American Fortune Life

When the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Reserve are still worried about the rapidly disappearing liquidity in the market, they are trying to bring together Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, MG Chase, MG Stanley, Wachovia Bank, etc. as possible mergers and acquisitions, in order to delay or rescue "cash flow" !

Whether it is the White House or Capitol Hill, the vested interests who shouted "defend Goldman Sachs, defend MG Stanley" began to attack everywhere with the help of lobby groups, in order to lobby for the smooth introduction of the next rescue plan. .

It is at such a time when all kinds of news are flying all over the sky, people are inquiring about each other's news everywhere, the future of the economy is unclear, and it is in turmoil. Because they gave up the acquisition of Lehman Brothers, they want to cheat the Americans, and then buy Lehman Brothers at the price of cabbage. Mann's high-quality assets, but in the end it won't be a loss if you steal chickens. Mi's Barclays Bank acquisition team just landed from Washington Dulles International Airport. You can meet immediately to discuss and study acquisition-related matters.

When Andy met Robert Diamond, the president of Barclays Bank, in the luxurious meeting room of the cp hotel, looking at the president with a square face, slightly frosted temples, a low voice and a bit of a bitter smile, Andy really wanted to sigh with him One sentence, "Zhou Lang's ingenious plan to secure the world, lost his wife and lost his army."

You must know that the total market capitalization of Lehman Brothers was more than 33 billion US dollars a year ago. Although the assets involved in Lehman's North American region were about 5 billion US dollars, the investment banking and capital market business in the North American market was valued at that time. It is also quite impressive.

Andy was able to use 250 million U.S. dollars to cut off this part of his assets, which was a slap in the hearts of many people who were ready to make a lot of money.

In fact, at this stage, there is no time to entangle the two parties when they meet. After all, Barclays is the more urgent party. Even if Andy offered a price of 800 million US dollars, this is acceptable to Barclays. Yes, because even at this price, they have made a profit, well, they can only comfort themselves like this.

In about two hours, the two parties reached a transaction agreement. This transaction included Lehman Brothers' North American investment bank, with bonds, stock sales, trading business, and related investment business. About 8,000 employees were all retained, and the transaction amount was 800 million US dollars. Andy did not make any concessions.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Andy and Barclays Bank President Robert Diamond held a press conference in the conference hall of the cp hotel. Hundreds of reporters came to hear the news. Although the scene was a bit noisy, they felt extremely comfortable at this time Andy, there will care about such insignificant things.

Under the amazed and envious eyes of many reporters, the signing ceremony was completed, and the deal was officially concluded. As the news spread rapidly, those former Lehman employees saw that they were unknowingly kidnapped again. It is conceivable how they feel about selling, but no matter who they are, they don't care about their feelings. After all, if they can keep their jobs in the United States at this time, they should be proud of themselves.

Whether it's Wall Street or Washington, looking at this latest news, they really have different expressions and complicated emotions, but more of them are ordinary people's admiration and envy, and they admire Andy's ability to make money. time, netting $550 million.

The American media finally seized the opportunity to ridicule the British who wanted to make trouble and take advantage of the fire. While bragging about Andy's shrewdness in the news, they ridiculed the British for their "self-made clever trick" as much as possible. When Lehman went bankrupt, not only did their own stocks plummet, but they were also pressed to the ground by Andy Smith, obediently slaughtered.

When the U.S. economy is in decline, it adds a touch of cheerful color.

The people from Barclays politely resolved Andy's invitation to a celebratory reception, but hurriedly took people away after the press conference. Andy expressed his understanding that the other party didn't want to stay with him for a minute.

on the way home,

Andy received a lot of congratulatory calls, Warren's envy, Goldman Sachs, MG Stanley's help, his own woman's admiration and admiration, and Paulson's calls for help.

"Boss, what's the matter?" Al frowned after seeing his big boss hang up Paulson's phone, and asked involuntarily.

"He wants me to fulfill my promise and help him get moral immunity! I'm thinking about whether I should grant his request." To be honest, Andy didn't want to help him, because it would allow Paulson to be able to Officially and freely helping Goldman Sachs!

During this bailout process, he will not have to worry about being punished by the autumn queen for any of his decisions. In this way, his courage will become very large.

"Boss, you can promise him that moral immunity is very important to him, but it should be very simple for you to facilitate, which is much simpler and easier to accomplish than the next bipartisan battle in Congress.

Besides, even if he can help Goldman Sachs and MG Stanley without any worries, it will have no effect on us. You don't need to target him in this matter. Wall Street has indeed reached the point where blood transfusions must be saved. Don't even want it to crash, do you! "

Hearing Al's remonstrance, Andy nodded slightly, squinting his eyes slightly to look at the Washington street scene outside the car window. Many shops closed early, and there were few pedestrians on the road, and everyone was in a hurry.

When he got home, he was naturally greeted by his mother's admiration and happy smile. Auston was also in a very good mood. He was already numb to the earning power of his monstrous son.

After chatting for a while, Andy told Orston about Paulson's call for help, and Orston frowned and pondered for a while, then said: "According to the information I got, Paulson submitted an acquisition request to the President. Troubled assets plan. It needs to ask Congress for an appropriation to buy problematic housing mortgage loans in the market. The amount may reach hundreds of billions of dollars. One can imagine.

As for moral immunity, it only needs to be issued by the White House legal counsel and the Treasury Department. Of course, there is no difficulty for him with the Treasury Department. Now it is the White House that has been stuck, which is what your grandfather meant.

Since you promised that the Smith family would help him once, then this moral immunity is undoubtedly appropriate, and it can be easily achieved without us having to expend energy. "

"I see." Andy nodded and said, then picked up the phone and called his grandfather Old Smith. After a brief chat, he got to the point and talked about Paulson.

For this, Old Smith agreed without hesitation, hung up the phone, and Andy cursed in his heart, this may not be the result of his grandfather, the old fox, deliberately calculating.

On the morning of the next day, September 18, an interesting situation "successful" appeared, and the White House counsel and the Treasury Department issued immunity documents to Paulson.

Sitting on the boss chair in the office of the Ministry of Finance, Paulson looked at the exemption document in his hand with complicated eyes, and couldn't help but smiled wryly. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Paulson realized that he needed more power to be able to Carry out rescue operations, and this power requires the authorization of the White House and Congress.

He may be able to threaten and order those greedy vampires to act according to his command in New York and Wall Street, but once he returns to Washington, he is the commanded person who needs to deal with and compromise in various political whirlpools. The reality is depressing.

Just when Paulson was sighing helplessly, the phone on the desk rang again, and he picked it up without the slightest hesitation, and then his expression became more serious and serious, which was already hard to see.

"You have to solve the problem this weekend." Paulson reminded the other party with a helpless tone.

"Hank, do you think I should sell Morgan Stanley?"

Hearing the dejected tone of the other party, Paulson hesitated, and finally said: "The consequences of Morgan Stanley's collapse are too serious, John, I believe you should sell it if you can.

In the evening, I will raise this issue directly with the top management of China, if they are interested. As for MUFG, to be honest, I doubt whether the foot basin people will move fast enough, because the situation of Morgan Stanley is imminent, I I don't want to run into a situation such as being scolded by the British. "