After a few days in the capital, Lei Ming had to take a flight back to the United States.

It's not a big deal, Lei Ming doesn't want to go back to the United States, because he always feels a little uncomfortable getting along with the Lei family.

However, this time, the old man Lei Yi is going to hold a family meeting to pass on the position of the head of the Lei family and the chairman of the Lei Group to Lei Ming's father Lei Yang, and Lei Yang is also ready to hand over the position of president to him, so he naturally can't be absent.

According to the rules of the Lei family, after the inheritance, all the shares of the Lei Group will be transferred to Lei Yang's name, and Lei Yang's brothers and sisters can only share part of the old man's private property. At the same time, the Lei Group will take out 500 million US dollars to each branch of the Lei family for a special dividend, and all the descendants of the Lei family can get a dividend.

Special dividends are a measure taken by the Lei family in order to take care of the descendants from falling down, but with the continuous increase of descendants, the Lei Group can not take care of it, and only when the group is profitable or the family owner inherits it, it will be implemented. This is the seventh special dividend in the more than 100 years inherited by the Lei family, and it is also the largest one.

The Lei Group has been controlled by the head of the family for all generations, which seems to be private property, but in fact it is the public property of the family, and it is only to prevent family infighting and decline that it is inherited by the head of the family. The head of the family is responsible for the operation and inheritance, and can receive dividends every year according to the operation of the group, and the dividends are the private property that the head of the family can freely distribute. Of course, people are indispensable to selfishness, originally the descendants of the Lei family had the right to compete for the inheritance group, but in fact, each generation was inherited by the head of the family. The head of the family holds all the shares, which also makes the houses helpless about this situation. After inheriting the group, the successive generations of family owners have not forgotten each house, in addition to special dividends, they will also support the development of each house in some aspects.

After the family meeting, there was also a Lei Group Inheritance Conference, which invited many celebrities from all over the world to witness.

Compared with China, which has just felt the chill of the financial crisis, the American people are already suffering from the subprime mortgage crisis.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the only quasi-governmental agency in the United States qualified to determine the economic cycle, announced on December 1 the "final judgment" of the beleaguered American economy: the US economy entered a recession in December 2007, and this recession may be the worst since World War II.

In February 2007, HSBC announced that its North American home loan mortgage business had suffered huge losses, writing down $10.8 billion of related assets, and the subprime mortgage crisis began.

In April 2007, New Century Financial Corporation, the second-largest subprime mortgage company in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection due to its inability to repay its debts, laying off more than 50% of its workforce.

Subsequently, more than 30 U.S. subprime mortgage companies went out of business.

In August 2007, Bear Stearns, the fifth largest investment bank in the United States, announced the collapse of two hedge funds, and then Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, ****, UBS, etc. successively broke out huge losses.

In mid-March 2008, Bear Stearns was acquired by **** due to insufficient liquidity and asset losses.

Panic among investors began to spread.

After that, the subprime mortgage crisis intensified, and Wall Street as a whole fell into a liquidity crisis.

By September, Wall Street's collapse was at its peak.

Merrill Lynch, the third-largest investment bank in the United States, was acquired by Bank of America, and Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States, failed to negotiate a takeover and filed for bankruptcy protection.

The U.S. government injected $200 billion into the forced takeover of real estate mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The U.S. government injected $85 billion to rescue AIG, a major insurance group.

HSD Mutual, the largest savings bank in the United States, collapsed.

In 2008, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of the United States insured depositors for less than $100,000, which means that if depositors deposit more than $100,000 and the bank fails, depositors can only get $100,000 insurance at most, and everything else will be lost.

The biggest savings banks have failed, and the other smaller banks have naturally failed, and many Asians who like to save have suffered huge losses.

With the shrinkage of deposits, the danger of those without deposits, as corporate profits have fallen sharply, companies continue to lay off employees, and the number of people applying for unemployment benefits continues to climb, many people have become difficult.

Shares of General Motors, the largest U.S. automaker, fell to their lowest level in more than 50 years, and bankruptcy looms.

In the midst of the collapse of the financial system, Republicans and Democrats are still struggling with the question of how much to spend on the current Republican Bush Jr. and how much to leave for the next president of the Democratic Party.

It wasn't until October that the $700 billion bailout plan, which had been rejected, passed hard by Congress.

……

Lei Ming took Liu Qian back to the United States together.

Lei Ming and Liu Qian sprinkle dog food in China every day, and the Lei family naturally won't know about it. Lei Ming's parents are also happy to see him fall in love, so Lei Ming took Liu Qian back to the United States together, and one more person to talk to can also make him and the Lei family less embarrassed.

The two took the Lei family's special plane specially sent by Lei Ming's mother to San Francisco.

There is a 16-hour time difference between the capital and San Francisco, and they departed from the capital at 12 noon on the 11th, and after flying for more than 11 hours, they arrived in San Francisco at 7 o'clock in the morning on the 11th.

Lei Ming and Liu Qian slept on the plane for several hours.

When I got to the exit, I saw a handsome young man who was seven or eight points similar to Lei Ming and a sunny girl with a ponytail in the distance.

It was Lei Dong and Lei Li who were sent to pick up Lei Ming and Liu Qian.

When Lei Li saw Lei Ming and his party coming out, she waved her arms happily and shouted, "Big brother." ”

Lei Ming also waved his hand and walked out with Liu Qian, who was a little nervous.

"Big brother. ”

When she arrived, Lei Li happily pounced.

Lei Ming hugged Lei Li who rushed over a little embarrassed, and said with a smile: "Why did you come here." ”

"I want to see my eldest brother and Sister Liu Qian as soon as possible!"

Lei Li also hugged Liu Qian.

"Hello big brother," Lei Dong was a lot more restrained, greeted Lei Ming, and nodded politely to Liu Qian: "Hello." ”

"Hello. ”

Liu Qian also replied with a smile.

Lei Ming patted Lei on the shoulder and said with a smile: "You can call her sister-in-law." ”

"Oh, hello sister-in-law. ”

Lei Dong obediently greeted again.

Liu Qian blushed a little and squeezed the hand that was holding Lei Ming.

Lei Ming nodded with satisfaction and said with a smile: "Let's get in the car and talk." ”

"Okay, eldest brother and sister-in-law, please. ”

When the group arrived outside, there was already a line of cars waiting.

Lei Ming, Liu Qian, Lei Dong, and Lei Li got on a bulletproof and lengthened Mercedes-Benz.

The previous Lei Ming wanted to carry forward the Lei family, and he was usually very majestic, except for Lei Li, the younger generations of the Lei family worshiped Lei Ming with awe. After getting into the car, Lei Dong sat upright.

Lei Ming was sitting lazily, and when he saw Lei Dong sitting in a precarious position, he smiled and said, "Lei Dong, let's not have a meeting, you relax." ”

"Oh. ”

Lei Dong's body relaxed slightly.

Lei Ming smiled helplessly: "Has your job been transferred?"

Lei shook his head and said, "No, my father has been busy lately, so he may not have thought about this matter." ”

He had an internship at his family's agricultural company, and after graduating, he was transferred to a real estate company under the group to experience the cruelty of the financial crisis. However, after Lei Ming analyzed that the subprime mortgage crisis might break out, he persuaded his father to let the group's real estate company liquidate all the projects at the end of 06, and then did not develop new projects, but continued to do market research and wait for the financial crisis to pass.

Lei Dong saw a lot of people in real estate companies who were unable to repay their mortgages and sold their houses at low prices, or were directly taken away by the bank and became homeless, and of course, there were many bankrupt banks, loan companies, and real estate companies......

The market survey made Lei Dong clearly understand the horror of the financial crisis, but it was impossible for him to make results, and he had no chance at all!

The reason why Lei Ming can predict the financial crisis in advance is also related to the Lei family's real estate company.

From 2002 to 2005, the U.S. property market was unprecedentedly hot, housing prices continued to rise, and a large number of real estate companies and mortgage companies appeared. A large amount of credit funds poured into the property market, making the property market even hotter, and housing prices continued to rise.

At the same time, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates from 1% to 5.25% in order to curb inflation.

California, where San Francisco is located, is the most economically developed state in the United States, accounting for 15% of the total economy of the United States, and California Sunshine, Los Angeles Hollywood, and San Francisco Bay Silicon Valley are all world-famous, so housing prices in California have risen earlier and more than most states. In '06, California's real estate market began to decline.

It was through some signs of the real estate market that Lei Ming discovered the possibility of a financial crisis, so he suggested that the Lei family clear the real estate project, and at the same time shrink other businesses to prepare cash for the winter. Then, after determining that the crisis was inevitable, he decisively shorted and made huge profits.

Lei Ming remembers that a few years later there was news that housing prices in the United States had risen to the level before the financial crisis, and said with a smile: "During this time, I have traveled some places in China and learned more about the domestic economy. Compared with domestic real estate, American real estate is chicken ribs, and I would advise my father to put all real estate companies in China. So that you can go to other companies. ”

Lei Ming already has a lot of say in the Lei family, and Lei Dong has not yet completed the internship in various companies, and he didn't ask more, and said honestly: "Thank you, big brother." ”