Chapter 557 Good Times and "Bad Times"

  This is the best age, this is the worst age. We are in heaven, we are in hell.

  This sentence comes from the novel "A Tale of Two Cities" by British writer Dickens.

Dickens had a well-earned family in his early years. When he was a child, he had received a period of education in a private school. However, his parents often feasted guests and were financially uncontrollable. At the age of 12, Dickens’ father was imprisoned for debt problems. The family followed his father. After moving to a prison cell, Dickens was sent to a shoe polish shop in London as an apprentice and worked 10 hours a day.

  However, because his father inherited an inheritance and the family financial situation improved, Dickens had the opportunity to return to school. At the age of 15, he graduated from Wellington College, then worked in a law firm, and later transferred to the newspaper to become a reporter covering congressional debates.

  Mark Twain’s father John Clemens died of pneumonia. In 1847, Mark Twain, with a poor family background, began to work as an apprentice in a printing press, a newsboy, a typographer, a sailor, a gold digger, and a reporter.

  After using all his savings to buy the silver mine, at the beginning of the purchase, as a journalist, Mark Twain had very sensitive eyes and ears. He is optimistic about the trend of gold and silver for a long time, but he also told himself that as long as one of the following two conditions is met, he should sell the stock: or the market value reaches 100,000 U.S. dollars, or the voters of Nevada approved the state constitution, the United States of America is one In a federal state, the state of the United States is a member of the United States Federation. The Federal Constitution stipulates that the federation and the states shall be separated of powers, and the states shall have a certain degree of independence from the federation. From many perspectives, apart from diplomacy and military affairs, the state is almost an independent "small country": it has its own laws, taxation, police, education, and election systems, which are very different from the political systems of many other countries, especially Asian countries. same. It is precisely for this reason that phenomena such as the president’s inability to control the governor and the laws vary greatly among states.

  Nevada’s mining and agriculture are the traditional pillars of the economy. As long as the state constitution is the same as the federal constitution, then Mark Twain’s silver mine is a “pipeline” that will not dry up in the short term.

  With the rapid rise in stocks, Mark Twain soon "retired" and he no longer works as a journalist. Seeing the rising stock price, he felt that he was very rich and satisfied, so he came to San Francisco and led a luxurious life.

However, Nevada is a **** of a desert. It is the most sparsely populated state except Alaska. In addition to this, there is a volcano that has been silent for 600,000 years and may erupt at any time. Of course, people at that time did not know This thing.

  Speculation is like gambling. Las Vegas means "fertile grassland" in Spanish.

  Because Las Vegas is the only oasis with spring water in the surrounding desolate desert and semi-desert zone. Due to spring water, it has gradually become a post station for roads and a transit station for railways.

  It was built by Mormons in the western United States in 1854. Later, the Mormons moved out and the American soldiers turned it into a military station, but the population here is still very small.

  After the discovery of gold and silver mines in Nevada, a large number of gold prospectors poured in and Las Vegas began to prosper, but like the mining towns in the west, once the mines are lighted up, they will be abandoned.

  During the Great Depression, laughter became especially valuable. The Weasley’s magic trick shop was the only shop that was still operating during the war. Although it was temporary, the laughter made people feel better.

  In 1931, during the Great Depression in the United States, in order to overcome the economic difficulties, the Nevada State Assembly passed a bill to legalize gambling. Las Vegas has become a casino city and has since risen rapidly.

  The time when Mark Twain wrote Million Pounds was in 1893. At that time, Mark Twain became penniless and even close to bankruptcy, just like the young man in "Million Pounds." Because of his livelihood, Mark Twain could only return to his old business. In order to pay off his debts, he was forced to continue working.

  The books he wrote were peaceful when his life was rich, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but when he went bankrupt, he would write a lot of satirical novels.

  A person's writing style will change with his mentality. After his wife passed away in 1904, he became pessimistic and world-weary, and finally died of angina.

  Nevada’s constitution was not changed in 1893, and Mark Twain’s stock did not reach $100,000. According to his estimation, he would not lose money.

  However, the writers did not anticipate the situation during the Civil War.

From the founding of the United States, the history of US dollar banknotes is divided into four stages: colonial bills and mainland coins printed before the founding of the nation; exploration and chaos in the early days of the founding of the nation, a variety of bank notes; unified legal paper currency green banknotes and nationals after the civil war Bank notes; Federal Reserve Notes used to date since the establishment of the Federal Reserve System.

  The concept of paper currency cannot be said to be "money", but a kind of voucher, paper currency itself has no value.

  During the Song Dynasty of China, the “Jiaozi” in Chengdu, Sichuan was a paper currency used in the world.

Go to the bank with Jiaozi to take out copper coins, and go to the bank with paper money to take out precious metals. The United States returned to the gold standard in 1879. The green banknotes issued interest-free "spot bills" to raise civil war military expenditures, and they must withdraw as the war ended. market.

  In 1873, the United States abolished the legal tender status of silver as a pavement to return to the gold standard, which caused opposition from regions rich in silver. Including farmers are also quite dissatisfied with the currency tightening caused by the gold standard. At this time, American agriculture is still an important cornerstone of the American economy. Congress cannot ignore the voices of grievances from mining areas and farmers. This led to the introduction of the Silver Act of 1878. That is, Congress forces the Treasury Department to purchase silver at a fixed ratio of 16:1 to mint silver coins. This is actually a kind of monetary easing in disguise. With the increase in silver production, it will inevitably lead to inflation. Almost all efforts are made to buy silver in the market at a price of 16:1. At this time, the market silver price has fallen to 20:1. , Mark Twain’s silver mine stocks plummeted, and he went bankrupt.

  On the one hand, the United States is facing the dilemma of bad money driving out good money. On the other hand, to maintain the gold standard, the price of US dollars must be guaranteed. This has led to a large-scale outflow of gold from the US treasury, and a large number of US dollars are required to exchange gold in Europe.

The superimposed effect of people’s demand for gold and foreign demand for gold has caused the U.S. Treasury’s gold to shrink sharply. The dilemma of the U.S. Treasury can conceal the truth of national failure to a certain extent when the U.S. Treasury Department can guarantee a fiscal surplus. It is not a long-term solution, because the principal and interest payments of US Treasury bonds use gold as a means, which means that once the US economic recession will lead to fiscal problems.

  In 1893, forced by the situation, the US Congress quickly abolished the Silver Act, but it did not prevent the panic from spreading.

  From the restoration of the gold standard in 1879 to the outbreak of the crisis in 1893, it lasted 14 years. The economic crisis did not happen in a day, and the brewing process was actually relatively slow.

Inflation is denominated in silver, and deflation is denominated in gold and the U.S. dollar. Before 1893, deflation and inflation coexisted. Overvaluation of the exchange rate can actually mean that the domestic currency appreciates more than the difference between domestic inflation and foreign inflation. But the exchange rate can affect the consumer confidence index.

  An unhappy and insecure consumer is often listless. It reinforces people’s expectations of falling interest rates and weakening the economy, both of which indicate the weakness of the dollar. Foreign investors will sell U.S. currency in order to find higher yields in other regions with strong economies.

  High consumer sentiment will raise U.S. interest rates and stock market yields to levels higher than those in other parts of the world, which generally has the effect of increasing demand for U.S. dollars.

A rise in the exchange rate is not necessarily a good thing. Japan’s increase in the exchange rate of the Yen in the Plaza Agreement has affected export commodities. Through foreign exchange intervention, market confidence was finally stabilized and the US economic collapse was suppressed.

  The outbreak of crises often occurs when the country’s fiscal revenue and expenditure are severely imbalanced. The country’s ability to intervene in the crisis is greatly inhibited, and market confidence is easily destroyed.

  Quantitative easing is a potent medicine. Although it can be a temporary relief, it can also cause inflation. Once the government's prescription is over, the crisis will appear in a more serious form.

   "I believe in America."

  Living in the United States is like living in heaven.

  The poor lambs will be deceived by the wolf of Wall Street so that there is no more underwear left. As for the investment in education, it is even sadder. In what words, "Thank you for your contribution to capitalism."

  In theory, a person would not die so easily, but accidents happen every day. What is smashed from the sky is not necessarily a pie, it may also be a meteorite.

There are also car accidents and choking while eating food. If people around you don’t know how to give first aid, or stand by and watch because of the effect of multiple ignorance, then you’re dead. Sheep will stand stupidly when they see their kind being thrown by a wolf. , The situation is exactly the same.

  Learning medicine is the most profitable, and its social status is high, but it is not something ordinary people can learn to study medicine, and the financial guarantee for medical professions is the most demanding. Generally, it takes forty to fifty thousand US dollars to do the proof of assets, which is more than enough for one year's tuition and fees. The medical school will require students to provide a one-time four-year tuition as a guarantee. The high tuition fee of three to four hundred thousand US dollars for four years can hardly be affordable for ordinary people.

Compared with other majors, it is difficult to apply for medicine because many high-end medical technologies are unwilling to disclose to students from other countries, and the United States has extremely high requirements for the profession of doctors, requiring medical school applicants to be smart, mature, and social. A sense of responsibility, compassion, strong social skills, and enjoys helping others, so he will not easily recruit students who do not agree with the social values ​​of his country to treat citizens of his country.

  It takes at least ten years to become a doctor, so going to the United States to study medicine is a long process of fighting mental, physical and perseverance. The golden age of a surgeon is around 30 years old. It takes at least a few hours to perform an operation and requires a high degree of mental concentration. It can't be supported by an older age, which means that a surgeon must have small achievements before the age of 30. This is similar to Chinese medicine. The older, the more powerful it is completely different.

  Traditional Chinese medicine focuses on prevention and treatment. Some diseases can be prevented. For example, diabetes is incurable. Diabetic wounds heal very slowly, just like black magic.

  Every time Pomona sees the scar on Severus’ neck, she feels terrible, she just deliberately deceived herself and said that it looked like a collar.

  Democracy is characterized by the incumbent party calling for credit when there is merit, the opposition party desperately tore down, saying that we are living in a "bad era" and the incumbent party should take the blame and resign.

  There is no such rule in the wizarding world, although the Minister of Magic is also elected.

Don’t forget Slytherin’s credit, but the winners have forgotten Severus. His portrait can’t even be hung in the principal’s office at Hogwarts, although Pomona and Minerva didn’t want to see it at all. He appeared on that wall.

  Lily chose "John", and James is not the same as John who carries the bucket. He has gold coins in his family. A likable man who is willing to change for her, why not choose?

  She left the persistent "Bob", thinking of her all the time, and no one else could "take over".

  Prince's family is also in decline, but Severus has not escaped like Jia Baoyu.

  When Pomona saw that Jia Baoyu and Xue Baochai became a monk after they got married, she classified him as a "scumbag". What did Xue Baochai fall in love with?

She hoped that in the dock at that time, one of Harry, Ron, and Hermione rescued him, instead of Harry watching him die with those lake-green eyes, so that she would not always think that she was doing a game. Dreamed.

  It’s painful to wake up from a dream, so happy when I dream.

She remembered the dream she had when she was in a coma again. She was the same year as him, and she was a human girl. She took the Hogwarts to Hogsmeade station on the 9th and 3rd quarter platform, and was supported by a mermaid. The boat crossed the Black Lake and walked up the steps to the auditorium after disembarking at the pier, where the sorting ceremony was held.

   "It's time to wake up, my prince." She lowered her voice to his ears, but he didn't respond as if he had died.

  In this dark and empty classroom, she inexplicably developed a sense of fear, so she pinched his hook nose, and soon he woke up from suffocation.

   "You slept all afternoon!" Pomona said frankly before he got angry, "Didn't you come to see Harry?"

  He didn't know what demon was in, and suddenly moved her hands and feet, she quickly avoided the thieves, and kept screaming.

   "You are real." After a while, he hugged her tightly and said, "Tell me, it's not that I am dreaming."

   "You are not dreaming." She also hugged him and said, "I like you very much, Bob."

   "Who is Bob?" he asked suspiciously.

   "A hard-working plumber, he makes a lot of money but doesn't know how to spend it?"

   Severus released his arms and looked at her with unfathomable eyes.

"What are you thinking?"

   Pomona laughed loudly.

  I am afraid that only she herself knows what she is laughing at.

  (End of this chapter)