"Gentlemen, you have done a very good job! Those at the top of the hierarchy who know about the program, including the Secretary of State himself, are full of praise for you. Believe me, this qiē is all true. ”

It was still in the same Capitol Hill conference room a few months ago, and the handsome and dashing Jefferson was presiding over the meeting, and the same people were seated in the audience: including George Brown. Soros, Julian. A group of heavyweight hedge fund bigwigs, including Robertson.

I haven't seen it for three days, and I am impressed. Today, Jefferson has become a central figure in Gore's staff, and in addition to being responsible for the day-to-day affairs of the vice president, he has been tasked with building a team for Gore's future campaign. Therefore, when he saw these rich financial tycoons, Jefferson, who has always been ruthless, rarely squeezed out a few smiles from his face and praised each other.

It's just that his overtures were used in the wrong place, and almost everyone here didn't buy his account. If it weren't for the fact that Jefferson and the people behind him were caught in a sore foot, these bigwigs in the financial world would not have flown all the way from New York to Washington.

"Son, I don't care about the damn Secretary of State. Sue me, is it possible to declare the end of the plan so far? ”

Cal. Icahn was the first to shout dissatisfied. For his buyout fund, the economic crisis in Asia has little to do with them. Of course, this relationship is only for funds that specialize in speculation in currencies, futures and other underlying assets. In fact, since the last meeting, Carl. Icahn has increased his bets on U.S. companies that are aggressively expanding in Asia. For most of the year, due to the Asian financial crisis. Local companies in the region have generally been hit hard, with many either going bankrupt or being forced to merge, while powerful American companies have taken the opportunity to enter these regions and aggressively expand their business reach, which has strongly stimulated their stock listings.

So while the S&P table is not that prominent, Carl. Icahn relied on the rise of these stocks, and in the second half of '97 and the first half of '98, his fund table Xiàn far outperformed the corresponding index.

Carl at this time. Although Icahn was very dissatisfied, deep down, he still longed for this economic war to continue. Presently. He has set his sights on Japan's banking sector. According to their analysis, there will be a large-scale restructuring of the Japanese financial sector, which will put enormous pressure on the U.S. banking sector. Icahn has shorted a number of stocks in big banks such as Citigroup, Chase, and Chemical Bank.

"Mr. Karl. Do you really want this war to end? Jefferson looked at Carl with a smile. Icahn glanced. He nodded slightly. "I have to be honest and say that this war is far from over. But ......"

At this point, he paused. Deliberately sold a pass. However, the people present were all old foxes, and no one answered at all. After an embarrassing half-minute silence, Jefferson had to touch the tip of his nose and continued: "According to our previous agreement, your charges have been dropped. Before that, one charge, including insider trading, was dropped, and I think that should be good news! ”

"Oh my God, that's good news!" Soros exaggeratedly stretched his arms and waved them in the air for a long time, and when everyone looked at him, he retracted his arms unsatisfied, with a faint mockery on his face, "It's just that I pity this old man, the money I lost in this war is far more than the money that those accusations need to be settled!" God, I shouldn't have promised you! ”

The essence of American society is a commercial society, and almost everything can be traded, including the law. Just like the charges against these funds and banks, the best option for the accused party is to settle with the prosecution after the accused party is sure that he or she cannot get away with the crime.

Reaching a settlement means that the accused party can get out of jail on the condition that he or she pleads guilty and accepts a fine, etc. Of course, these settlements do not mean that the law is flexible, but rather that they are designed to save costs and taxpayers' money. For example, if a suspect is charged with first-degree murder, and the prosecution does not have sufficient evidence, his defense lawyer will consider settling with the prosecution on charges such as second-degree murder or manslaughter, so that the suspect will most likely not be sentenced to death, but only jail. The prosecution also saves a series of procedures and costs such as investigation, court attendance, testimony, and jury call.

Soros's losses in rupiah are measured in billions of dollars, a cost that definitely exceeds the amount of possible settlement for the charges, and this is where Soros is extremely unhappy.

"You're losing money?" Jefferson's expression was stunned, he looked at Soros with wide eyes, and after looking at him from head to toe several times, he said teasingly, "If I'm not mistaken, you should be Mr. Soros, who is in the limelight." Now whether it's in the United States, or in Europe, or in Asia, it's talking about how you made money in this war. Now, you sue me that you lost money? Mr. Soros, are you sure you're not kidding me? ”

"I absolutely promise, I'm not kidding!" Soros snorted extremely unpleasantly, then he looked into Jefferson's eyes and said word by word, "Of course, I also made money, but anyway, President Gore intervened in the situation in Indonesia, and we should be informed!" ”

"I've seen shamelessness, I've never seen such shamelessness!" Julian sitting next to Soros. Robertson cursed in his heart. Obviously he made money, but he had to say that he had lost money, how cheeky did he have to be to say such a thing?

Of course, while thinking so, he automatically ignored himself. Some of the disgraceful methods used by the Tiger Fund in this war can be said to be almost the same as the shameless Cheng Dù of Soros's current "crying poverty".

"I see!" Jefferson finally understood that Soros's dissatisfaction was not the so-called "loss of money", in fact, he had already attributed Soros's complaints to "nonsense". It wasn't until Soros said that "President Gore is involved in the situation in Indonesia" that he suddenly realized.

"I'm sorry. Mr. Soros. Jefferson straightened his suit and said with a grim face, "This is Mr. Vice President's decision, a high-level state secret." So I'm sorry, but I can't tell you, to anyone here. ”

Speaking of this, seeing that everyone's faces were all darkened, Jefferson sighed in his heart, and continued: "However, everyone, please rest assured. What we're going to do next is: Keep this war going. And the decisions made on the part of the government. I'll be sure to let you know as soon as possible. In this way, there should be no similar complaints from all of you, and we will cooperate very happily! ”

"What, this war is going to continue?"

A voice of surprise immediately rang out, and it was Ralph, the president of the Salomon Brothers, who spoke. In the midst of this economic war. Large U.S. investment banks, including Merrill Lynch, Goodman, and Salomon Brothers, are acting as pawns. They spread all kinds of news in the market. In order to achieve the purpose of turbulence and panic investor confidence. Wait until everything is ready. Hedge funds take over and impact the money market or capital market.

As a result of the sudden reversal of the water and the heavy position in the exchange brokerage channel, the reputation and prestige of these investment banks in Southeast Asia began to be damaged. The most famous is Stanley (Hong Kong) Company. Two days before the listing of a super IPO led by their partner Huajin, their chief strategist suddenly announced that he was bearish on Hong Kong stocks, almost leading to the failure of this IPO issuance. After the incident, Wang Qi, chairman of the board of directors of Huajin's Chinese shareholder, Commercial Bank, criticized Stanley in a loud voice, and their executives had to fly from New York to Yanjing overnight to explain the situation.

Generally speaking, the main profit points of investment banks are divided into two parts, one is from the commission fee from underwriting IPOs, bonds or additional issuances, and the other is an important part from proprietary trading. The former need to have sufficient contacts and a good reputation in the capital market, while shorting the local market will destroy the credibility they have built up with great difficulty in a certain way.

Although they have also made a lot of money in their own business, there have long been different voices within investment banks about participating in these things. Although the overall profit may not be much different from the previous fiscal year, the profit point has shifted from the investment banking business to the proprietary business. The original high-level management of the two has been fighting openly and secretly, and now the sales and trading departments in the self-operated business are even more in the limelight, which overwhelms the senior management of investment banks.

Some of the top executives of the investment bank are not happy! Yes, they do have reason to be upset! The economies of these countries or regions have been screwed up by this war, and it is difficult to recover in the short term, and without companies going public, they can not expect to receive commissions.

Ralph is one of them. Therefore, although he knew very well in his heart that he might be subjected to all the white eyes and contempt, he still had to come out of this way, because it was a matter of life and death.

"If you don't agree, then you just quit!" Before Jefferson could answer, a cold voice rang out. Robertson, "Without our cooperation, with your research capabilities, don't expect to be able to retain customers with big money." In addition, I verbally declare that if you withdraw, we will immediately abandon the economic channels of the Solomon brothers, and you will not even have that pitiful commission! ”

"Maybe I'll have to consider whether to continue to hire you as my financial advisor!" At this time, Carl. Icahn also stepped forward and threatened, "Ravel, we are old friends, in fact, many of you here are old friends of yours. But if you really intend to get in the way of our fortune, I'm sure we'll kick you out without hesitation. I can swear in God's name, yes, I do mean it! ”

Then, no one continued to speak. But most people look at Ralph with a faint disgrace, as the saying goes, "getting in the way of people's wealth is like killing parents", this truth is correct everywhere.

"So......" After a long silence, Jefferson, the host of the meeting, finally stepped up to play the round, "Mr. Ralph, I'm sure you'll make a wise choice, right?" ”

"Yes!" Ralph barely managed to squeeze out a smile and replied weakly, then lowered his head, thinking to himself, "Damn, this damn world." Anyway, I can't stay in the position of president of Salomon Brothers, so I just go to Long-Term Capital Management, which is also built with the team of Salomon Brothers executives, and there are many of my old friends in it, and I believe that they will not refuse me. These hedge funds are so hateful,, I'm going to join the hedge fund too! ”

"Okay, then we have no objections." Jefferson nodded with satisfaction and showed a bright smile to the audience, "We only have one goal next, which is to defeat Hong Kong, an area that has just been reclaimed by Red China. ”

"It should be noted that this time we will not leave after making enough capital as before, but will completely destroy the Hong Kong market. Therefore, the code name of this operation is 'Occupy Central'. ”

Finally, Jefferson said sonorously. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you book friend James Five Wukong for voting for the monthly pass!