Chapter 647 The Dark Battle of Giants

  On September 16, the Federal Reserve issued a statement announcing the rescue of American International Group AIG.

  In this statement, the Federal Reserve authorized the New York Reserve Bank to provide an emergency loan of $85 billion to AIG, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, for a period of two years at an interest rate of three months to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus 850 basis points.

   In return, the Federal Reserve will receive 79.9% of AIG's stock options and has the right to veto AIG's right to issue dividends to common shareholders and preferred shareholders. This basically means that the US government hosts AIG.

   At the same time as the rescue of AIG, the management of AIG also began to undergo a major change. The chairman of the board of directors was purged, and the person preferred by the Federal Reserve was elected to lead AIG to form a new management. The outside world generally believes that this is the government's strengthening of control over AIG.

The official rationale for the bailout was: "To prevent a disorderly failure of AIG that would hit already fragile financial markets, increase borrowing costs, reduce household wealth, and materially weaken the economy. Performance..." In short, because AIG was so important, the U.S. government had to step in and not let it go bankrupt.

   Once this news was announced, it shocked the market no less than the bankruptcy of Raymond Brothers three days ago, because just 72 hours ago, the government and the Federal Reserve showed a laissez-faire attitude. This repeated attitude made the market feel the urgency of the situation, and to some extent exacerbated people's panic.

   These days, even the government can't be trusted, so what else can you trust?

  …

   "Damn, they're still coming at us, like they did to Dick Foud!"

  In the office of Stanley headquarters, John Mark drank the coffee in the paper cup in one gulp, crumpled the paper cup into a ball angrily, and threw it viciously into the wastebasket.

Just yesterday, Stanley released its financial statements for the third quarter. The quarterly profit of US$1.43 billion is very obvious, which is only a 3% decrease from the same period last year. This means that Stanley has not suffered from the bankruptcy of Raymond Brothers in recent months. The influence of rumors. But what stunned Stanley was that a few minutes after the opening of the market today, Stanley's stock suffered an overwhelming sell-off. Within two hours, their shares fell nearly 30%.

Just this morning, the "Wall Street Journal" also pointed the finger at Stanley and Goodman, "Stanley and Goodman, are they infighting or survival?" The eye-catching headline seems to tell everyone that it is now their turn. Stanley & Goodman & Co.

  Although he was prepared in his heart, when the real situation came to him, John Mark still couldn't control the anger that burst out in his heart.

  He doesn't understand why the stock market has fallen so sharply when earnings are almost the same? But soon another thing made him understand, this is a complete conspiracy!

   Just two days ago, Stanley still had $178 billion in cash stored in bank accounts, which are used to safeguard operations and meet hedge fund lending requirements. But on the day Stanley released its financial statements for the third quarter yesterday, more than $20 billion of funds flowed out. Even worse, some clients closed their brokerage accounts with Stanley while withdrawing cash.

   This is the rhythm of completely cutting off relations with Stanley.

  In the past few years when John Mark has been in power, he has focused on building the prime brokerage business of Stanley Corporation. The brokerage fees generated by these transactions have become an important profit point for Stanley Corporation. Among the world's top 100 hedge funds, 89 are using Stanley's brokerage channels, and the daily transaction fees are calculated in millions or even tens of millions of dollars. And now, because of the mere rumors in the market, there is an organization that wants to completely sever ties with Stanley Corporation!

  John Mark was surprisingly angry, but he hadn't lost his mind.

   "This is definitely a hedge fund conspiracy!" He paced back and forth in the office, muttering incessantly, "They defeated Bear Stearns and Raymond Brothers, and now they are going to do the same and attack us!"

  When hedge funds got together to withdraw funds from Stanley, John Mark realized what was going on. Only when the rumors that have been circulating on Wall Street for a long time verified him, did he know the cunning and strength of the other party, which made him feel a little more inexplicable hatred for Soros.

"No one cares about loyalty, loyalty is worthless these days!" He stopped, looked at Chamaha, the managing director in charge of cash management, and said, "Can we close the cash account, or set a lock-up period or something? , This can slow down the rate of cash loss. If we look at the current situation, our cash reserves will be exhausted within a week, and we will follow in the footsteps of Bear Stearns and Raymond Brothers."

   "Must not!"

Chamaha's complexion changed drastically, and he quickly stopped, "John, even a one-week prohibition period is sending a signal to the market: Stanley's cash account is dead. Not only will this not slow down the withdrawal of customers, but it will make They withdraw funds more quickly. And if such news spreads to the outside world, rumors about our company's problems will immediately spread everywhere!"

"so…"

John Mark frowned and thought for a while, and felt that Chamaha's statement was very reasonable, so he dismissed the idea of ​​banning cash accounts, "Are we going to be locked up by a large commercial bank like Rayman Brothers or Merrill Lynch? Acquisition?"

Although so far, the fundamentals of Stanley Company are all good, and there has not been a situation similar to that of Lehman Brothers that was exposed after its internal assets were overvalued, but John Mark and his staff are very clear that all this will not be eliminated at all. The doubts of the market can't be ignored, or the institutions that are going to short them don't care about these at all.

   It took them nearly half a year to short Bear Stearns; it took them more than three months to short Lehman Brothers; and now it took them only a week to short Stanley.

   This market is about to collapse.

"Citigroup and Wachovia are the only ones that are capable now!" Hull Charlotte, the managing director of the mergers and acquisitions department, analyzed lightly, "but for them, these are unlikely. Wachovia itself is caught in a crisis In the midst of the financial crisis, it is hard to say whether it can survive this hurdle. Citibank is possible, but it may not be easy for them to convince the board of directors in the short term.”

  Stanley’s top executives are almost all gathered in John Mark’s office. Now they are discussing almost the life and death of Stanley, and everyone must do their best.

   "It's not good, there are rumors in the market again!"

Just when everyone was talking, the door of the room was pushed open from the outside, and a trader ran in in a panic, "There are rumors in the market that we are the counterparty of AIG, and about 200 billion U.S. dollars of funds have been stolen." The backlog is there with no prospect of cashing out in the short term. Now the market has gone crazy and our stock is falling again.”

"When did this happen?"

  John Mark raised his wrist and looked at the Patek Philippe on his arm. At 2:45, it was not far from the closing time. "How much has it fallen?"

"Maybe half of it..." The stunned trader saw the people in the room, looked at their eyes staring at him, felt very flustered, and stuttered a little, "I just saw …It was 38% when I saw it, the red line, and now it may be 50%.”

   As he spoke, he looked down at his BlackBerry. And the others also took out their mobile phones to check. When everyone raised their heads again, he no longer needed to say the specific figures. After the stock price fell by 42%, it finally stopped at the position of 16.08 US dollars.

   "Any more news?"

  To everyone's surprise, at this time, John Mark actually reversed his anxious state just now and asked calmly, "There should not be only one bad news. If there is anything else, tell me!"

"And... and..." The little trader pursed his lips tightly and swallowed hard, which relieved a lot of tension, "There are also rumors in the market that about 50 billion US dollars of hedge funds have been transferred from us. Request to withdraw. In addition, other competitors are robbing our customer resources. In addition, our CDS prices have skyrocketed, which is more than three times higher than the normal basis point."

   "Yes, I see!"

  John Mark waved at the trader. The little trader quickly slipped out as if he had received an amnesty.

"Guys, do you want to know who is behind all this?" Without the presence of low-level staff, John Mark had no scruples, looked at the bewildered executives in the audience, and did With a grimace, he immediately dialed the phone number of Goodman CEO Blankfein, and at the same time signaled his subordinates to keep quiet.

   "Lauder, this is John, John of Stanley."

   "Oh, John, hello." Lauder Blankfein's voice revealed a trace of fatigue. Goodman's company was also attacked by short sellers, and he must be having a hard time now.

"That's right, Lauder." John Mark didn't even have time to exchange pleasantries, so he said straight to the point, "The short sellers in the market are selling our stocks crazily, and they are also attacking us in the CDS market. Lauder, I believe you are now It's the same situation, we're in the same boat."

   "So what's your plan?"

   After pondering for a while, Blankfein neither admitted nor denied, but directly asked John Mark why he came.

"I wonder if this is the case. Let's join forces to refute the rumors on CNBC and deny the current rumors in the market." John Mark tentatively said, "I can't stand those rumors, which have caused incalculable losses to my company. . I think we're going out together, it helps the market see our confidence and strength. Simply put, we're allied against the bears, what do you think?"

"Alliance? Rumors?" Blankfein chuckled, his tone full of disdain, but the next moment he might realize that he was wrong, and hurriedly said, "John, you and I both know that the relationship with AIG Trading, this is not a rumor at all. As for the withdrawal of funds by hedge funds, I am afraid it will not be a rumor either. You and I know exactly what is going on."

"We haven't had a full-scale crisis yet, and it would be unwise to offend the short sellers now," Blankfein concluded. "It has nothing to do with us, and I personally don't want to be on TV at this time. You should be clear, Before Raymond Brothers went bankrupt, Dick Foud appeared on TV many times to refute rumors, but how effective is it?"

   "Sorry, John, there's nothing I can do."

   After finishing speaking, Blankfein decisively hung up the phone.

   "Gentlemen, you should be very clear now, who is our opponent?"

  John Mark, who put down the microphone, gritted his teeth. Those who saw his expression had no doubt that if Blankfein was in front of him, he would tear him apart without hesitation.

"Besides the **** Soros, Goodman & Co. is also manipulating the market. Maybe they are the ones who let the hedge funds know for the purpose of dominating the market. Even Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are They broke it." John Mark said almost word by word, "Let me out and spread bad news about Goodman Company. I want the market to know that we are bad, but they are even worse."

   "If we're done, I want them to be done an hour later!"

   Thanks to book friends 130529205827136, fat cat ICK, the wind waiting to berth, lzztw_lzztw, Huang Tianlong, etc. for voting monthly!

  

  

  (end of this chapter)