American Fortune Life

Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 8 AM US time! Tired as a pack of dogs, Wall Street bankers are back at the New York Fed building!

When Andy received the summoning call, he was still sleeping with his arms around Ivana. In order not to be deliberately targeted in the next feast, he had no choice but to get up from the gentle town and rushed to the Federal Reserve Building.

When he came to the meeting room, the meeting had already started for half an hour, and this meeting was nothing but slaughtering big players!

Barclays has made a plan to acquire Lehman, but it lacks US$33 billion in non-performing asset financing. Please ask the dozen giants listed here to raise collectively!

"The plan to acquire Lehman has been approved by the Barclays board of directors, and now we only need to wait for the approval of the British Financial Services Authority in five hours..."

With a slight smile on his face, Andy looked at Paulson who was talking, Lehman CEO Fuld who seemed a little relieved, and the gloomy expressions on the faces of the big players who were forced to raise funds.

"So what about the guarantee commitment from the US government or the Federal Reserve proposed by Barclays Bank, will you agree?"

With a slight smile on the corner of Andy's mouth, he leaned lazily on the boss's chair, asked very abruptly, and looked at Paulson and Geithner who were in the chief position.

As his words fell, the conference room, which was still whispering, fell into silence immediately. Fuld looked at Paulson and Geithner with pleading eyes, and the others also watched with their faces sinking into the water. To two people.

"The Federal Reserve will not give Lehman Brothers bailouts and financial guarantees!" Geithner made it clear with a deadpan expression.

And Paulson narrowed his eyes slightly, looked around indifferently, ignored Fuld's expectant eyes, and said coldly: "I still say the same thing, don't expect the government to save you, the protagonist who solves the problem is You guys! Break up the meeting."

After speaking, he stood up with Geithner and left the meeting room. The rest of the predators also looked at Fuld with a blank and numb expression with different expressions, and stood up one by one to leave.

When Andy walked past Fuld with a blank expression, he reached out and patted Fuld on the shoulder, and said in a clear voice: "Think of other ways, there is no guarantee, and don't place too much hope on the British!"

"They need to find a scapegoat!" Fuld didn't look back, nor did he get up, but after muttering something hoarsely, he stopped talking, propped his elbows on the conference table, and crossed his hands to cover his face .

Andy shook his head, took Al out of the conference room, left the Federal Reserve Building without stopping, got into the car, and Andy said to Kenny: "Go to the Lehman Headquarters Building!"

Alvetrie glanced at the big BOSS in surprise, but soon thought of something, couldn't help showing a slight smile, took out a folder from his briefcase and handed it to Andy, saying: "Boss, this is a think tank. The list of Lehman's high-quality assets compiled by the group, as well as our optional targets."

Andy nodded slightly, took the folder and opened it to read. After a quick look, the contents listed in the information made his expression more serious.

Because Lehman's business capabilities are widely recognized, the company has a client base that includes many world-renowned companies, such as Alcatel, America Online, Time Warner, IBM, Intel, Johnson \u0026 Johnson, Motorola, NEC, PepsiCo, Shell Oil, Sumitomo Banks, Walmart. . . Two or three hundred international multinational companies and world zxing large enterprises.

To be honest, Lehman Brothers' leadership in the business areas in which it is engaged is obvious to all, and was once one of the most powerful stock and bond underwriters and dealers in the world.

At the same time, the company also serves as an important financial consultant for many multinational companies and governments around the world, and has many employees with the best quality at the international level recognized by the industry.

"There should be a lot of people staring at Lehman's North American core business, stock underwriting business, and M\u0026A consulting business. I'm afraid there will be a lot of competitors by then!"

Andy closed the folder, frowned, and said worriedly,

Although what he said was only the two targets that the think tank listed for him in the asset acquisition list, they were the ones he was least sure he could easily annex. After all, there were too many forces staring at Lehman's fat.

"Yes, according to our analysis, there are two companies most eager to acquire this part of the business. One is Barclays Bank of the United Kingdom, and the other is Nomura Securities. If we want to successfully acquire this part of the assets, we can only do it first. powerful!"

Andy glanced at Al with a stern expression, pondered for a moment, nodded solemnly, then lowered the car window, pointed to the Lehman headquarters building on the side of the road and asked: "745 Seventh Avenue, 32 floors high, Covering an area of ​​about 1 million square feet, it was purchased from Morgan Stanley in 2001 for about $700 million.

Even with the current real estate market, a conservative estimate is at a price of $1,000 per square foot. Al, you said that I bought Lehman’s headquarters in a package, the main business in North America and Europe, and two data centers. In the mood of destruction, will you agree to my request? "

Al pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, pondered for a while and replied: "The boss needs you to fuel the fire again, and completely detonate the negative emotions in Fuld's heart. When he can't see the future, in order to retaliate, He might agree."

"Hehe, I know that Lehman is up and down, and they are still hoping for the help of Xiaofei Shoes, but they don't know that Paulson has already obtained the power he wants, and Xiaofei Shoes' influence on him has become Can you believe it, even if Flying Shoes orders Paulson to rescue Lehman now, Paulson will use various reasons to refuse."

Andy raised the window and said with a sneer, but Alvitre remained silent.

What Andy said is not wrong at all. Now the influence of Xiaofei Shoes has dropped to the lowest point. After all, in the election year, Xiaofei Shoes, who is about to leave the White House, also wants to make a smooth transition, stabilize the mess, and then throw it to the next generation. One term, as long as the U.S. economy does not collapse under his tenure.

At around 1:00 p.m. New York time, Geithner received a call from McCarthy, chairman of the British Financial Services Authority, the highest financial regulatory authority in the United Kingdom.

"We are not sure whether Barclays has enough capital to pay for Lehman's risk, and the law does not allow Barclays to support the Lehman deal before the shareholder meeting votes... So, good luck." McCarthy said in a typical The "British euphemism" rebuffed the acquisition.

After hanging up the phone with a gloomy face, Geithner came to Paulson's temporary office in the Federal Reserve Building. As soon as he opened the door, he said to Paulson: "We are finished!"

. . . . . .

"Barclays has given up, and Lehman has no buyers. We can only accept the reality and do our best. The British have tricked us." Paulson faced all the CEOs and financial predators in the conference room, including Andy. They, blurted out without thinking, with an indistinguishable anger and frustration on their faces.

"We had to come together to deal with this situation . . . "

Andy, who kept spinning the pen in his hand, was not in the mood to listen to Paulson's speech. His eyes swept over the faces of everyone in the meeting room. Except for Fuld's pale face and numb expression, none of the people present seemed to be interested in Paulson's speech. Shocked by this bad news.

Andy even saw a momentary look of relief on their faces that they didn't have to spend billions of dollars on a rescue operation with no future in sight. But after recovering, they became agitated.

Soon, the meeting room became out of control and became a mess. They all stood up to express their opinions, all pointing to that simple question. 'How do you prepare for the market after the market opens on Monday? '

"...emergency trading hours must be instituted so that people can liquidate their Lehman-related assets!"

The CEO of Goldman Sachs looked gloomy. He stood there and said loudly without any scruples, temporarily quieting the chaotic conference room. Paulson did not stop him, but nodded in agreement with the proposal. Fuld, even if his eyes almost burst into flames.

"Papa--"

With a blank expression on his face, Andy tapped the table top of the conference table continuously with a signature pen. When everyone focused their attention, Andy stood up with a stern face, straightened the skirt of his suit, looked around, and said in an extremely indifferent voice, Said decisively.

"The collapse of Lehman is the beginning of disaster! The collapse of a large financial institution will trigger a chain reaction across the country-this is far beyond our control. It is conceivable that credit will tighten and struggling companies will lay off workers. , the foreclosure rate will rise at an unprecedented rate: millions of Americans will lose their livelihoods and homes. It will take us many, many years to climb out of this quagmire . . . "

Andy didn't pay attention to his words, which turned the warm atmosphere in the conference room into dead silence. As soon as he finished speaking, he turned and walked out. The five members of the think tank headed by Al quickly followed and left, leaving a whole room behind. The financial predators looked at each other with complex expressions.