Mediterranean hegemon

"Dear depositors, due to the sharp drop in stocks this morning and considering the needs of various institutions for supplementary margin or other liquidity requirements, the Bank has decided to open withdrawals. It will no longer limit the standard of US$1,000 per person and single time. Full withdrawals can be made. Please relax for institutional depositors with many queues." A cheerful female voice sounded in the lobby of the United Bank headquarters. The financial staff of small and medium-sized institutions were ecstatic for a moment, but their mood was soon hit rock bottom. Because the routine stock market bulletin rang again.

"According to the news that our bank has just received, the stock market has plummeted today. The Dow Jones index has fallen below 280 points at 11 o'clock, with the point drop as high as 32%..."

Before the voice could finish speaking, several people waiting in line to withdraw money fell limply, "Someone fainted...guard, guard..."

Before everyone could finish watching this scene, another exclamation came from outside: "Look, someone jumped from the National Building in New York..."

After a while, all the people who had no withdrawal tasks ran out to watch the excitement, and then witnessed a scene they would never forget: on the 68th floor of the National Building, three middle-class men in suits and ties were holding their heads on the rooftop. Crying bitterly, the onlookers could only hear one sentence: "Fuck Wall Street!"

Then the three men jumped down, arm in arm.

"Ah!" the crowd of onlookers shouted.

"Bang bang bang..." The sound of falling to the ground almost at the same time, brains splattered everywhere, blood spurted out, and he couldn't die anymore...

"Call the police, call the police!"

"What's the use!" one of the onlookers shouted hysterically, "Oh my God, there are two more on the rooftop! Aren't they going to dance too?"

What's the point of going to the rooftop if not to jump off the building? You have to queue up to force a draw, and now you also need to queue up to go to the rooftop...

The next two jumped down one after another: in just 5 minutes, there were 5 more corpses at the door of the National Building. In New York's landmark Empire State Building, there were even more people jumping off the building. Some onlookers who were so frightened that they almost went insane said, "That day, the people who jumped from the top of the Empire State Building were like dumplings, one after another. Downward thrust... I jumped 11 times in 5 minutes, and one of them was naked. It probably meant that I came naked and left naked..."

"Put me through President Hoover, I have to say sorry to him..." Seeing the Dow Jones Index, which had already decided the overall situation, Contini smiled slightly, "There is still a long time to come, and I still need to have a good relationship with President Hoover... …”

The call was quickly connected. Hoover was also very worried. There were a lot of people from all over the country coming to complain. He thought it was Contini who came to complain again, but he didn't expect it was Contini. He instinctively wanted to get angry, and instantly thought of Mrs. The advice in the night immediately calmed me down and he said calmly: "Calais, you have caused a lot of trouble. Countless people complained to me throughout the morning...some even got very angry."

Contini smiled: "Sorry to cause you trouble... I was in a really bad mood yesterday and got a lot of anger. You know that sometimes I am not very mature. In the final analysis, I am still too young, although I am very unhappy. I am willing to admit it, but I would like to say that I have never suffered any major setbacks. This lesson is the most valuable lesson I have learned on the road to expansion. Of course, it is completely unreasonable to shift the responsibility to me. I actually hope to cooperate with these companies with 120,000 feelings, but the Federal Reserve is like this, and the financial circle is shouting at me. I don’t understand why - am I giving them less benefits? "

Hoover was speechless. Contini was right. He did not give Wall Street less benefits, but the problem was that they wanted more. They were no longer satisfied with earning 5-6 percentage points every year. They wanted to maximize the United Group. The crucial oil and medicine were obtained—could it be that if Mellon didn't tell him, he couldn't understand?

The reason why they are seizing on the liquidity mismatch to make a big fuss is that they hope to use this money squeeze to squeeze out Contini’s liquidity and force him to give up his shares in certain companies. The first ones to bear the brunt are Petroleum Algeria, United Motors and United Pharmaceuticals. , winning these pieces will not cause any damage to the United Group, but they are high-quality assets valued by Wall Street. This kind of thing was very common in the past, but this time it was the Federal Reserve that took the lead.

Why did the Federal Reserve take the lead? Because Union Bank is essentially a foreign bank. The Federal Reserve has high-sounding reasons such as protecting U.S. national interests and safeguarding U.S. economic and financial security. However, no matter how high-sounding the reasons are, it cannot change the fact that the Federal Reserve still has It is not a government agency, but a non-profit private institution influenced by the government, and behind it is essentially a business interest group, that is, Wall Street.

"But in order to cause more trouble, I have communicated with my clients about the $600 million in Federal Reserve funds. They will return it to us in the first week of October, and then I can smoothly return it to the Federal Reserve - one month earlier than the actual deadline. moon."

"real?"

"Really!" Contini smiled, "Due to the sharp drop in the stock market today, I have told Governor Francisco that withdrawals are open without the restriction of US$1,000 per person per time, so nearly 90 million were withdrawn in the morning U.S. dollars, our liquidity has stood the test and United Group can be trusted.”

"That's good, that's good." Hoover said, "Calais, those orders..."

"You mean?"

"That 4.4 billion order!" Hoover said, "Although the president cannot interfere with the autonomous behavior of entrepreneurs, you are also a political leader and know how important employment and economic stability are to a national leader. If the stock market falls, it falls. It's not my fault, but if the economy is in trouble, voters will put all the blame on me, and of course you. Many people called me today to express their dissatisfaction, and even hope that I will use administrative power to sanction you. Sanctions are of course nonsense, but..."

"I just came to discuss this with you." Contini's attitude was very sincere and humble. "I boasted that I would rebuild the Italian industrial system in 10 years. This is also a political commitment of mine. Now that this package of orders is abandoned, I will not be able to fulfill my promise. This is of course extremely disadvantageous to me. However, it is not logical to simply ask me to take back what I said yesterday. I can accept part of it, but it will take some time. Can you do more work for me?"

The last sentence made Hoover narrow his eyes. What does this mean? But in a flash, he understood that this was the credit Contini gave to him: the president had clearly given up these contracts, and after Hoover patiently went to the president's house to do the work, he finally made the president give in partially, so that the orders and jobs of these companies were saved, and he could explain to the voters. As for the stock market drop, no one wanted it, but the president had no choice. In fact, if the Federal Reserve had not urged so much and exerted so much pressure to cause a run, the United Bank would have no problem repaying the loan when it was due.

So far, neither Hoover, Mellon, nor the Federal Reserve understands why the United Bank is so stubborn about protecting the interests of its loan customers, and would rather give up 500 million deposits to protect its customers. What kind of spirit is this? I'm afraid even God would be moved, right?

Contini is certainly not a saint, why is he so unwilling to withdraw the loan? Because all these loans were issued to European customers - except for some equipment orders from Germany, most of the rest were shadow companies controlled by the United Group throughout Europe, and then these shadow companies invested the money in the United Trust, and used the bridge built by the United Trust to speculate in securities. Some people went long and some went short. The trading manager was Livermore and the commander-in-chief was Contini.

The Fed was looking for the wrong problem: the capital outflow problem they were worried about did not exist at all. Most of this money went around in Europe and came back, but it was not reflected in the balance sheets of American companies, but in the balance sheets of European companies. Then this was not industrial capital, but speculative capital. In essence, it was a kind of self-financing: the United Group used the United Bank as a tentacle to collect a large amount of money from the United States and issued it to the shadow companies controlled by itself without obvious actual equity control to short the United States.

So Contini and Francesco refused to withdraw the funds no matter what - how could they short after withdrawing them? Shorting also requires margin, and the margin for shorting can only be opened to 3 times, and 5.5 billion shorting requires 2 billion margin. The United Bank spent a total of 4 billion, 2 billion provided as security, 1 billion left for the United Bank to maneuver, and 1 billion to deal with emergencies. How could it be possible to withdraw the loan as required by the Federal Reserve? It would rather lose 500 million in deposits than withdraw it!

Then why did Contini now agree to repay in advance, and even said that he would give Hoover some face and fulfill part of the contract? There are multiple reasons:

The first one: Today, more than 1 billion US dollars of wool was harvested, and some of it can be returned appropriately, which is conducive to the next harvest. Once it is harvested, there will be no next time. It is like a certain country's stock market dealer cutting leeks, setting a circuit breaker and a daily limit down, but it can't harvest much. It must be pulled up first, then hit, hit, and then pulled up again. Only by tossing again and again can the interests be maximized, so it can be summarized in one sentence-"Don't leave, fellow villagers, the national team is here to save you..." Is it really here to save or to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune? Originally, the first circuit breaker could have stopped the loss and exited, but it was because I believed that someone would save me, and I cut it in half again after it was cut in half...

The second level: Properly prop up the stock market a little, don't push it too hard, if you push it too hard, the US government will introduce regulations to prohibit naked short selling, and it will not be fun once the rules are changed;

The third level: Give Wall Street tycoons a chance to get on board, and everyone will make money together. If only United Group and Contini made money in this stock market crash, the hat will definitely be put on United Group in the future - although Hoover and Contini now hope to put it on the Federal Reserve, if Wall Street can share some of the benefits, then everyone will not attack each other in the future who should be responsible for this. No consortium with a name and surname can escape, everyone has a share, and the law does not hold everyone responsible.

The fourth level: Create time and opportunities for United Group to transfer funds. It is difficult to leave after finishing it all, but it will be much easier to transfer funds after a longer period of time. Contini is still counting on this batch of income to build airplanes, cannons, tanks, and aircraft carriers, and also counting on boosting the domestic market and production, so it must be able to leave - paper wealth is useless.

Hoover was very satisfied after listening to it. He felt that Contini had given him enough face and achieved the goal of the United Group: to teach the Federal Reserve and the financial circle behind them a lesson. He did not ask how much the United Group had gained. He thought that since Contini had been bearish some time ago, he must have shorted it. He did not expect such a huge situation of 5.5 billion. He thought that at most 400-500 million was enough, and this capacity should be accepted.

"Can I disclose this information to others in advance?"

"You can say something implicitly, but you can't guarantee it. You have to let them see how hard you work and how difficult it is - they are doing it for themselves, only you are doing it for the country and the American people. Your mind is much bigger than theirs. There are many, and the situation is much bigger. Your career is something they can’t understand at all.”

Contini praised Hoover and said: "Of course I fully understand that you are working so hard for this country to continue to prosper and for the American people to live a better life. I also have this purpose, otherwise I would say 10 years Why build another Italian industrial system? Am I trying to make money for myself and future generations? I can’t spend all my money in ten lifetimes. I just want to serve the 40 million Italian people. Everyone says I have the ability. As strong as you are, you have great responsibilities. You have more than 100 million Americans and the most developed country in the world on your shoulders. This is what I have to study hard and ask for advice all the time. I am too young and sometimes a little willful—— This is a big shortcoming, and you need to learn to control it. It would be great if I could be as calm as you are about emotions and anger..."

Hoover was a little flattered by the praise. After putting down the phone, he finally regained some sense - he was almost entangled by this little guy. No wonder Mussolini supported him as a youth leader and even married his daughter to him. How could this be done without any level of skill? He had never heard anyone say these words just now - at least young politicians in the United States cannot say such things. They only talk about freedom, democracy and political correctness all day long. Those are all empty talk, and the CEO is the real person. Be down-to-earth and work hard.

With Contini's guarantee here, he could speak to Wall Street over there. Taking advantage of the market break at noon, Hoover didn't even eat lunch. He dedicated himself to making phone calls and pulling people around, patting his chest and assuring them that he had communicated with the president. Afterwards, with his tireless persuasion and coordination, the president finally agreed to reconsider, so everyone should stop exerting pressure and ruin the market and no one would be able to survive. You have also seen the CEO's temper. He would rather die together than swallow his anger - otherwise he would not be a young man. Who has not been young? Who hasn’t been excited? You have to understand how a young person thinks...