Reborn in Hong Kong: The Tycoon Grows Up

September 22, 1985, New York, USA, Plaza Hotel.

The Plaza Hotel was built in 1907; it is located on 59th Street in New York, USA. It faces Central Park across the street and faces General Plaza to the east. Hence the name of the Plaza Hotel.

The hotel was built in French Renaissance style, creating a "castle"-like building on the south side of Central Park. The interior decoration of the Plaza Hotel is extremely exquisite. There are more than 1,600 crystal chandeliers alone. These crystal chandeliers have complex and gorgeous designs, and each one is a valuable work of art.

In the center of the hotel lobby is the famous "Palm Room", with palm trees matching marble columns, crystal lamps refracted through layers of mirrors, and gold-inlaid silverware placed on white cloth tables. Celebrities such as legendary actresses Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor have all stayed here.

At this time, the conference room of the New York Plaza Hotel was experiencing the most important meeting in the nearly 80 years since its opening.

Five developed countries include U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker, Japanese Finance Minister Noboru Takeshita, Federal German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoudenberg, French Finance Minister Pierre Berger, and British Finance Minister Nigel Lawson. Finance ministers of industrialized countries and central bank governors of five countries held a meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

Since 1980, the U.S. domestic economy has experienced two changes. First, the foreign trade deficit has expanded year by year, reaching as high as 160 billion U.S. dollars in 1984, accounting for 3.6% of GDP that year. Second is the emergence of government budget deficits. Under the shadow of the twin deficits, the U.S. government has raised domestic basic interest rates to introduce international capital to develop the economy. The large inflow of foreign capital has caused the dollar to continue to appreciate, and U.S. export competitiveness has declined, thus expanding into a foreign trade deficit crisis. Under the pressure of this economic crisis, the United States hopes to use the depreciation of the dollar to strengthen the external competitiveness of American products and reduce the trade deficit.

In 1977, Treasury Secretary Blumesa of the Carter administration used the trade surplus between Japan and the Federal Republic of Germany as an excuse to verbally intervene in the foreign exchange market, hoping to stimulate U.S. exports and reduce the U.S. trade deficit through dollar depreciation. His speech led to a frantic selling of the U.S. dollar by investors, with the U.S. dollar depreciating sharply against the currencies of major industrial countries. In early 1977, the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the Japanese yen was 290 yen per U.S. dollar. In 1978, the U.S. dollar fell as low as 170 yen, a drop of 41.38%. In the fall of 1978, U.S. President Carter launched a "dollar rescue package" to support the price of the dollar.

From 1979 to 1980, the world's second oil crisis broke out. The second oil crisis caused a sharp increase in energy prices in the United States, and the U.S. consumer price index rose accordingly. Severe inflation occurred in the United States, with the inflation rate exceeding double digits. For example, if you put money in a bank at the beginning of 1980, the actual rate of return at the end of the year would be -12.4%.

In the summer of 1979, Paul Volcker became chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States. In order to control severe inflation, he raised official interest rates three times in a row and implemented a tight monetary policy. The result of this policy was double-digit official interest rates and market interest rates in the United States. Short-term real interest rates rose from an average of close to zero between 1954 and 1978 to 3% to 5% between 1980 and 1984.

High interest rates attracted a large amount of overseas capital to flow into the United States, causing the U.S. dollar to soar. From the end of 1979 to the end of 1984, the U.S. dollar exchange rate rose by nearly 60%, and the U.S. dollar's exchange rate against major industrial countries exceeded the level reached before the collapse of the Bretton Woods system.

The sharp appreciation of the U.S. dollar led to the rapid expansion of the U.S. trade deficit. By 1984, the U.S. current account deficit reached a record high of $100 billion.

If this continues, the U.S. economy will be very dangerous and may even lead to collapse. If a country with strong military strength wants to solve economic problems, launching a war may be a good choice. But the Soviet Union was still there, and Americans did not dare to be too presumptuous. In addition, Japan and Germany are die-hard allies and cannot directly occupy the two regions.

As the host and the leader of the G5 alliance, U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker first said: "The domestic economic situation in the United States is very bad because of the sharp appreciation of the U.S. dollar. This has caused heavy losses to the domestic manufacturing industry and there is no competition at all in the international market. Advantage."

"Although the U.S. government advocates economic freedom and has never interfered with the operation and development of domestic enterprises. However, if the United States wants to maintain high military expenditures, domestic enterprises' taxes must not be reduced."

"At present, the Soviet Union is the great enemy. Only by sharing the same hatred and overcoming difficulties together can we remain invincible in the competition."

It was said in such a grand manner, but no one present was a fool. The United States cannot sustain its own economy and is preparing to steal the wool of other countries. Domestic companies cannot compete with Japanese and German companies. Is it really because the artists are constantly adding value? Not necessarily, there is no problem in the United States.

Taking workers as an example, the wages of American workers are 1.2-1.5 times that of those in Japan and West Germany, but their working hours are only about 80% of those of workers in the two countries. You must know that these are ordinary workers, and the executives are even more outrageous. Therefore, the failure of economic development cannot be attributed solely to the appreciation of the US dollar. But no one can say this. To be precise, no one dares to say it.

If you really dare to do this, you will completely offend the Americans to death. As James Baker said, the Soviet Union was the enemy. They need Americans to fight polar bears and keep themselves safe. Although it is very dangerous to leave national security in the hands of other countries, there is currently no good solution.

At this time, French Finance Minister Pierre Berberg and British Finance Minister Nigel Lawson were sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai; after all, their economies were not large enough to make the Americans fearful.

In 1985, Japan replaced the United States as the world's largest creditor country, and Japanese-made products flooded the world. The crazy expansion of Japanese capital made Americans exclaim, "Japan will peacefully occupy the United States!"

Of course, because of the participation of Heiyun Group in this life, it is not so obvious, but the reality is similar. Japanese products are still very competitive, at least Bao Zixuan is not sure of completely beating them. Although he may not be a match for Heiyun Group on his own, but together, Bao Shoufang's strength is definitely not enough.

At the same time, the Federal Republic of Germany's economic development was also very rapid. In fields such as machinery manufacturing, chemical industry, finishing, and automobiles, it can be said that Germany is at the forefront of the world. Coupled with the lack of huge military expenditures, West Germany's funds can be used for economic development, and life is very comfortable.

For the two defeated countries in World War II, the economic power exceeded them. Of course, Britain and France were not willing to give in. In addition, the two families were feuding with Germany. It would be an understatement to describe it as a feud. Seeing the Germans being unlucky, it doesn't matter if they suffer some losses themselves.

Japanese Finance Minister Noboru Takeshita exchanged glances with Federal German Finance Minister Gerhard Stodenberg, which showed that the two had already guessed the purpose of the Americans. But at this time, many places need to rely on the Americans. At least in the face of the powerful military threat from the Soviet Union, it will definitely not be able to withstand the Soviet Union without the help of the Americans.

Noboru Takeshita said very seriously: "Only the United States in the world can compete with the Soviet Union, so Japan is not willing to collapse the U.S. economy. Minister Baker can speak directly about what Japan needs to do."

Seeing that the Japanese have expressed their stance, Gerhart Stodenberg also understands that the general trend is the trend. If there is no agreement today, the Americans will never give up and may cause trouble again in the future.

Gerhart-Stodenbo: "What Minister Noboru Takeshita said makes sense. The U.S. economy must not collapse. Therefore, please clarify how the Federal Republic of Germany needs to cooperate."

He had to express his position. After all, the Federal Republic of Germany needed the United States more than Japan. Although four years have passed since the Western-81 military exercise, the shock it brought to the Germans has not been forgotten to this day. Perhaps the German tanks at their peak during World War II did not have that level of strength.

Without the help of the Americans, West Germany's poor military strength alone might not be enough to defeat the Soviet Union, not to mention its sibling East Germany. After all, West Germany has been subject to restrictions in recent years, and its army is limited in size; the weapons may be quite advanced, but compared with the torrent of steel on the opposite side, the numbers are not even close.

James Baker was very satisfied with the two statements. These two old boys are pretty good, at least they know who is the master.

Seeing that both Japan and West Germany have expressed their stance, French Finance Minister Pierre-Berniger said: "France will fully cooperate. At present, the Western world cannot afford the consequences of the U.S. economic collapse."

Compared with the other three countries, France can be said to be the most confident. After all, when de Gaulle was in power, it was no longer a NATO country. And almost all weapons and equipment can be produced by ourselves. It is even a major exporter of weapons and equipment, and its export scale at this time is only slightly smaller than that of the United States and the Soviet Union.

Therefore, there is no need to grovel in front of the Americans, at least the courage of the Gallic Rooster is still there.

Seeing that the finance ministers of the three countries have expressed their opinions, the British will not have any objections. They are die-hard allies with the United States, and even wearing a pair of pants is too fat.