Mediterranean hegemon

"The stock market cannot fall anymore, at least it cannot plummet so quickly and violently. This has caused many social problems, the public security situation has also seriously deteriorated, and the financial system has been violently impacted..." At the cabinet meeting, Hoover hammered He yelled at the table, "Someone told me today that more than 800 people committed suicide in New York this week, including 17 millionaires, more than 20 bank executives, and more than 30 professional investors. Various vicious incidents are happening one after another. Some people Driving a truck full of gasoline into high-end hotels and hotels, causing violent explosions - even the visiting British Senator Churchill and his wife were unfortunately affected; some armed bank robbers were robbed, and United Bank security guards alone killed unintentional militants. There are more than 10, and this is still the situation in New York. Washington is not much better. Serious incidents have broken out in other big cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, so this disaster must be contained!”

Before anyone could react, he directly issued an order: "First, the opening of the stock market tomorrow will be postponed for one hour, and an order prohibiting short selling will be issued. All investors holding short positions, no matter who they are, will close their positions within one month. , if it is not implemented within the time limit, the exchange will force the position to be liquidated; Article 2, significantly increase the margin requirements. Large blue chips included in the Dow Jones stock index can continue to provide 3 times leverage, while other stocks are not allowed to provide leverage; Third, Article 1 declares a state of emergency, the National Guard takes to the streets to investigate potential security risks, and the police provide psychological counseling to prevent investors from committing suicide as much as possible; Article 4, the financial and investment community issues an emergency declaration, announcing that customers who have shorted their positions will not be held accountable... "

Mellon raised his head and protested: "How can we not pursue the case if we lose the position? How can we protect the interests of investment institutions?"

Hoover became angry and shouted: "Are you the president or am I the president? Can't you wait until I finish speaking before interrupting? Is the short position caused by the customers themselves? These investment institutions must consider the risks when issuing large amounts of financing credit. Is the risk all the customer’s and they just need to sit there and get 15% or even 20% of the financing interest? How can anything be so cheap in the world?”

Mellon was stunned. He remembered that Hoover had never dared to speak to him like this. At that moment, he really wanted to slam the door and leave. After thinking about it, he felt that what happened today was weird. Hoover had always been courteous to Wall Street. Why are you so tough today? So he swallowed his anger and kept quiet.

After this reprimand, Mellon, who was backed by Wall Street, remained silent, and other cabinet officials did not dare to express objections.

Then Mellon continued: "Article 5: The government, together with the Federal Reserve, will provide relief to banks that are operating normally but lack liquidity due to a run on depositors, but banks that are insolvent due to excessive stock market borrowing will be quickly bankrupted. deal with……"

Mellon opened his mouth and wanted to ask how to distinguish between excessive and non-excessive, but Hoover had already added: "The criterion for judging is whether the margin loans issued to the stock market exceed one-third..."

Hoover's attitude was very clear. All banks that were in trouble because of supporting the real economy still needed to be saved. In fact, it was similar later. Banks that purely avoided reality and focused on capital speculation were dead.

"Can I add something?" Mellon followed suit this time and waited until Hoover finished speaking before speaking.

"Speaking……"

"The situation of large and small banks is different. Large banks are involved in more areas. If they go bankrupt rashly, I'm afraid it will trigger even greater riots."

"What you said makes sense. Let's do this. The top 100 banks will discuss each matter on a one-by-one basis..." Following Mellon's tone, Hoover made certain amendments to Article 5.

Stimson said awkwardly: "Some content can be ordered by the president, and some may need to be ratified, otherwise..."

"I know, isn't it unconstitutional? I'm waiting for them to come to me." Hoover said coldly, "First implement and publish the regulations, and tell the people that the final version approved by Congress shall prevail - I would like Let’s see if Congress can be indifferent to the suffering of the people! Do the members still want to be re-elected..."

Several people looked up at each other, with the same thought in their eyes: Did the president take gunshot today?

However, with Mellon's lesson in mind, no one dared to ask, and everyone talked about a bunch of other things. In the end, the meeting unanimously agreed to pass the "Hoover Emergency Five Points" as quickly as possible and demanded immediate implementation.

At the end of the meeting, Hoover ordered Stimson to apologize to London through the ambassador to the United Kingdom, express condolences to Churchill's family, and provide all-round support for them to attend the funeral, but to explain: this incident was purely an accidental disaster and had no political purpose. Not to cause a diplomatic dispute, Stimson agreed with a dark face - although Churchill was a politician who fell into power, he had an extraordinary background after all and had served as a cabinet minister for many years. He still had to have the proper mourning attitude. This was very important to the country of the United States. The image is also hugely damaged.

Fortunately, there were more than 10 Americans, 2 Frenchmen, and 1 Canadian who died together with the Churchills. They were all guests living in high-end hotels. This made the whole incident look a little more harmonious. Otherwise, I would have thought that someone was involved. Murdering foreign dignitaries is really troublesome. Now the New York police are so busy that they are about to collapse. The police officers who lost money in the stock trading started to shoot their superiors with pistols, and finally committed suicide by drinking bullets. So now the high-level police officers dare not give death orders to their subordinates. Who knows if anyone will Black shot.

When he heard that bomb trucks and militants were attacking the Union Bank, Hoover almost had a heart attack. Only after confirming that Contini was safe did he feel relieved: Churchill was just a washed-up politician. He would die when he died, but the president was not. He is a well-known and powerful figure in Italy, and the battleship Caracciolo is still parked at the New York dock. What if after being bloodbathed, the Italians madly retaliate and use battleships to cleanse New York? Another world war? Wasn't the last world war caused by the assassination of Ferdinand, the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, by the Serbs? Contini is no different from the crown prince in Italy.

So this time he called Contini for the first time and did not argue about who should be responsible for the stock market. Instead, he asked Contini to leave as soon as possible. The latter smiled bitterly: "Your Excellency, how can I leave now? Once I leave, the confidence of the U.S. stock market will It’s even lower. Isn’t it going to be circuit breaker every day? If you want to leave, you have to wait until the situation stabilizes. This will be good for your reputation!”

Hoover was very moved after hearing this, and told Contini not to go out while staying at the Union Bank, let alone to appear in public. As for the customary press conference, it was recommended that it be held in the conference room of the lobby of the Union Bank headquarters instead. The number of people must be strictly controlled and cannot exceed 30 people. Contini hastily agreed - he doesn't want to go out now, and Hoover's instructions are the best shield.