with a typical "British euphemism."

A gloomy Geithner hung up the phone and went to Paulson's makeshift office in the Federal Reserve Building, and as soon as he pushed the door open, he said to Paulson, "We're finished!"

。。。。。。

"Barclays has given up, Lehman has no buyers. We can only accept reality and do our best. The British played a trick on us. Paulson blurted out without thinking in front of all the CEOs and financial tycoons in the room, including Andy, with anger and frustration on his face that was hard to distinguish between the real and the fake.

"We have to come together to deal with this ... ”

Andy, who had been spinning the pen in his hand, was not in the mood to listen to Paulson's speech, and his eyes swept over the faces of everyone in the conference room, except for Fore, whose face was pale and his expression was numb, and none of the others present seemed to be shocked by the bad news.

Andy even saw a hint of relief in their moment, as they didn't have to come up with billions of dollars to participate in an uncertain rescue operation. But when they came to their senses, they became agitated.

Soon, the room spiraled out of control and became a mess, and they all stood up to express their opinions, pointing in unison to the simple question. 'How do you prepare for the market after Monday's opening?'

“。。。 An emergency trading session must be set up so that everyone can close their positions in Lehman-related assets!"

The CEO of Goldman Sachs had a gloomy face, and he stood there without the slightest scruple and said loudly, letting the messy conference room be quiet for a while, Paulson did not stop it, but nodded in agreement with the proposal, and no one paid attention to the red-faced and trembling Fauld, even if his eyes could almost breathe fire.

"Bang Bang—"

Andy was expressionless, and continuously tapped the table top of the conference table with a signature pen, and when everyone focused their eyes, Andy stood up with a cold face, sorted out the placket of his suit, looked around, and said in an extremely indifferent voice.

"The collapse of Lehman Brothers is the beginning of a catastrophe! The collapse of a major financial institution will trigger a nationwide ripple effect – far beyond our control. It is conceivable that credit will be tightened, strapped businesses will lay off workers on a large scale, and foreclosure rates will rise at an unprecedented rate: millions of Americans will lose their livelihoods and homes. It will take many, many years for us to climb out of this quagmire ... ”

Andy didn't care that his words turned the warm atmosphere in the conference room into a dead silence, and as soon as the words fell, he turned around and walked out, and the five think tank members led by Al quickly followed and left, leaving behind a room of financial predators who looked at each other and had complicated expressions.