No one would believe that the catastrophe about the ruble was an unpremeditated accident, which had been quietly unfolding since Gorbachev's reforms of the Soviet economy.

At the end of the 80s, the Soviet Union opened its financial markets to the West without any precautions, and almost instantly, a large number of foreign banks, investment companies, and even insurance institutions poured into the major cities of the Soviet Union, absorbing more rubles from the Soviet people and enterprises than the local banks of the Soviet Union by means of high-interest deposits.

At the same time, the Soviet Union began the privatization reform of state-owned enterprises, and a large number of state-owned enterprises were distributed to Soviet nationals in the form of shares and bonds. Ordinary people undoubtedly wanted to see real money more than intangible shares and bonds, so Western investment institutions began to buy up shares in state-owned enterprises with rubles they had absorbed from the Soviets.

When a large number of Soviet state-owned enterprises were in the hands of Westerners, the final blow came.

Beginning in the second half of 1991, North American and European countries began to vigorously sing the Soviet economy, and for a time newspapers and media were full of "Soviet reforms will inevitably go to ruin", "the Soviet economy is about to collapse", "the market value of the ruble is seriously overvalued", " The ruble needs to be repriced' and other negative news, in response to the old adage, when everyone says this, even the most determined people will be shaken, so the panic of the collapse of the Soviet economy and the sharp depreciation of the ruble quickly spread among all strata of the Soviet Union.

Selling, runs, hoarding, snapping......

Under the manipulation of Western countries, this series of irrational blind following behavior in the Soviet Union dragged the already shaky ruble into the abyss.

In just a few months, the ruble has fallen from an avalanche to 112,000 to $1 from its peak of 1 to 2. In the history of mankind. Even in the most tragic times of war. Never before has there been such a staggering inflation. The ruble in the hands of the Soviet people turned almost into a pile of worthless waste paper.

As we all know, a country's currency is usually supported by its own gold reserves, and when the ruble fell for a thousand miles, the Soviet government began to use its gold reserves in an attempt to sell gold directly to solve the urgent needs of the domestic economy.

After the collapse of the gold price, the Soviet Union wanted to export gold for cash. But no buyer was found.

On December 25, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged the complete failure of economic reform and signed a series of presidential decrees announcing the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Republics, and the world's only superpower that could compete with the United States was wiped out.

Chris's eloquence was so good that Emily, who was sitting next to him, involuntarily put down the dishes and looked at her boyfriend with adoring eyes, and Connelly's eyes widened.

"Say so. We robbed us of the wealth of the entire Soviet country?" asked Connery curiously.

Chris shook his head: "Of course not. This is not a zero-sum game of winning and losing, but an evaporation of wealth. The wealth accumulated by the Soviet Union for more than half a century is like a pot of boiling water heated by a fierce fire, the water in the pot is steamed dry, and the speculators get nothing more than a few 'dewdrops' condensed from the lid of the pot. ”

Connery imagined Chris's picture and smacked, "That's a waste." ”

Emily, who was next to Chris, also interjected at this time: "I think it's good that the Soviet Union has collapsed, at least everyone doesn't have to face the threat of nuclear war." ”

Eric also nodded and said: "Yes, the 'Big Ivan' that blew up the entire Arctic Circle scared the whole world enough, if a nuclear war broke out, the Soviet Union only needed to drop a few 'Big Ivan' level nuclear bombs on the east and west coasts, and that would be over." ”

"Eric, what is 'Big Ivan'?" Connery asked curiously.

All four were born in the seventies, and all three of them, except for Eric, looked puzzled.

Eric only saw the relevant news when he accidentally browsed the Internet in his previous life, and said: "In 1961, the Soviet Union dropped a nuclear bomb with a TNT equivalent of 58 million tons of TNT on the Arctic Circle, and we were not born at that time, so you may not know very well. ”

Seeing that the three of them had no concept of the 58 million ton nuclear bomb, Eric thought for a while and said: "I compare you to know how terrible the 'Big Ivan' is, after the Great Ivan nuclear bomb was dropped, the plane that dropped the bomb flew 250 kilometers away before the nuclear bomb exploded at subsonic speed, but it was still shocked by the shock wave after the nuclear bomb explosion, and almost destroyed the plane. That translates to an area of 200,000 square kilometers, which is almost the size of two New York states. On the other hand, the 'little boy' in the 1945 Hiroshima nuclear bomb had a yield of only 13,000 tons, but the ultra-high temperature at the moment of the explosion directly wiped out the bones of 70,000 people, and the subsequent death toll exceeded 200,000, and the power of 'Big Ivan' was 5,000 times that of 'Little Boy'. It is said that the Soviet Union then succeeded in developing a nuclear bomb with a yield of 100 million tons of TNT, but it did not detonate it because it could not find a wide enough nuclear explosion test site. ”

When Chris and the three of them heard Eric say this, they all showed a faint look of fear.

Eric lowered his head and gently picked up a piece of sausage and chewed it in his mouth, and said softly: "So, I even think that anyone who makes a nuclear bomb should be directly convicted of crimes against humanity." ”

Emily smiled and said, "Eric, in fact, Einstein himself regretted indirectly inventing the nuclear bomb. ”

"But he's still guilty," Eric said.

Chris also laughed: "Eric, you really speak in an extreme anti-war tone. ”

"Originally, I would prefer to settle disputes between those in power by dueling with each other, with bare hands, cold weapons, or revolvers, as long as they don't start war. ”

The other three laughed, and Eric laughed as well.

Scold. It was meant to be a joke.

"This is for you. "Had lunch. As the two women tidy up the dishes in the kitchen, Eric takes Chris to the study and hands him an Apple Powerbook140 notebook.

"It's not going to work at all, it's better to write by hand," Chris said, fiddling with it.

Eric said, "I'm not asking you to use it for work, I just want you to study it." Did you know that at the beginning of the year, IBM and several other computer software and hardware companies set up SNSnet? This will be the focus of our development in the future. The traditional industries in the United States have been carved up by various forces, and it is basically impossible for Firefly Investment to intervene, while the high-tech industry related to computers is still a virgin land, think about it, throughout the 80s, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison all became billionaires, and I am sure that the development of computer technology will not stop there, and there will be more opportunities in the future. ”

Chris finally clumsily opened the laptop in his hand and heard Eric's words. Chris didn't argue, Eric had already surprised him too much. This gave him a somewhat blind confidence in Eric.

"Then I'll go back and take time to study, what are your plans next?"

Eric remembers that the Internet grew rapidly after Clinton took office because of the U.S. government's policy support, saying, "Not yet, it's still a little early, at least until next year." However, you can take the time to focus on Bill Clinton, the Democratic candidate in this year's election, who proposed an information superhighway plan, which is why I just mentioned SNSnet, which is likely to become the main vehicle of the information superhighway. You can look for some relevant materials and give them to Cisco management, so that they can study the relevant technology of SNSnet, which will definitely be useful. ”

In the original time and space, SNSnet was the predecessor of the Internet.

Chris silently jotted down Bill Clinton and the information superhighway and said, "If nothing else, then I'll go back to New York." Also, you'd better get some deputies for my dad, he's a bit old after all, and he's not like the energetic old men like Lei Shidong and Murdoch. ”

Eric laughed, "Of course, you don't have to worry about that, but he definitely doesn't want to hear you say that about him." ”

Chris shrugged, "No old man would like to hear that, but it's true. ”

Chris and Emily were on a four-o'clock flight back to New York, and Eric chatted with Chris for a while before sending them out of Sharp Corner Manor.

"I made an appointment with Jeffrey Katzenberg to visit Disney's manufacturing base, do you want to come with me?" said Eric to Jennifer Connelly after sending the two away.

Connery shook his head: "Still no, I just finished filming, I'm too lazy to move, I'm still resting in the villa, you come back early in the evening." ”

Although last year's summer Fox's "Retort Condor 2" failed, because of her relationship with Eric, Connelly, as the heroine, will certainly not be affected too much, and soon took on another comedy, which is expected to be released during Easter this year. Of course, Eric didn't ask about this movie, he was still too busy with his own affairs, and of course he didn't bother to make that little extra money.

Eric touched Connally's delicate face and said, "Then you can stay at home, Drew Na Nizi recently bought two more cars, both of which are very suitable for women to drive, if you want to go shopping, you can go to the garage and drive one." ”

"Okay," Connelly felt a little snack when he heard Eric casually mention Drew, but he didn't say anything.

Of course, Eric also discovered this small detail, but he didn't care too much, he had very low requirements for his women, and he had never fantasized about the scene of living in harmony, as long as the women could get along well, it was a good thing.

After Michael Eisner took over Disney, after more than seven years of development, Disney has completely broken through the original model of relying on animated films to make money, and now Disney not only has Disney Studios that produces films and animation for all ages, but also an audition studio studio. In addition, Disney also has its own children's TV show, but it is not large and has not performed well.

Compared with Preavista's Firefly Photography Base, Disney's production base is smaller, but the location is still in the more prosperous Burbank.

"The story of 'Aladdin' is based on a story in the Middle East about a magic lamp that can grant people's wishes, but we have adapted the characters in the story accordingly to suit the tastes of local American audiences," said Katzenberg, who accompanied Eric to watch a clip of "Aladdin" in the office building of the Disney Animation Center, which Eric knew was one of Disney's most famous animations of the 90s.

After reading it, Eric and Katzenberg went to Katzenberg's former office together, and after the secretary served coffee to the two of them and left, Eric asked, "Do you have any other animation plans for the studio besides Aladdin?"

"Of course, there are many, in the past, every week in the meeting, I would ask each supervisor to come up with five animation ideas, and after accumulating, there are five or six that have been confirmed to enter the project preparation period. ”

Eric asked, "Do you remember all this, tell me about it?"

Katzenberg felt that Eric's reaction was a little strange, but he still said, "Why don't I have someone bring the plan book to you to see for yourself, everyone knows that you have a good eye?"

"It's for the best. ”

Soon, the secretary of the studio sent a stack of project plans.

Eric patiently flipped through them one by one, and soon found what he was looking for, an African savannah tale that imitated the Prince's Revenge, which was the prototype of The Lion King.

In the original time and space, "The Lion King" is not only the last glory of Disney's 2D hand-drawn animation, but also Disney's most successful 2D hand-drawn animated film, with the film grossing nearly $1 billion worldwide alone.

Quietly pulled out the script of "The Lion King" in his hand and handed it to Katzenberg: "What about this, have you discussed it?"

Katzenberg took it and looked at it, saying, "This story was proposed by Brenda Chapman, a parody of 'The Prince's Revenge', and I thought it was a bit old-fashioned at first, but after they made some character designs, I agreed to it, because the character designs are very likable." However, it has not yet been launched, and if you are optimistic, it can be ranked after the completion of "Aladdin". ”

Eric wasn't too eager, anyway, it was all meat in the pot, and he couldn't eat it early or late: "I think this story is good, you can ask them to make a detailed plan for me, if it's good, raise this project to the highest priority." ”

Katzenberg nodded, called his secretary for a few words, and then said to Eric: "So, let's go to the TV production department next, they recently came up with a new show idea, called the Mickey Mouse Club." (To be continued......)